Gifted property rights

Candyapple

Why didn’t she get a deed of trust drawn up at the time specifying in the event of a split and sale of property, after all fees/taxes/mortgage has been repaid, the first £100k remaining would be returned back to her? After gifting her such a large amount surely your solicitor, or even hers, should have advised about the implications of what would happen in the event they split up? Otherwise it looks like you paid for some rubbish solicitors which is now going to cost her massively.

Everyone always wants to play happy families and turn a blind eye citing ‘love’ as the be all and end all of everything until things turn bad. Relationships / marriages end and often not amicably. When you tie yourself financially to someone else there should be a degree of neutrality between both parties and the matters discussed beforehand and legal advice sought independently where necessary, especially when one party has vastly more to lose than the other / entering into agreements with more money than the other.

Someone mentioned it further up the thread that if he tried to force the sale via court that they wouldn’t make your daughter and her child homeless, but then she will need to make a choice; does she put off the inevitable and sell the property now and make a clean break and no longer be financially tied to him, or say 18 years down the line when chances are the equity will have grown therefore he will still be entitled to 50% of the profits of it regardless of whether he paid towards the mortgage?

xylophone

BTW, I trust you'd been doing all the landlord stuff by the book while they were your tenants, and you paid the appropriate CGT at the time of disposing of the asset?

There is no positive indication that the couple were ever tenants?

The OP says

( the house been previously purchased 10 years previously as a long term investment for my daughters benefit)

It may be that the OP had tenants who left upon sale of the property to the couple?

There is also no indication that the OP was unaware of the CGT implications of the sale?

xylophone

They took out a mortgage as joint tenants, but it was noted at the time that I was gifting the difference in purchase price to market value thus enabling them to raise the mortgage

Then in the absence of any documentation proving the contrary, this has all the appearance of a gift to the couple.

I do not see that your daughter and grandchild can be forced out of their home merely because the partner is demanding that they quit.

He would have to go to court to force a sale and the court might well impose conditions as to when the property could be sold and even on the division of the sale proceeds.

However, since the property may hold painful memories for your daughter, it may be as well to see a solicitor concerning a negotiated settlement so that the property can be sold and your daughter make a fresh start.

AnotherJoe

martindow wrote: »

That's all well and good but a mortgage company is likely to see a gift and a loan very differently. A gift reduces the LTV ratio whereas a loan doesn't. It can make the difference between being offered a mortgage or being refused.

Thats not my experience. What happened with my daughter and her husband is that their mortgage was classed at around 40% LTV and so they got the best rate possible (with Santander).

I dont see how else it could work, my loan was 50% the house value, the mortgage and money from them being the other half.

Bear in mind this loan has no ongoing repayment terms. It only needs be repaid at house sale and was drawn up as an official witnessed document via a solicitor. Perhaps you are thinking of a loan that someone would repay alongside the mortgage ?

AnotherJoe

I would tell him to go spin, if he's a druggie good odds he cant afford to pay for a solicitor (help that along by ensuring he pays child maintenance via attachment of earnings) and theres a good chance the house can be kept until child is 18.

hazyjo

AnotherJoe wrote: »

... if he's a druggie good odds he cant afford to pay for a solicitor...

Wouldn't presume that with cocaine. It's often a flashy money-orientated crowd who use it.


Although have seen people end up with naff all after many years on the stuff, but they tend to have very addictive personalities (or be bipolar). Many take it with no major probs with enough spare cash not to end up skint or in the gutter. Often binge-used rather than used regularly.

[Deleted User]

This is where a deed of trust comes into play. Especially in the case of an unmarried couple if one is contributing more financially than the other.

As a DOT was never drawn up then you need to take the advice of a solicitor.

You should have thought about this before you sold them the house and essentially gifted them the 100 grand.

Lesson learned.

I really do hope that he doesn't see a penny of that money. He sounds like an absolute moron.

steampowered

If your daughter and her child are happy living in the property, your daughter holds all the cards.

The ex cannot sell the property by himself.

The only way he could get them out would be to go through court to force a sale. This would be extremely expensive and time consuming.

It would be sensible for your daughter to reach an agreement with her ex. Before the property is put on the market, your daughter should insist on her and her ex signing a short written agreement which specifies how the sale proceeds are to be dealt with. It would be a good idea to get a solicitor to write this.

I suppose your daughter would insist on the £100k being treated as part of her share, and would not sign anything to the contrary.

It is worth mentioning that the ex is fully entitled to live in the property while this is sorted out. He is a joint owner after all.

[Deleted User]

Just a thought, but have you approached him about buying him out?

We're all assuming he's after half that 100k but he might just want his fair share of what he's paid in over the 4 years and any increase in value.

sheramber

Do I understand it correctly?

You did not gift a sum of money. You sold the couple a house, which you already owned, at £100,000 below the market value.