MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I'm currently in the throes of buying my first property with my girlfriend.
Our solicitor has asked us to decide how we would like to divide the property in the event of death/separation. Either it's 'beneficial joint tenants' (50/50) or 'beneficial tenants in common' (unequal shares) and we're likely to go for the latter option.
I would prefer our shares to be divided up according to what we each pay towards the property (deposit and mortgage repayments). The difficulty is this will vary as time goes on, since she has more cash up-front for the deposit, but I earn a fair bit more so will be paying more of the mortgage repayments.
Improvements, bills etc we will keep separate and try to divide up equally.
Our solicitor wants to charge us a hefty sum on top of the standard fees to set this up. Is there anything to stop us writing up our own agreement between us? Would this contradict what the solicitor does in any way?
We don't really want this to be too complicated, as we're obviously very happy together and trust each other, and I don't foresee that we'll ever need it. However I'd like to keep it as clear cut as possible, since we also have a responsibility to our parents who have stumped up some cash for us.
If anyone's ever been in this position it would be great to get some advice!
Thanks
Pete
I think you have relationship issues.
[i]I think you have relationship issues.[/i]
+1.
Are you buying as house together or not? Are you a couple or not?
I think you have relationship issues.
I think you have "how can I be a smartarse today?" issues.
To the OP, sorry, I haven't a clue though. I guess you have to ask the solicitor what happens if you break up. Mrs deadly and I split everything equally because some months I'm up and some months, she's up. I stumped up most of the deposit but ****, it's only money and if we split, I'd split everything down the middle, she's put up with me which is worth the deposit ten times over.
click my name, correct advice there.
1st suggestion. approach a different solicitor to get a price for what you has been suggested.
2nd suggestion, be very careful that what you agree does not suit both of you..
3rd suggestion, don't ask for legal advice on a MTB forum
The first 3 years my girlfriend and I lived together we rented. I earned about 50% more than her and as we only earned enough to cover costs we realised after a few months that it was silly with me having cash sitting there and her with nothing spare, so we stopped keeping track of who paid for what and just paid in according to who could afford it.
We bought a house 2 years ago, my girlfriend now earns 50% more than me so naturally she now pays for more stuff. For a stress free relationship I can't really see splitting costs according to earnings will work, as one person will always have more cash.
If one of you is paying significantly more towards the deposit then maybe you can have an agreement written up that you recoup your deposit if you seperate, but for monthly outgoings it will be a lot less hassle to go 50-50.
For the whole time we've lived together, we've maintained our own accounts and had one joint account that we both pay the majority of our earnings into at the beginning of each month for all the bills. It works very well, to the point that our own accounts only really gets used for gifts etc. We're now switching our salaries to pay directly into the joint account to simplify things.
EDIT: Your situation is actually very similar to ours - one of our parents stumped up for our deposit. I don't think either of us would try and prevent that portion ever being given back to the 'correct' side of the family if we were to split.
We just split everything 50:50 on bills, mortgage, etc and don't really keep track of the rest. Seems a lot simpler
I think you have "how can I be a smartarse today?" issues.
I don't think that's exclusive to today to be honest...
But fwiw, I've been through a property seperation after an acrimonious split. She left, I gave her, her half of the deposit back and something towards her mortgage contributions.
By that time the property had soared in value anyhow, so I was laughing. The cheating bitch. Ahem. Anyhow.
We very loosely split the bills. Sometimes I go through stages of paying for all the food/groceries and vice versa etc etc etc. strangely neither of us take the p*ss. I guess its called being close to each other. If you slice everything down to the last penny to avoid arguments then there isnt true love there. Sorry.
"i think you have relationship issues"
thanks, we don't need any counselling.
cheers for the other replies. i don't think we'll ever screw each other over, so perhaps keeping things simple is the best solution for all
"don't ask for legal advice on an MTB forum"
possibly the best piece of advice!
50/50 all the way. There is too much that is unquantifiable and what do you do as things alter? One of you gets made redundant, one of does all the DIY, one of you does all the housework?
Anything other than 50/50 is asking for trouble
All goes into the one pot. All the bills are paid out of it and whats left pays for us to live.
If we split up i would happily walk away without a penny to my name.
This splitting money always strikes me as trust issues. When you are married or living together, who has & hasnt got the money should be low down on the list of priorities. There are bigger things to worry about.
good point Littlelist Hobo
incidentally, I can play the Littlelist Hobo on the guitar! a campfire classic
I wish i could 🙂
TheLittlestHobo, he speaketh sense. It becomes too micro-managed and hides/masks bigger issues
A few years I had a simmilar situation with my now wife 🙂
Our solicitor at the time advised us to also check our Wills. I think (but this is all a bit blurred and has no legal know how behind it so might be completely wrong) that if you opt for tennants in common and you bequeth your assets to someone other than your girlfriend they can force the sale to recover their "inheritance".
There was also a very ammusing (in hindsight moment) during the process when the solicitor turned to me and asked (with a completely straight face) - Are you thinking of proposing anytime soon as that would change my advice... Really didn't have a suitable answer at to that - Answer Yes and offend.... Answer No and also offend.
We had a slightly different version of this situation, as one of us had inherited enough money to put down a 1/3 deposit, and then we were paying equal shares of the remaining mortgage. For that reason, we went for the second option, so that if we split up, the deposit is paid back first, and then any profit is split 50:50. The agreement was drawn up by the solicitor, but only cost about £100, as far as I can remember.
However, if one of you is paying the deposit and the other is paying more on the mortgage, have you worked out who will be contributing more overall? If it looks as though it will work out roughly even over the years, maybe you should go for joint tenancy as being the easier and possibly cheaper option, especially given you don't think you're likely to split up in the near future... I don't know how easy it would be to re-write the tenancy agreement later if things changed, but it can't be impossible, so that's always there as an option.
as a couple you should be operating as one - a team if you like. you work together to get through life together and each "contribute" financially and in other ways. if you later split, anything to generated as a team are split 50:50 regardless of financial input. its the only way.
now assets of one party gained before the team formed, well thats another story.......
[s][i]3rd suggestion, don't ask for legal advice on a MTB forum[/i][/s]
Correction. Never ask disgruntled and embittered anglo-saxon males about getting on with the opposite sex?
You should both put into one pot, and both take out of one pot.
When you start splitting things you become two entities.
As the famous Spice Girls song goes, Two become One.
Hello, I'm new here, and it seems slightly odd for my very first post to be nothing to do with bikes. Oh well...!
What you need is a "declaration of trust" which is a relatively simple legal document that will specify how you want the house to be divvied up should you separate. My girlfriend and I had one because when we bought our current house I put in a significant deposit and she put in nowt. We also had a mortgage that we were paying in very unequal proportions.
Let me know if you want a blank version and I'll send you one. It's pretty straightforward stuff. Just make sure you sign it in front of a couple of witnesses.
Cheers,
Ben.
BehH, I'd very much like to see a blank version of that agreement if that's OK. Think there's an email address in my profile?
I'd like to see that form too BenH.
csb, it's on its way. Cuckoo, there doesn't seem to be an email address for you.
hi ben
that letter sounds useful. if you can send a copy this way as well that would be great
peter_m_young at hotmail dot com
cheers
Pete