Struggling to get consistent legal advice

xEllieMayx

Hi don’t know if I’ve posted in the right part but hoping someone who has experienced similar can advise as I’m getting told different things and not sure if it’s just solicitors trying to rip me off. Basically I have a mortgage on a property in my name and my partner will be moving in and I’ve been told even if they pay towards just bills and not mortgage they can claim beneficial interest in a share of my property. I’ve been told a few different ways to prevent this. Is it a declaration of trust I need?

And before anyone says “trust issues before moving in” it’s not like that, you never know what’s going to happen and I’m cynical enough to do what seems to be the right thing :rotfl:

Thanks in advance

Mutton_Geoff

In general and in my experience, solicitors are expensive but are not in the business of ripping people off. As the law currently stands in England, your partner could move in, pay all of the mortgage, utility and food bills, clean your house for you and pay for all the repairs and they would not have any legal entitlement to any interest or share in your property.


Are you sure you've spoken directly to solicitors or have you just been "researching online"?

Bossypants

This is one of those things which can be dealt with in different ways, and different solicitors will have different thoughts on which is the best approach. Your best bet is to ask them about other suggestions (don't say 'the other solicitor advised this', just vaguely ask 'I heard about this approach somewhere, what do you think?'). Good solicitors will be able to explain why they don't think that approach fits your needs as well as their own suggestion. Then you can look collectively at all their opinions and decide which you prefer. It's unlikely that any of them will be 'wrong' as such, just have different pros and cons.

Pixie5740

xEllieMayx wrote: »

Hi don’t know if I’ve posted in the right part but hoping someone who has experienced similar can advise as I’m getting told different things and not sure if it’s just solicitors trying to rip me off. Basically I have a mortgage on a property in my name and my partner will be moving in and I’ve been told even if they pay towards just bills and not mortgage they can claim beneficial interest in a share of my property. I’ve been told a few different ways to prevent this. Is it a declaration of trust I need?

And before anyone says “trust issues before moving in” it’s not like that, you never know what’s going to happen and I’m cynical enough to do what seems to be the right thing :rotfl:

Thanks in advance

Who told you that if your partner doesn't contribute towards the mortgage that should would have a claim to the property? From whom have you been receiving this conflicting legal advice?

You're not purchasing a property with your partner so a Deed of Trust would not be appropriate. It sounds as if you want/need a cohabitation agreement.

Pixie5740

Mutton_Geoff wrote: »

In general and in my experience, solicitors are expensive but are not in the business of ripping people off. As the law currently stands in England, your partner could move in, pay all of the mortgage, utility and food bills, clean your house for you and pay for all the repairs and they would not have any legal entitlement to any interest or share in your property.


Are you sure you've spoken directly to solicitors or have you just been "researching online"?

That's not true. If the partner moved in and contributed towards some or all of the capital repayments then the partner absolutely could claim a beneficial interest in the property.

00ec25

Mutton_Geoff wrote: »

As the law currently stands in England, your partner could move in, pay all of the mortgage, utility and food bills, clean your house for you and pay for all the repairs and they would not have any legal entitlement to any interest or share in your property.

the above is a perfect example of why you should not ask forums for legal advice, you get wrong answers

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/guides/article-2650606/What-money-rights-unmarried-couples-break-up.html

https://www.compactlaw.co.uk/free-legal-information/relationships-family-law/unmarried-couples.html

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/living-together-marriage-and-civil-partnership/living-together-and-marriage-legal-differences/

steampowered

Mutton_Geoff wrote: »

In general and in my experience, solicitors are expensive but are not in the business of ripping people off. As the law currently stands in England, your partner could move in, pay all of the mortgage, utility and food bills, clean your house for you and pay for all the repairs and they would not have any legal entitlement to any interest or share in your property.

This is not what the law says.

See https://www.samconveyancing.co.uk/news/conveyancing/resulting-trust-beneficial-owners-of-property-5483.

or https://www.rlb-law.com/briefings/family/establishing-beneficial-interest-property/

"Contributions to the purchase price and/or mortgage
Direct contributions to the purchase price by the partner, who is not the legal owner, whether initially or by payment of mortgage instalments, will justify the inference necessary to create a constructive trust (Lloyds Bank v Rosset)."

Traditionally people were able to claim a beneficial interest if they paid the mortgage but not for paying household bills, though recently the courts have been a bit more flexible, particularly in cases where the parties had lived together and funded house expenses together for many years.

Mutton_Geoff

To be honest, I still can't see where any of those links are relevant to the OPs situation where they already own a property and a partner moves in later. The law can only be decided in a court and currently there is no legal recognition of what many call "common law". I still stand by my statement having experienced it.

steampowered

Mutton_Geoff wrote: »

To be honest, I still can't see where any of those links are relevant to the OPs situation where they already own a property and a partner moves in later. The law can only be decided in a court and currently there is no legal recognition of what many call "common law". I still stand by my statement having experienced it.

The links state that contributions towards mortgage payments by someone who is not a legal owner of a property can be sufficient to establish what is called a "constructive trust", which creates a beneficial interest in property.

The law is indeed decided in courts. That is why the UK has a system of court precedent - the courts follow what was decided in previous cases, they don't make up the approach on a case-by-case basis.

There are a number of cases in which people have been found to have an interest in property through a constructive trust as a result of making mortgage payments !

This has is not the same thing as the concept of "common law marriage" - which doesn't exist in the UK.

Pixie5740

Mutton_Geoff wrote: »

To be honest, I still can't see where any of those links are relevant to the OPs situation where they already own a property and a partner moves in later. The law can only be decided in a court and currently there is no legal recognition of what many call "common law". I still stand by my statement having experienced it.

Who said anything about "common law"? It doesn't matter if the property is already owned or not, if the relationship goes down the pooper and the partner not named on the deeds can demonstrate to a court that they contributed towards the household they absolutely can claim a beneficial interest.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/ending-a-relationship/if-you-were-living-together/what-happens-to-your-home-when-you-separate/

http://england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/23393/ShelterGuide_RelationshipBreakdown.pdf

I don't know what your experience is, either that you paid someone's mortgage and claimed diddly squat or that someone paid your mortgage and then didn't try to establish a beneficial interest in court but that doesn't alter the fact that it's entirely possible for a partner not named on the deeds to establish a beneficial interest regardless of when they move into the property.

TBagpuss

The reason you may be getting differnt advice is because there isn't a single right answer.
Moving in with someone doesn't give you and automatic claim on that person's property, but moving in and making contributions, whether they are direct (paying towards the mortgage) or indirect (paying bills to free up the owner's money to pay the mortgage, or doing work on the house) mayresult in you having a claim, but the but whether the claim will be successful will depend on the particular circumstances, as the key requirements for a successful claim are contributions and a mutual agreement or intention that you will get an interest in the property. The mutual intention can be specific, such as a trust deed, or inferred (e.g. 'why would anyone pay a mortgage for years if they *didn't* expect this to gain some interest in the property)
This is why a cohabitation agreement is the way to go, because if you have a written agreement which explicitly sets out whether or not someone will have an interest in the property, and how their interest will be calculated if they will, then it is very hard to argue that your actual intentions were something difficult.
This is also why if you do have a cohabitation agreement, it's important to review it regularly, and update it if the situation changed (for instance, if you have a child together, or if you changed the way that you organised your joint finance.s