Unequal deposits on house

Angusjon

I'll try make this simple but need advise ASAP. 
I'm 54 fiance 59. We want to buy a house together. Partner has £375000 deposit towards house (he has sold his house). I will have £180000 once mine has sold. We have found house so he is going to get mortgage for shortfall until mine is sold then I will give him £180000 to pay off mortgage and then he wants to put me on house deeds and should worse happen we split house 50/50. Without sounding greedy I need this to happen because if we were to get divorced let's say in 10 years time, (we're planning on marrying next year) then if we had an agreement in place whereby I only get out what I put in plus 50/50 on if house prices went up, then I would still at best come out with £250000, at 65 which I would be then I wouldn't be able to buy a house, whereas if I kept my house in 10 years my mortgage would be paid off and I would have £400000. My question is before I sell and before he initially buys the house can we put in place an agreement where we agree to the 50/50 split which would be legally binding. Thank you for your help and advise. 

Slithery

You could, but it would probably be invalid as soon as you get married.

princeofpounds

Angusjon said:

if we had an agreement in place whereby I only get out what I put in plus 50/50 on if house prices went up, then I would still at best come out with £250000, at 65 which I would be then I wouldn't be able to buy a house, whereas if I kept my house in 10 years my mortgage would be paid off and I would have £400000. 

So in this scenario, what happens to the mortgage payments you no longer have to make? You aren't comparing like with like - you are forgetting 11 years of savings you can make instead. You are technically being greedy, although I recognise that both of you may be comfortable with an even split given your intentions to marry. It would be a bad look for you if you did split up beforehand, though.

Once you get married, all your property becomes a marital asset. If you divorce with a short marriage (in the legal sense, ~2yrs) then the courts will try to restore you to the situation you were prior to marriage, all else equal. After that, the starting presumption is 50/50 anyway even if you didn't own equal portions of the house equity directly. So it becomes unimportant after a while.

As for your specific question - why would you want to establish the 50/50 split before you sell? There is no risk to you before you sell, and you have certainly contributed precisely zero to the property at that point. It only happens when you buy into the property, and at that stage, yes you can assign 50/50 beneficial interest or whatever you like.

If you were really determined to have something in place before you sell, yes you can also do that. It may not be totally straightforward to own the interest directly, as you would have to be on the deeds and apply for the mortgage with him, something that may not be possible given your extant mortgage on your own property. But you could own an indirect interest if he is willing to give it to you, or perhaps most neatly an option contract that gives you the right to progress the transaction to the desired end state once you come up with the money.

But frankly, I don't think anything is necessary because of my initial paragraph - the danger scenario you are worried about is misconceived. The biggest risk is that you sell, you split up, and you have to repurchase a similar property to your old one with the equity and the same kind of mortgage that you just repaid; the costs involved and raising that new mortgage are the obstacle.

[Deleted User]

Angusjon said:

I'll try make this simple but need advise ASAP. 
I'm 54 fiance 59. We want to buy a house together. Partner has £375000 deposit towards house (he has sold his house). I will have £180000 once mine has sold. We have found house so he is going to get mortgage for shortfall until mine is sold then I will give him £180000 to pay off mortgage and then he wants to put me on house deeds and should worse happen we split house 50/50. Without sounding greedy I need this to happen because if we were to get divorced let's say in 10 years time, (we're planning on marrying next year) then if we had an agreement in place whereby I only get out what I put in plus 50/50 on if house prices went up, then I would still at best come out with £250000, at 65 which I would be then I wouldn't be able to buy a house, whereas if I kept my house in 10 years my mortgage would be paid off and I would have £400000. My question is before I sell and before he initially buys the house can we put in place an agreement where we agree to the 50/50 split which would be legally binding. Thank you for your help and advise. 

Unlikely since he will initially require a mortgage.  The mortgage lender is very unlikely to allow more legal and/or beneficial owners than are named on the mortgage.  Once you've sold your house and have the money to clear the mortgage then you can look at changing the ownership.

AdrianC

So it's a ~£550k property. He's putting in ~2/3, and you're putting in ~1/3. Right?

Why do you think coming out of the relationship with 50/50 is fair?

blue_max_3

Maybe you should become business partners instead of getting married. They guy seems to have the most to lose and you're still not happy.

iamnotasoldier

As someone who was in a similar situation, I can tell my experience and solution we arrived at. So my now wife (as time of house purchase was only GF), put all the deposit in the purchase of our house and the solicitors wrote a clause in our deeds so that there was a 60/40 split in the house equity. As been mentioned above, once married for a period time, I think this would be more or less invalid, with a 50/50 split being the probable legal stance if, heaven forbid, we ended up splitting. As a side note, having finished the mortgage, we agreed that I would continue to pay my half of the normal mortgage payment to my wife, paying back the half of the deposit that she covered for me. When we get the final change to the Land Registry, to remove the mortgage lender's name over the property, we will get the solicitor to amend the deeds to a 50/50 split. 
Hope this was of some help.