Who should inherit my house?

Hamilton24

My partner and I bought a house together earlier this year. In order to buy the house we used a deposit that was mainly from the equity he had received from selling his flat. I contributed the savings I had to the deposit and my bigger salary meant we could borrow what we needed for the mortgage we wanted but he contributed a lot more to the deposit. We set up a deed of trust for what will happen if we break up given our unequal status with the deposit. However his dad has recently started badgering him about getting a will and my partner thinks that as he received a lot of money from his parents to buy his flat (this money was inheritance from his grandfather but given to him early so he could buy the flat) he should leave his share of the house to his parents until we get married or have children. I think this is ridiculous as we have bought the house together and I don’t want to be in the position where I end up with his parents owning more of our house than I do if something were to happen to my partner. Any advice would be appreciated! My partner’s parents are very involved in his life and finances and he seems to feel that the money is really his parents’ and not his. It’s causing quite a bit of strife between us as even though he’s started to come round to my way of thinking, he’s worried that his dad will get very angry once he tells him what he wants to do in the will and he doesn’t want to lose his relationship with his dad.

getmore4less

What does the deed of trust say?

Many we see here get the shares wrong, might have happened with yours. 

Actual numbers help as well like deposit sizes and how you split the mortgage. 

Hamilton24

The declaration of trust means he has 70% and I have 30% so that if we were to break up, we’d evenly split what we paid off the mortgage (we’re paying the mortgage off 50/50) and then divide the rest of the profits 70/30 but that’s only if we were to break up and then sell the house. We pay the mortgage 50/50 and we pay all house expenses, furniture etc. 50/50. I’d just assumed (stupidly it seems!) that if anything were to happen to either one of us we’d leave the house to the other. We are tenants in common as we’re not married but have a joint mortgage etc. I certainly had planned to leave my share of the house to my partner and still intend to do so.

Claire2989

Does he have life insurance? He could take out a life insurance policy that states his parents as beneficiaries on his death to ‘repay’ the early inheritance to him. It’s not a huge monthly cost, obviously changes with the amount of money.

Then he could give you share of the house (and another life insurance policy if needed for you to cover the costs). 

hazyjo

Why are you paying 50/50 then on everything if you're only getting 30% if you split up? You'd have done better just owing him the money (however much that 20% was to take it to 50/50).

Hamilton24

At the moment we’ve both life insurance to cover the value of the mortgage so if something happens to one of us then the entirety of the mortgage will be covered. How would repaying the early inheritance to his parents work in that way? How would that affect the ownership of the house?

AdrianC

Perhaps it might be worth asking him if he sees his relationship with his parents as more important than his relationship with you.

It's more of a question for this part of the forum ---> https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/marriage-relationships-families
than for here...

Claire2989

Hamilton24 said:

At the moment we’ve both life insurance to cover the value of the mortgage so if something happens to one of us then the entirety of the mortgage will be covered. How would repaying the early inheritance to his parents work in that way? How would that affect the ownership of the house?

If he ‘owes’ he parents say £20k and takes out another life insurance policy (or adjusts the current one) to cover the £20k. He could take it out for a period of time that would cover their life span. 

Then if he dies (hopefully not) before they do and that life insurance policy pays to his parents. Then he feels like his parents are ‘paid back’ in the event of his premature death.

You benefit from the other life insurance policy and pay off the house that you now have full ownership of as he’s left the house to you not to his parents as they’ve been ‘paid back’ with the life insurance policy.

End game: He feels that in the event of his early demise his parents are paid back and you get to have 100% ownership of the house.

Just an idea, there are other ways around it of course. 

Hamilton24

AdrianC said:

Perhaps it might be worth asking him if he sees his relationship with his parents as more important than his relationship with you.

It's more of a question for this part of the forum ---> https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/marriage-relationships-families
than for here...

Thank you - yes I think that question is going to come up. Sorry for posting in the wrong forum - I realised after I’d posted it that I should have put it there instead! It’s my first post so I’m still learning.

elsien

If the money from his grandfather was left to him in grandad's will then it was his to do with as he wished, no strings attached.
If the money came from grandad to his parents and they decided to gift some to him in turn, then as a gift it is still his to do with as he wishes, no strings attached. The time to add any conditions to the gift was at the time it was made. That ship has long sailed.
If it was my parents I'd be wondering what made them so convinced I was going to shuffle off this mortal coil before them. 

Hamilton24

Claire2989 said:

Hamilton24 said:

At the moment we’ve both life insurance to cover the value of the mortgage so if something happens to one of us then the entirety of the mortgage will be covered. How would repaying the early inheritance to his parents work in that way? How would that affect the ownership of the house?

If he ‘owes’ he parents say £20k and takes out another life insurance policy (or adjusts the current one) to cover the £20k. He could take it out for a period of time that would cover their life span. 

Then if he dies (hopefully not) before they do and that life insurance policy pays to his parents. Then he feels like his parents are ‘paid back’ in the event of his premature death.

You benefit from the other life insurance policy and pay off the house that you now have full ownership of as he’s left the house to you not to his parents as they’ve been ‘paid back’ with the life insurance policy.

End game: He feels that in the event of his early demise his parents are paid back and you get to have 100% ownership of the house.

Just an idea, there are other ways around it of course. 

Thank you. That’s really helpful as I didn’t know that was possible. It’s a lot more than 20k though (more like 80k) so is worry that a policy to cover that could be very expensive but I’ll discuss with him and look into it.