Declaration of Trust

spinks

Anyone ever heard of using a Declaration of Trust (to transfer the equity of a property to another person e.g. parent) rather than a Pre-nuptual Agreement before marriage.

Apparently a pre-nuptual agreement is not legally binding in English law and is only used as a representation in court so it has been suggested a D of T is safer to stop the property being taken into account in the case of a future divorce.

Any advice on this much appreciated.

aimex

im not sure. i know that pre-nups arent legally binding but are good evidence if they are done properly. this would, i would assume be the same with a declartion of trust though. as on the breakdown of marriage all of the matrimonial assets are put into the pot and divided - taking into account several factors such as age of parties, whether there are any children, and length of marriage. therefore if you want to stop the property being taken into account in case of future divorce, i think the answer is that it isnt possible, but that if done properly you can have a document to evidence what had been agreed. the longer you are married though the less weight this will have.

spinks

Apparently what has actually happened is, the solicitor has set up a declaration of trust transferring the equity into the mothers name so that should a divorce proceed then the d of t would then become effective meaning the son has no equity in the property so the wife can make no claim on it as it is the mil's.

The divorce, which did end up happening (surprise, surprise) went smoothly as the wife didn't try to make a claim on the house anyway but the situation now left is whereby nobody seems to know if this d of t is still valid and who actually holds the equity in the property.

Can a d of t just be written out ready incase it is required and then just destroyed if it isn't required or does it have to be registered somewhere to be valid and then de-registered as such.

This is all very confusing so any clarification on this would be helpful.