Common Law partners and Wills

getmore4less

xylophone said:

https://trustsdiscussionforum.co.uk/t/rnrb-unmarried-partners-with-children-from-previous-relationships/3561/4


Some comments in the above which may be of interest.

I suspect that this comment by the OP

Now as I am getting old,

and 30year relationship post kids(I assumed)

Precludes the use of a qualifying 18-25 trust so I did not bother mentioning that as an option..

Also limits the occupation period of the partner.


There are also some cases where there are under 18 children the partner can have them as qualifying beneficiaries should they take on guardian responsibilities.

Shezz

maman said:

You said ' we decided to buy it'. So are you saying that even though it was your name on the deeds because of the terms of the original tenancy , your partner helped to buy the house? 

That's a bit of a grey area, I was the one that decided that we should buy the house but as we was a couple we just discussed it, although he did say it was up to me, I was the one that got the mortgage and it was based on my wages only, they did not take his into account, if we had split at any time i would be the one to just carry on paying the mortgage

maman

Shezz said:

maman said:

You said ' we decided to buy it'. So are you saying that even though it was your name on the deeds because of the terms of the original tenancy , your partner helped to buy the house? 

That's a bit of a grey area, I was the one that decided that we should buy the house but as we was a couple we just discussed it, although he did say it was up to me, I was the one that got the mortgage and it was based on my wages only, they did not take his into account, if we had split at any time i would be the one to just carry on paying the mortgage

I understand that, if necessary, you could have covered the mortgage yourself based on your own wages . That was wise and made sense at the time as you didn't know how things would work out . But did you pay everything yourself for the past 30 years? Did he share the household expenses?

If he's paid in as an equal partner for 30 years, it seems hugely unfair that you want to will the house solely to your own children.

What does he think of your plan? 

Shezz

Keep_pedalling said:

It seems to me that your partner has a beneficial interest in the house so when he dies his descendants could make a claim on the property, or he could on your death. You really should sort this out as part of getting your wills put in place. It is wrong that your children should be the 100% beneficiaries of a home that you would not have been in a position to buy without his initial financial help in purchasing the place, and presumable the ongoing costs in its upkeep over the last 30 years.

if your estate exceeds £500k then, as you are not married, your estate is going to face paying inheritance tax as nothing will be passing to a spouse. If that is the case then than is something that  

Reading a lot of replies it seems that most automatically think  that I would not of been in a position to buy a house of my own and that my other half would of needed to contribute to it, sorry but that is wrong, sure I could not look through the houses for sale section in the  papers and dream as no way could of afforded to go out and buy one of these nice places, I eventually knew that the only way  that I would be able to afford to buy any house was to buy my own council house because as a tenant I was able to buy it with a heavy discount,  I had lived in a council houses for x amount of years this was taken into consideration on the purchase price, after valuation of the property I was offered the house with a discount of 55% ,  so before I brought the house I had in fact already contributed 55% of the cost of the house you got a % for being a council tenant and then 1% extra for every year, something like that . and yes when buying the house my thought was that I would be able to leave my children something, 

As said earlier, I want to be fair, I want him to stay in the house, but I also want it to go to my children, yes he does know that I want it to go to my children and always has, I did a will when I brought the house as recommended, but that was years ago, the house has all been paid up, as for the estate, I doubt very much it will bring in any more than £350,000.  I am trying to find a way my partner can live in it, and once he has gone then my children are able to sell it.

We never had children together, and he has no children (he never wanted any) he has a sister who has 2 children, (which he hardly sees) but they would be his next of Kin, not my children.

I am just trying to do the right thing as laws change, hence my ?, 

maman

maman said:

Shezz said:

maman said:

You said ' we decided to buy it'. So are you saying that even though it was your name on the deeds because of the terms of the original tenancy , your partner helped to buy the house? 

That's a bit of a grey area, I was the one that decided that we should buy the house but as we was a couple we just discussed it, although he did say it was up to me, I was the one that got the mortgage and it was based on my wages only, they did not take his into account, if we had split at any time i would be the one to just carry on paying the mortgage

I understand that, if necessary, you could have covered the mortgage yourself based on your own wages . That was wise and made sense at the time as you didn't know how things would work out . But did you pay everything yourself for the past 30 years? Did he share the household expenses?

If he's paid in as an equal partner for 30 years, it seems hugely unfair that you want to will the house solely to your own children.

What does he think of your plan? 

I didn't assume that you couldn't afford the property on your own. Your reasoning seems to be that because you got a heavy discount on the price because of your previous tenancy then your partner's contribution is cancelled out. Personally I think you just got lucky with the policy at the time. Rightly or wrongly, you were given a figure that the house would cost you and that's what you paid. But who paid? Was it just you or both of you? 

Keep_pedalling

Shezz said:

Keep_pedalling said:

It seems to me that your partner has a beneficial interest in the house so when he dies his descendants could make a claim on the property, or he could on your death. You really should sort this out as part of getting your wills put in place. It is wrong that your children should be the 100% beneficiaries of a home that you would not have been in a position to buy without his initial financial help in purchasing the place, and presumable the ongoing costs in its upkeep over the last 30 years.

if your estate exceeds £500k then, as you are not married, your estate is going to face paying inheritance tax as nothing will be passing to a spouse. If that is the case then than is something that  

Reading a lot of replies it seems that most automatically think  that I would not of been in a position to buy a house of my own and that my other half would of needed to contribute to it, sorry but that is wrong, sure I could not look through the houses for sale section in the  papers and dream as no way could of afforded to go out and buy one of these nice places, I eventually knew that the only way  that I would be able to afford to buy any house was to buy my own council house because as a tenant I was able to buy it with a heavy discount,  I had lived in a council houses for x amount of years this was taken into consideration on the purchase price, after valuation of the property I was offered the house with a discount of 55% ,  so before I brought the house I had in fact already contributed 55% of the cost of the house you got a % for being a council tenant and then 1% extra for every year, something like that . and yes when buying the house my thought was that I would be able to leave my children something, 

As said earlier, I want to be fair, I want him to stay in the house, but I also want it to go to my children, yes he does know that I want it to go to my children and always has, I did a will when I brought the house as recommended, but that was years ago, the house has all been paid up, as for the estate, I doubt very much it will bring in any more than £350,000.  I am trying to find a way my partner can live in it, and once he has gone then my children are able to sell it.

We never had children together, and he has no children (he never wanted any) he has a sister who has 2 children, (which he hardly sees) but they would be his next of Kin, not my children.

I am just trying to do the right thing as laws change, hence my ?, 

It was not an automatic assumption, in your opening post you said “ after being together for a couple of years we decided to buy the house, but as his name was never on the tenancy agreement, they stated that only I was able to apply to buy it as it was only my name on the tenancy agreement.”

The fact that you said we decided to buy, and that it is only in your name because you were the only one on the tenancy agreement, rather suggest that he contributed to the purchase. Perhaps you can clarify that for us please.

The fact that he has no direct descendants, makes things somewhat simpler, but to make things even simpler you should just get married or form a civil partnership.

Shezz

maman said:

maman said:

Shezz said:

maman said:

You said ' we decided to buy it'. So are you saying that even though it was your name on the deeds because of the terms of the original tenancy , your partner helped to buy the house? 

That's a bit of a grey area, I was the one that decided that we should buy the house but as we was a couple we just discussed it, although he did say it was up to me, I was the one that got the mortgage and it was based on my wages only, they did not take his into account, if we had split at any time i would be the one to just carry on paying the mortgage

I understand that, if necessary, you could have covered the mortgage yourself based on your own wages . That was wise and made sense at the time as you didn't know how things would work out . But did you pay everything yourself for the past 30 years? Did he share the household expenses?

If he's paid in as an equal partner for 30 years, it seems hugely unfair that you want to will the house solely to your own children.

What does he think of your plan? 

I didn't assume that you couldn't afford the property on your own. Your reasoning seems to be that because you got a heavy discount on the price because of your previous tenancy then your partner's contribution is cancelled out. Personally I think you just got lucky with the policy at the time. Rightly or wrongly, you were given a figure that the house would cost you and that's what you paid. But who paid? Was it just you or both of you? 

I paid for the house myself, everything came out of my bank account, he never contributed to the actual purchase of the house but has obviously contributed to other running costs of the house which is the day to day running of it,  when I first brought the house, I did absolutely nothing to it,  I just got new windows (added onto mortgage) my greatest fear was that I  would loose the house and me and the kids would be on the street (if me and the o/h did split) and it would be my fault, it took me 9 years to pay the mortgage off and  only then did I start to do things to the house from the money I saved from the mortgage, I had brought the house so that it would eventually all go to my children, which my o/h knew at the time of purchasing it, he has no children at all, he has a sister that he does not really talk to.

No its not fair to leave him with nothing, I made sure of that in my will, years ago when buying the house, but as laws change and getting older, I do need to make sure he is secure and that the house will go to my children, I am not ashamed that I feel that if he marries that's fine they can live in the house but if he died and the house had gone to him then it would then go to his wife which is what I don't want but at the same time if he doesn't marry and does stay in the house, I want to make sure my children do not sell the house from under him, I am positive they wont do that, I Just want to make sure everything is in black and white with no grey areas

Shezz

Keep_pedalling said:

Shezz said:

Keep_pedalling said:

It seems to me that your partner has a beneficial interest in the house so when he dies his descendants could make a claim on the property, or he could on your death. You really should sort this out as part of getting your wills put in place. It is wrong that your children should be the 100% beneficiaries of a home that you would not have been in a position to buy without his initial financial help in purchasing the place, and presumable the ongoing costs in its upkeep over the last 30 years.

if your estate exceeds £500k then, as you are not married, your estate is going to face paying inheritance tax as nothing will be passing to a spouse. If that is the case then than is something that  

Reading a lot of replies it seems that most automatically think  that I would not of been in a position to buy a house of my own and that my other half would of needed to contribute to it, sorry but that is wrong, sure I could not look through the houses for sale section in the  papers and dream as no way could of afforded to go out and buy one of these nice places, I eventually knew that the only way  that I would be able to afford to buy any house was to buy my own council house because as a tenant I was able to buy it with a heavy discount,  I had lived in a council houses for x amount of years this was taken into consideration on the purchase price, after valuation of the property I was offered the house with a discount of 55% ,  so before I brought the house I had in fact already contributed 55% of the cost of the house you got a % for being a council tenant and then 1% extra for every year, something like that . and yes when buying the house my thought was that I would be able to leave my children something, 

As said earlier, I want to be fair, I want him to stay in the house, but I also want it to go to my children, yes he does know that I want it to go to my children and always has, I did a will when I brought the house as recommended, but that was years ago, the house has all been paid up, as for the estate, I doubt very much it will bring in any more than £350,000.  I am trying to find a way my partner can live in it, and once he has gone then my children are able to sell it.

We never had children together, and he has no children (he never wanted any) he has a sister who has 2 children, (which he hardly sees) but they would be his next of Kin, not my children.

I am just trying to do the right thing as laws change, hence my ?, 

It was not an automatic assumption, in your opening post you said “ after being together for a couple of years we decided to buy the house, but as his name was never on the tenancy agreement, they stated that only I was able to apply to buy it as it was only my name on the tenancy agreement.”

The fact that you said we decided to buy, and that it is only in your name because you were the only one on the tenancy agreement, rather suggest that he contributed to the purchase. Perhaps you can clarify that for us please.

The fact that he has no direct descendants, makes things somewhat simpler, but to make things even simpler you should just get married or form a civil partnership.

Yes we both discussed it, we both chatted and weighed up the pros and cons of buying it, what would happen if this happened, what would happen if that happened, and yes we did know that he would not be on the mortgage, but at the time we needed both to agree that buying the property was the best thing (hence we decided), at the time I was not about to do anything that we both did not agree on (changed a bit now as if I want to do something I would), even if it was something I was going to be doing, if he had said that he did not think it should be done,  would I have gone ahead with it, I don't know, I needed his support.
Yes he knew at the time of buying it that I wanted it to go to my children. I purchased the property my o/h of course helped with the day to day running costs, but not the mortgage, my only problem ( I don't want to get married) if we have a civil services, and the house goes to him, how would I know that the house would eventually go to my children, and not his sister as she will be his next of kin, or if he marries his new wife. 

I don't think I am being harsh I worked hard to get the house so don't want it to go to anyone else other than my family (including my O/H) or wanting to leave my kids an inheritance 

Marcon

OP - you really don't need to defend yourself. You didn't ask for moral advice, just practical thoughts - and the first answer you got (mine!) probably gave you all you need to proceed. You don't need a STEP solicitor; they are specialists who deal with large/particularly complex estates and yours is neither, so any decent high street solicitor is perfectly capable of giving you the help you need.

Shezz

Marcon said:

OP - you really don't need to defend yourself. You didn't ask for moral advice, just practical thoughts - and the first answer you got (mine!) probably gave you all you need to proceed. You don't need a STEP solicitor; they are specialists who deal with large/particularly complex estates and yours is neither, so any decent high street solicitor is perfectly capable of giving you the help you need.

Thank you, I felt like I was being attacked for trying to do the right thing