England - Joint Ownership house one person full despoit, tenants in common vs joint tenants when mar

questionaboutahouse

Currently buying a house with my wife.

I am putting in £150k despoit and my wife nothing but splitting mortage payments even on the new house.

Do I need to put "tenants in common in unequal shares" on the joint ownership information sheet and make a note of my deposit, or is it pointless being married as everything starts at 50/50 in the courts if we ever divorced? Or would an unequal deposit be taken into account by selecting tenants in common with unequal shares?

The wording is also "tenants in common in unequal shares.". I do not want shares, just a note of deposit being made.

Or should I just not worry about it and tick joint tenants? Do not ever see us divorcing but I guess whoever does see that!

PRAISETHESUN

I don't necessarily think you need to have unequal ownership, but at the very least an agreement that recognises your unequal deposit. Something to the effect of, "in the event of a sale you get your £150k first with the remaining equity split 50/50". Your lawyer should be able to draft something. Unsure how it would hold up in a divorce proceeding, but better to at least have something you both agree on now.

Keep_pedalling

How long have you been married ? Do you have children?

questionaboutahouse

Keep_pedalling said:

How long have you been married ? Do you have children?

Married around a year and 1 child

Bookworm105

you seem unclear what you are trying to achieve?

if you do not want "shares" then your entire post is void as the deposit by definition translates into you buying more of the property than her, QED you should own a larger share since your deposit has reduced the mortgage which you are then splitting 50/50 so her mortgage payments are not building up to her paying for 50% of the property .

BUT, you are married 
divorces within first 2 years or so will try to return each party to their respective start points, ie you'd get 150k from the house before the reminder was divided.
BUT there is a child so that will radically alter the decision of the court as the needs of the child will be paramount, eg a mesher order may be enforced.

if the marriage is "long" then , as you say, the court will tend towards 50/50 irrespective of original start point. Again a child will distort that.

more importantly than divorce, the choice between TiC or Joint Tenant for a married couple is mainly influenced by what your respective inheritance tax positions are likely to be and who inherits the property.
Lots of websites explain those facts 
TiC means you can leave your share to a named person when you die, JT means you cannot. Helpful if there are children from previous marriages as they will not be disinherited by a wife who gets the lot on husband's death and then takes up with the milkman.

questionaboutahouse

Bookworm105 said:

you seem unclear what you are trying to achieve?

if you do not want "shares" then your entire post is void as the deposit by definition translates into you buying more of the property than her, QED you should own a larger share since your deposit has reduced the mortgage which you are then splitting 50/50 so her mortgage payments are not building up to her paying for 50% of the property .

BUT, you are married 
divorces within first 2 years or so will try to return each party to their respective start points, ie you'd get 150k from the house before the reminder was divided.
BUT there is a child so that will radically alter the decision of the court as the needs of the child will be paramount, eg a mesher order may be enforced.

if the marriage is "long" then , as you say, the court will tend towards 50/50 irrespective of original start point. Again a child will distort that.

more importantly than divorce, the choice between TiC or Joint Tenant for a married couple is mainly influenced by what your respective inheritance tax positions are likely to be and who inherits the property.
Lots of websites explain those facts 
TiC means you can leave your share to a named person when you die, JT means you cannot. Helpful if there are children from previous marriages as they will not be disinherited by a wife who gets the lot on husband's death and then takes up with the milkman.

Thank you this is very helpful.

I was essentially wondering if any of the options protect my despoist so I could get back? I am not too concerned about anything after that. I thin reading between the lines there is anything which can be really done? There is a dead of trust but I am not sure they carry much weight. There is also post nups but from my understanding the marriage laws and childs need to override these.

Child is mine and there are no other children for the purposes of the inheritance tax and who inherits the property. Have never thought about if I die what happens, might need give that some thought and look at life insurance now you have reminded me.

questionaboutahouse

Any other advice guys before I sort this form today ? Thanks very much everyone is it very useful to gets others help on this

Bookworm105

questionaboutahouse said:

I was essentially wondering if any of the options protect my despoist so I could get back? I am not too concerned about anything after that. I thin reading between the lines there is anything which can be really done? There is a dead of trust but I am not sure they carry much weight. There is also post nups but from my understanding the marriage laws and childs need to override these.

I accept the wisdom of you being cautious about losing your money in the event the marriage fails but you need to start from a footing that does does not compromise it from the outset!

- will your fiancée look kindly on the marriage starting with an assumption it will fail and you want your money back?
- are you seeking to protect a fixed sum of money so you get back a fixed limp sum irrespective of house value changes? DoT (with or without an interest clause) making distinction between TiC or JT irrelevant.
- are you seeking to use your money as an investment , ie expose it to house price increase? If so you'd need to be TiC with a larger ownership share than her, but if value falls you may not get the full lump sum back....

have a read:
Declarations Of Trust: Ensuring fair property division in a divorce | Birkett Long LLP

questionaboutahouse said:

Child is mine and there are no other children for the purposes of the inheritance tax and who inherits the property. Have never thought about if I die what happens, might need give that some thought and look at life insurance now you have reminded me.

then your child should get a "full" inheritance from you, not split it with her...