Marriage

Kneesaa

If i get married 👰 and my partner already owns the property we live in, what rights do i have as his wife? I will be paying his credit card debt off of £20,000 & in return he is saying i will be entitled to half the property but i am not on the mortgage or deeds and because of my credit rating it is unlikely that this route will be an option. He said he is willing to sign something to say half the property is mine but legally i have no idea what and how to go about it?? Also does the property, pensions etc automatically go to me as his wife if anything was to happen to him as he wants to make sure that is the case.

rnj

When you say "if anything was to happen to him..." do you mean if he dies?

If you get married and he dies, if there are no kids and no will, all he has will pass to you on death.

If you are not married unfortunately it will be become infinitely more difficult to stake a claim.

Mojisola

Kneesaa wrote: »

Also does the property, pensions etc automatically go to me as his wife if anything was to happen to him as he wants to make sure that is the case.

If he wants to make sure this happens, he needs to get a will made which says that.

He should contact his pension company to make sure you will receive that.

If you are going to pay off such a large amount, perhaps you should think about a loan agreement with him so that if anything goes wrong and you don't get married, you can reclaim your money.

maman

rnj wrote: »

When you say "if anything was to happen to him..." do you mean if he dies?

If you get married and he dies, if there are no kids and no will, all he has will pass to you on death.

If you are not married unfortunately it will be become infinitely more difficult to stake a claim.

But if you were to marry and then split up then how much you'll get will depend on how long the marriage lasts.


Just out of interest, if you have a poor credit record yourself, how can you afford to pay £20 000 off his credit card debts?


Does he actually own the house outright or is it on a mortgage? Would he have to sell to pay you back?


I don't want to put a jinx on your relationship and you're being sensible to consider all options on your various threads but are you sure you want to get married?

Socajam

I would not do it, unless he puts my name on the mortgage.
A will can be changed without your knowledge
Both of you have a lot of things to sort through before marriage - where finances are concerned.
As someone with no credit card debt, I find having 20,000 to start marriage life very troubling indeed.

sheramber

He cannot just put your name on the mortgage. He needs to speak to his mortgage company about changing his mortgage to a joint one.

He also needs to change the house deeds to include you.

You both need to make wills.

Kneesaa

I have savings from the sale of my previous property. My partner still has a mortgage on the property so yes he would have to sell the property to give me my money back.

pphillips

The type of ownership can be of vital importance.
If the property is owned as joint tenants then the property automatically passes to the survivor (regardless of what any will says and whether or not the owners are married).
If the property is owned as tenants in common, the owners own a share of the property (of 50% unless a different share is specified in a declaration of trust) and they can more or less do with their share what they wish.

Socajam

Kneesaa wrote: »

I have savings from the sale of my previous property. My partner still has a mortgage on the property so yes he would have to sell the property to give me my money back.

As someone who went through hell, if this was me, I would much prefer for us to buy a property together, but it seems that your credit is bad and this is not possible.
My advice, don't do it because the guarantee of you getting your money back or even getting on the mortgage is very slim.

TBagpuss

You can have a charge over the property if you lend him the money, or you can have a declaration of trust stating thatwhile he is the legal owner , you have a beneficial interest in the property. Both would be subject to the prior interest of his mortgage lender but both protect you legally.

In terms of what happens if he were to die, the best way is for you to both make wills.

If he were to die without a will, after you married, you would inherit the first chunk of his estate - I think up to £250,0000 but not sure of the exact amount. Aything over that would be divided between you and any children he has.