Tenants In Common - Help!

willglos89

Hi,

Im asking on behalf of a friend.

She is currently married, and the marriage has broken down. On purchasing their house her husbands parents put down 80k deposit. There was a verbal agreement that 20k of this would be a 'loan' with no specific agreement to when or how it is to be paid back and if there would be any interest to be paid on it.

Four years down the line now and the marriage has broken down. The husband has left the house and moved back in with his parents.

Her father in law has now presented a 'declaration of trust' to be signed which is for the property to be transferred to them as tenants in comment / joint tenants. It states that his parents get their 80k back (60 of this was a gift) and after rents and costs etc are deducted the remainder is split between her and her husband. The document has not been dated at the top, so we are wondering is this intentional so they can pre date it to before the mortgage?

So the first question is can this be done several years down the line without the mortgage company being aware of this?

The second question is, is this even legal to change this after the property has been purchased and mortgaged in my friend and her husbands name?

Everyone has been very civil up until now, and she is more than willing to give them their 80k back. She would like 30k from the property which she feels is reasonable (about 45k in the property after the 80 has been taken out). Her husband pays all the bills mortgage etc, and she works part time. This has always been the case for the last 10 years and they have two children.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated, hopefully this is in the correct forum. My friend is going to be finding a solicitor ASAP.

Thank you in advance.

Will

Annisele

First off, your friends shouldn't sign or agree anything until she's taken advice from a solicitor. (Sounds like she already knows that, but no harm in making a big thing of it - it's important!)

To answer both your questions, it's perfectly legal for borrowers to change the agreement between themselves without involving the lender.

From the lender's perspective, husband and wife are both jointly and severally liable for the enter mortgage amount. How they agree to split the remainding sale proceeds between themselves isn't something the lender cares about.

Her wanting £30k (i.e. two thirds of the equity) does sound like a bit of an odd starting point. Has she taken into account other savings, debts, and pensions? Many people don't realise that their pensions can be worth more than their house, and if he's been working while she's been raising children, his pension will likely be worth much more than hers.

G_M

Sort it all out as part of the divorce settlement.

Ignore till then.

bouicca21

She needs legal advice. The starting point for a marriage that long is 50/50 and as annisele pointed out all assets and liabilities go into the pot. Another factor is that the courts are going to prioritise housing the children. That she has only worked part time is irrelevant, she has made other non financial contributions to the marriage.

She needs legal advice ASAP. Local solicitors may offer half an hour free. Get her to check out wikivorce as well.

Kynthia

Don't sign anything and get legal advice. The property really shouldn't be treated in isolation of all other assets and debts. If she only works part time while looking after the children then there's a good chance he'll have a much better pension that needs including in the division of assets. Plus the children being accommodated is a priority that perhaps overides an immediate equal division of the assets so that needs looking into. I'm not especially knowledgeable in this but a solicitor would be.