Tenants in Common - need for deed of trust ?

Miloudilou

Hello all

My boyfriend and I have just bought a new build house and are to exchange contracts next week.

We are using the builder's conveyancer who in my opinion is useless in term of legal advice.

My friend who works in conveyancing is advising me to have a deed of trust drafted as I am contributing 58% and my partner 42%.

Since it is a new build the builder is using its own transfer doc i.e. not your usual TR1. So I am not sure what it looks like.

Our conveyancer told me the shares will show on the transfer document.

My friend is insisting that we draw up a deed of trust. I am not sure it is necessary. I am legally qualified but property isn't my area so I am not 100% sure.

My question is, if my partner and I split up, can I use the transfer document as evidence of how the shares are supposed to be divided up ?

I know you can put loads more in the deed of trust but I am just not sure we need this. If we split up, we can sell the house and split the equity as per the transfer deed.

If I die or he dies, we're happy for our estate to go according to rules of intestacy, which means we're not inheriting from one another and we're fine with this. (I know it's a bit weird...) and other than that we pay everything 50/50 through our joint account .

Any comments in relation to the necessity of a deed welcome.

Thanks !

Emilie

monty-doggy

So if one of you dies, the other could potentially lose their home, and you're happy? Yep that's weird.

uknick

monty-doggy wrote: »

So if one of you dies, the other could potentially lose their home, and you're happy? Yep that's weird.

+1 to this. OP, you'd be barking not to change/create your wills to leave each other their share of the house.

If by deed of trust you mean register the property as "tenants in common" with your respective shares I can't see a more simple way you could ensure you have the legal claim to your share.

Miloudilou

Yes the reason is that the money we are using for the deposit is 1/ his personal savings and 2/ proceeds of sale of a flat I got gifted.

We are quite keen to keep our money as separate as possible for the moment so yes either of us would lose the house but 1 of us living in a four bedroom detached probably couldn't afford the mortgage long term/ or wish to remain living there anyway.

It is a temporary situation since we will get married in a few years time and have children, so we would then want the other person to inherit.