joint tenants vs tenants in common- Urgent

maya11

We are going through buying a house with my partner. We have just recetly had a baby together but we are not married.

The solicitor asked us to decide whether we wish the house to be held as joint tenants or tenants in common ( equal/unequal).
Neither of us is planning on dying or splitting up but as we have a baby together and as a mum I want to make sure I made the right decision.
We are putting down a deposit together, however I contibute appx 2 times more than my partner. There needs to be work done to the house and I'm covering initial costs of renovation too.

we are taking the mortgage together and we are planning to split the costs 50/50.
Neither of us have wills.

how should i proceed in these circumstances

we need to decide by tomorrow and will apreciate your responses asap
many thanks

hcb42

well the obvious answer is how do YOU want it to be split?

Some couples will say 50/50 on everything, it doesnt matter about bigger deposits/who earns more or whatever. Others will work things out to the nearest penny..

You can only work through the scenarios...what if you split up? what if one of you dies - would you want your partner to automaticallyown the property...etc...

Personally, on my first house, 24 years ago now, we went JT although we were not married at time, but that was our preference.

tanith

We bought as Joint tenants but recently changed it ourselves to Tenants in Common , we are married but I have children of a previous marriage so wish to leave my part of the house to my children with a previso for my husband to live in it till he wishes otherwise or passes away. Whatever you decided is not set in stone and can be changed at any time should you wish to do so I would make the best decision you can for the moment but then there is nothing stopping you if you reconsider from changing it..of course you will both have to agree to the changes..

maya11

thanks tanith,
this may be a silly question but if I opted for JT and afterwords made a will that I wish to leave my part of the house to my son, will we have to change it to TiC, too?

RAS

If you are jonint tenants, you and OH own the house jointly and severally. On either death the remaining partner becomes sole owner automatically, the house is not part of the deceased's estate. You cannot leave "your share" cannot be left to anyone at all in your will.

tanith

maya11 wrote: »

thanks tanith,
this may be a silly question but if I opted for JT and afterwords made a will that I wish to leave my part of the house to my son, will we have to change it to TiC, too?

As I understand it yes you would have to change to TiC to leave your son your part of the house... as JT your partner automatically becomes sole owner if you died..
But its not hard to do , I did it myself it cost nothing and was quite quick and easy..

CLAPTON

as you are not married, do be aware of the importance of making wills urgently
there is no such thing in english law as a common law wife or husband.

if either dies their estate will be divided according to the laws of intestacy i.e. their children and nothing to the partner.

if however the house is joint tenancy then the house automatically goes to the other owner although all else goes to the child

womble12345

I am going through a similar decision, we just got together worked out how we would want things split in different circumstances (I die, she dies, we both die at same time, we split, etc) , we wrote this in an english document and have given it to our solicitor to draw up the legals which we will then sign. Simples!

InkZ

You should go tenants in common if you don't want the other person to get the whole house on your death, or you have kids from a previous relationship and you want them to get your half.

I fear my dad has a joint tenancy and his wife has like a million kids previous which means his life's work could possibly end up going to all her lot and I'll get jack all if he dies first. I wouldn't be that bothered as I'm not concerned about inheritance etc but I know he doesn't want this and she doesn't deserve it, hardly fair....


On my purchase I've just gone for joint tenants as I'd like my girlfriend to get everything if I die, and we have no kids so it means there would be no mucking about if one of us died.

maya11

I'm inclining towards JT for now, but if I wanted to change it in a future, how to make it apparent how much I contributed towards the deposit? I mean is there any other way this could be documented?

Paul_the_Painter

You can have own the house as joint tenants and still have a seperate agreement about what happens in the event of a break-up.

I would suggest tenants in common though - although only if YOU GET YOUR WILLS SORTED OUT. TiC allows one person to leave their share of the house to someone else.

The choice about TiC/JT is not as clear cut as the need for wills.

Think about what you want to happen

if he dies
if you die
if you die - with your child
if he dies - with your child
if you both die together - your child survives

Talk to you solicitor about what you want to happen in all the above situations, and then he will advise on the best form for the wills and the best way to hold the house.