Deed of Trust - tenants in common

Zorillo

My wife and I bought our house before we were married. As one of us put up substantially more for the deposit, we agreed to a Declaration of Trust that said in the event of a disposal of the property, the first £xx of the proceeds would go to that person, and the rest of the proceeds would be shared equally.

We got married before the birth of our children, and this is now our family home and we're unlikely to "dispose" of it for a very long time, if ever.

Does the marriage change our status as tenants in common, and is the deed of trust still legally binding?

And if the answer is no to the first question, is there any advantage to changing to joint tenants?

AdrianC

Zorillo said:

Does the marriage change our status as tenants in common, and is the deed of trust still legally binding?

And if the answer is yes to the first question, is there any advantage to changing to joint tenants?

No, yes.

The only two options are joint tenants or tenants in common. JT means that if/when one of you dies, their ownership simply ceases to exist, the other owner is automatically 100%. TiC means that person's part-ownership can be left to somebody else in a will. Perhaps in trust to the kids, eventually?

notrouble

Zorillo said:

Does the marriage change our status as tenants in common, and is the deed of trust still legally binding?
And if the answer is no to the first question, is there any advantage to changing to joint tenants?

No but it does change what might happen if you divorce.

Yes, but the marriage might change what might happen if you divorce.

Whilst your status as TIC is unaltered, and the Deed is stilllegally valid, divorce law would also come into play. Any divorce settlement would look at the joint marriage assets, the length of the marriage, who contributed what to the marriage,  the ongoing needs of each party and, critically, the needs of the children. So whilst A might 'own' 70% of the property under the Deed, if B was going to maintain the children the courts might well award B the property.

Zorillo

Thank you.

Our wills leave our entire estates to each other, although naturally it will all end up with the kids eventually. So perhaps no real need to change anything?

SMR710

If it's bothering You, why not just look into changing the ownership to joint tenants and then you know where you're At? I don't know the process but if it would make it feel better, see about doing it.

notrouble

Change from tenants in common to joint tenants

You need the agreement of all the other joint owners to change from being tenants in common to joint tenants.

Zorillo

Thanks both.

I wouldn't say it's bothering me as such, I genuinely don't have any idea whether one form is better than the other.