helped kids get on housing ladder need advice please

marieh_3

HI hubby and I ‘lent’ deposits for homes to 3 of our 4 kids about 2 years ago to help them get on the housing ladder.( last kid is ‘borrowing’ uni accommodation fees at age 19) aprox £15,000 each child. I am 54 and hubby 58 .

the idea was that the 3 older ones would start to repay this past sept to help fund their sister thru uni. Naturally lending to family being what it is we haven’t had any return yet and I would like this sorted out. Any ideas??

As it looks like none can really repay at the minute because of hi mortgages themselves I would like to tell them we don’t want it back and it was a gift. I was thinking maybe we could look at some sort of written agreement that it doesn’t need paying but should be considered their inheritance early and therefore a gift.

We re-mortgaged ours and are paying interest ourselves on that. We are glad to help out but don’t want to be too stupid. we may need repayment in the future if our circumstances change.

Also as it was lent for home purchases what happens if they split from their partners? I know everything is amicable now but is there somewhere I could get an written agreement that my child (of a marriage) owes me £15,000 if the house has to be sold, I mean I lent it them not their partner?? Is there any way we could get an agreement that hubby and I have a £15,000 share in their home.

I realise this should have been sorted out prior but was really hoping by now that they would at least be paying the interest and they can’t so am looking for a way forward that could suit us all.

Any ideas gratefully accepted. This is my first post so sorry if its confused thanks in advance.

thesaint

If it is now a gift you don't need a written agreement.

Your will(if you have one) will decide what their inheritance is.

molesworth

Hi Marieh - As we are thinking of doing something similar ourselves - remortaging to help our children on to the property ladder - I understand your concerns and will be interested in the replies. Perhaps there should be some sort of legal document making it clear that your contribution is a loan or a percentage share in the property? If that's possible I'm sure your children would be glad to do that retrospectively as you have been so generous.

marieh_3

i am sure that the kids would sign anything, what i am trying to get to is that there could be circumstances in the future that we havent thought of and i wanted some input on that. we didnt think it out before we just assumed they would be in a a position to at least pay the interest but we r now paying both. we have already cut the debt/mortagage back to £27,000 and are working on it a bit at a time. for every £1 we lent them we r paying back £1.25 plus trying to keep the 'baby' in uni.