Divorce - jointly-owned property with new partner

bunnybunnyrabbit

Hi

I'm buying a house with my partner. He is still married to someone else (they have been separated for over five years). When they separated, they sold the marital home and split the proceeds 50/50. He used his money to buy a home with his friend, which he's now sold, and we're buying a house together. 

I know that when they divorce, she may put in a claim to our new home. If we're joint owners (tenants), would she have a bigger claim to our home? As my partner would jointly own the whole property rather than 50% of it (if we were to be tenants in common). I'm not sure if it's in our best interests to be joint tenants or tenants in common to ensure she can't get her hands on more of our money.

Thanks

bunnybunnyrabbit

Addition to original post: We originally wanted to do tenants in common, but my fear was that should something happen to my partner, his 'wife' would automatically own half my home. With joint tenants, I would automatically own the whole property (and vice versa). 

TBagpuss

The best thing to do sis for him to get things finalised with his wife. Given how long they have been separated the divorce can be on a no fault basis. 

Did they simply split the proceeds of the house or did they have a proper separation agreement in place? 

Either way, it would be sensible to wait until he has dealt with that before you go into a major investment with him.

If you go ahead anyway, then if you own as joint tenants then he will be presumed to own half, for the purpose of any divorce settlement. If you own as tenants in common then the starting presumption would be that his share was what it says on the deeds/ declaration of trust, but if this was unequal then a court is entitled to consider whether he is deliberately transferring assets to you to prevent them being taken into account in the divorce, and to take appropriate action if they think that is what has happened, o its not necessarily a sensible strategy.

If he and his wife agree, they can get a consent order drawn up pretty quickly and while it will take a couple of months to get to decree nisi in a divorce and be able to send the order to court, they can sign the order before that which would give them a measure of protection. 

Thrugelmir

Suggest that the divorce is finalised. Most importantly the financial consent order. Cut the ties and stop any future claims being made. 

74jax

How far along in the divorce are things? I'd just wait it out.

Has he made a Will? 

sammyjammy

Personally I wouldn't be buying a house with anyone that was still married to a third party!

DairyQueen

Also, note that if he dies intestate then his wife stands to inherit a large chunk of his assets (inc his share of the house). If he is childless she would inherit the lot. Even with a will she would have a strong claim.

She may also be the beneficiary of his pension schemes. The separation doesn't change her legal status. She is his spouse and has far more rights to his assets than you do.

He needs to sort out his divorce. 

bunnybunnyrabbit

Thanks for all your feedback. I know it's a risk, I'm just trying to mitigate it as much as possible. His (and my) assets are very small. We're putting down a small deposit and will have a big mortgage (with a fixed rate that would incur huge fees if we had to pay it off early!). We're paying half the deposit each and will contribute equally to the mortgage.

I'm aware of the rules of intestacy, however if we're joint tenants, would the survivorship right supersede that? i.e. if my partner were to die, the whole house would automatically pass to me as joint tenant and wouldn't form part of his estate. Obviously we're not planning any early deaths!! Just trying to mitigate things if the worst were to happen. 

Thrugelmir

bunnybunnyrabbit said:

Thanks for all your feedback. I know it's a risk, I'm just trying to mitigate it as much as possible.

Then deal with the elephant in the room! 

Keep_pedalling

Did they have any children together?

bunnybunnyrabbit

You're right. I don't know why I'm getting financially involved with a married man (yes they do have kids!). I'm going to reconsider my options.

Thanks everyone.