Married couple - tenants in common?

urbanmyth

Some advice would be much appreciated. My husband and I are buying a house with a joint mortgage but I am paying for the deposit from my savings. We will jointly and equally repay the mortgage each month. We would both like my contribution or share to be recognised in the ownership of our property.

My contribution is the 10% deposit (we are splitting the costs of legal/stamp duty, etc), so it would be a 55/45 share.

My question is - does a tenants in common agreement stand up for a married couple in the event of a split? Is the % share a fair split, or should we be stating the actual amount of my contribution?

We will be making wills and I intend to leave an undecided % to my sibling and the rest of my estate to my husband. We have no children and don't plan to anytime soon.

I should add that we are very happily married and have no intention of splitting in the foreseeable future! We are however both from broken homes and I have witnessed first-hand how things can go wrong so I consider this an insurance policy.

Thanks for your advice.

virtuallyfree

In my experience, these kind of a arrangements can be rather complicated in the event of any legal issue. Which then means more costs.

Would it be possible for your husband to repay you bit by bit
For the deposit. The house is then a clean and clear joint asset?

martinsurrey

urbanmyth wrote: »

Some advice would be much appreciated. My husband and I are buying a house with a joint mortgage but I am paying for the deposit from my savings. We will jointly and equally repay the mortgage each month. We would both like my contribution or share to be recognised in the ownership of our property.

My contribution is the 10% deposit (we are splitting the costs of legal/stamp duty, etc), so it would be a 55/45 share.

My question is - does a tenants in common agreement stand up for a married couple in the event of a split? Is the % share a fair split, or should we be stating the actual amount of my contribution?

We will be making wills and I intend to leave an undecided % to my sibling and the rest of my estate to my husband. We have no children and don't plan to anytime soon.

I should add that we are very happily married and have no intention of splitting in the foreseeable future! We are however both from broken homes and I have witnessed first-hand how things can go wrong so I consider this an insurance policy.

Thanks for your advice.

a divorce judge wouldnt really care about it. If you get more of the house, he might give your husband more of the other assets to compensate, and he doesnt even have to bother with it.

(if legally 100% of the house is yours he can make you give 50% of your share to your husband...)

urbanmyth

virtuallyfree wrote: »

In my experience, these kind of a arrangements can be rather complicated in the event of any legal issue. Which then means more costs.

Would it be possible for your husband to repay you bit by bit
For the deposit. The house is then a clean and clear joint asset?

Interesting, thanks. It would take him a very long time to repay his half of the deposit. He's not over-stretching himself by any means but we're buying quite a big house and my deposit contribution (which took quite some time to save) reflects that.

Maybe I just need to accept the hit if things didn't work out. :eek:

urbanmyth

martinsurrey wrote: »

a divorce judge wouldnt really care about it. If you get more of the house, he might give your husband more of the other assets to compensate, and he doesnt even have to bother with it.

(if legally 100% of the house is yours he can make you give 50% of your share to your husband...)

That could be interesting because he has no other assets while I do. To have and to hold!

Soleil_lune

Hmmm, I don't mean to offend you, but something about this does not sit well with me. I am just worried about the state of a marriage or how someone actually feels about their spouse, when they want to make sure they get 'their' share back, should the marriage not work out. This is not something that has ever crossed my mind... ever.

You want to make the house 55% yours and 45% his? Why? You say you have no intention of splitting up, but seem very keen on making sure you get back what is 'yours' if you do.

IMO, everything should be 50/50 in a partnership or marriage and when one earns more, it is shared equally anyway. My OH earned twice as much as me for a few years, and he put a £3K deposit on a £6K car we had in the early 2000s, and the other £3K finance came out of our joint account for 18 months until it was paid. but he never said it was' his' car: or said 'if we break up, I want that three grand back! it was 'our' car.

Does your husband know you want that deposit back that you put in?

Out of interest what 'assets' do you have?

Are you sure getting married was the right thing if you wanted seperate assets, and for him to not have yours?'

I am not saying you are wrong or or what you're doing is bad or anything like that : I just don't 'get' what you're proposing; it seems odd to me.

All I can suggest is you see a solicitor and get a pre-nup!

Georgesmum79

There is nothing wrong with being pragmatic and protecting what is yours! We live in a world where relationships get started and broken very easily, and there is nothing wrong with acknowledging that you can't predicts what happens in the future! I am just about to buy a house with my partner of 18 months, we have been living together for a year and talk about marriage. I will own 68% of the property due to my finances, and we have a join tenancy agreement for the house to be held in trust in unequal shares. I would have to be mad to take it for granted that nothing will ever part us, as I simply cannot predict what happens in the future. Our relationship is very good at the moment, but who knows what happens in 10, 20 years....

Ask your solicitor to prepare a joint tenancy agreement, whereby the house is held in unequal shares. Otherwise, as you are married, if you were the split, I think the house would be shared up 50-50 between you two.

I understand that pre-nups may be disregarded by the judge if they feel that it is unfair towards one party. The tenancy agreement is a different matter, because it details the reasons why one party owns a larger share than the other: e.g if you have paid a 20% deposit, cash, out of your own savings, and the 80% is paid for by a joint mortgage, towards which both partners contribute equally, then the agreement will state that you will always own 20%, and the remaining 80% is split equally. Your solicitor should draft this for you for about £150. This is unlikely to be disputed by the divorce judge as it details the valid reasons why the house is held in unequal shares.

Georgesmum79

virtuallyfree wrote: »

In my experience, these kind of a arrangements can be rather complicated in the event of any legal issue. Which then means more costs.

Would it be possible for your husband to repay you bit by bit
For the deposit. The house is then a clean and clear joint asset?

Sorry, not complicated at all. A tenancy agreement for the house to be held in trust in unequal shares is what you need. The solicitor who does the conveyancing will explain what this means, and as they know where the money for the house comes from (from the due diligence information you have to give them), they will do the maths for the percentages.

urbanmyth

Thank you, Georgesmum79, this is really helpful and you can understand why I want our individual contributions to be recognised fairly, which my husband fully supports. We will speak to the solicitor when it's time to start drawing up contracts.

urbanmyth

Soleil_lune wrote: »

My OH earned twice as much as me for a few years, and he put a £3K deposit on a £6K car we had in the early 2000s, and the other £3K finance came out of our joint account for 18 months until it was paid. but he never said it was' his' car: or said 'if we break up, I want that three grand back! it was 'our' car.

There's also a very big difference between a 6k car and a £xxxk house.

urbanmyth

Soleil_lune wrote: »

Are you sure getting married was the right thing if you wanted seperate assets, and for him to not have yours?'

I made a commitment to be with the man I love. I want to spend the rest of my life with my best friend. I fully expect us to share our assets throughout our lifetime. IF however (and I hope it never happens) he chooses to renege on that commitment, why should I let him have half of what I have worked hard and made many sacrifices for? Now that wouldn't be very fair.

:beer: