Gifted Deposit vs Marriage?

Random one for the forum, but I’d love some help please if anyone can.

My fiancé has some credit issues due to some defaulted cards a few years ago. She’s been told she is ‘unmortgagable’. Because of this I’ve applied for a sole mortgage in my name only.

My fiancé is providing £60,000 for deposit, from inheritance after her parents sadly passed.

The bank wants her to sign a Gifted Deposit form basically stating she has no right to this money once she gives it to me for the mortgage.

My question is, after we get married in a few months, wouldn’t she have the right to half my assets anyway? Does marriage trump this gifted deposit form basically?

I want to make it clear that I WANT HER to have half, and wish we could get a joint mortgage in the first place. It would be great if, once married, she has the security of owning half the house.

Any help would be great, obviously I know people here aren’t lawyers so it’s just opinion not legal advice :slight_smile:

My understanding is that marriage should trump this, although obviously the point is only really relevant in the unfortunate and I’m sure unlikely circumstance that you ever split up.

Pre-nups are notoriously worth very little if there’s ever a legal disagreement over who owns what, and the basic presumption of each getting half (with needs and earnings then taken into account) is very difficult to set aside.

So in short, I would think it would be pretty difficult for you/anyone to say she didn’t have a claim for her share of the funds/property.

Edit to say this is v much not legal advice but it is the opinion of someone who’s studied an LLB and currently works in a law firm.

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We had to get people gifting any deposit amounts to sign letters not just for the bank but for solicitors as well for money laundering checks.

Unfortunately, as far as the bank goes, I don’t think there’s a lot you can do, you can’t gift any proportion of the house or put any share of it in someone else’s name until the mortgage is paid off, after this you could add them to the deeds.

Apart from the contract between the two of you I’m not sure there’s much you can do, but even if you did that, it could probably be classed as a term of fraud by the bank as you’re essentially telling them the money will never be paid back under any circumstance yet you’re contract would say different. A gifted deposit is what it says, it means the gifter has zero entitlement.

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Can’t you just do a deed of trust? That’s what we did.

I put significantly more down as a deposit on our house compared to my partner so this contract just says that when the asset (the house) is sold I get back what I put in, she gets back what she put in, and then the rest is split evenly between us.

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Is your wife named on the mortgage though?

Pretty sure you can only do that if you’re both on the mortgage though? Otherwise they wouldn’t be on the deed.

My fiancee put about 10% compared to me, I spit it 50/50 on the deeds anyway but im pretty sure you need to be on the deeds which you can’t be if not on the mortgage

Ah ok. Yeah she’s on the mortgage, sorry.

Can you not add additional terms to the contract?

Suggest you just go get actual legal advice so there’s no ifs or buts about the situation. You can get a consensuses from a forum but no one knows the exact circumstances around your case and how any laws get interpreted.

Having said that, say in 5 year’s or whenever you can remortgage can’t you add someone in then? I’ve no idea :sweat_smile:

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I think the bad mark on her credit file goes in around 4 years, so when we remortgage we’d be able to do it as a joint application I hope.

This is just for the meantime. She trusts me, but I’d like to give her as much reassurance as possible.

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I think, if it’s similar to a deed of trust, you have to specify that when you get married, the statement still stands, then it isn’t superseded.

Could you not get a separate contract that states if/when the house is sold, you owe your future wife £60k?

Did you just go through banks or did you go through a broker?

I thought finding a mortgage for myself was going to be impossible.I have defaults from a few years ago and hell of a lot more before that. When I was at uni I got myself into trouble financially, with a lot of help from Monzo i’ve managed to get myself into a much better place and am now so much better with money but those marks on the file are still there.

I went through a broker who was superb, and we got a mortgage super easy, and I mean super easy and that was in the middle of the pandemic last year, I thought the mortgage was going to be the most stressful and hardest part about buying our house, the broker made it easy and told us we even got the best rate on the market at the time, albeit, we need to remortgage after 2 years.

Moral of the story - Try different brokers

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We tried a few brokers and direct with banks, they won’t accept her.
I wish I could just sign a piece of paper saying I’d give her £60,000 if we sold the house :joy:

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Get some legal advice, as there may be a way to draw up a contract to that effect. But I’m not a lawyer. You need someone who is.

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I think the possible way to do that would be to draw up a trust deed.

Once you bought the house, you could transfer it legally to two trustees, who would hold it on trust for both you and your wife.

Would def need legal advice on that but might be something to look into.

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You should both see a lawyer, together, who could advise. Individual lawyers may even be needed (one for you, different one for your partner) to draft a legal agreement which works well for both, while taking any number of circumstantial changes into account.

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It sounds like what you want is a declaration of trust that grants your F a beneficial interest in the property. That can be done regardless of the legal title and mortgage. You should be able to specify a percentage of the sale proceeds or even a fixed amount.

It is possible to make a declaration on your own, but it’s really not a good idea, as getting it wrong can have serious consequences. Also, a solicitor will have liability insurance, keep records etc - so it’s totally worth the fees

Bear in mind that you may want to change the declaration if either of you puts serious money into doing it up, for example

It might just be easier to wait until married :joy:

To be honest, this sounds like a question for a solicitor.

Thank you for everyone’s help so far.
I contacted a solicitor in the end who basically advised not to worry, the marriage would trump the gift declaration. Nothing can be ‘ringfenced’ for divorce proceedings, which is why prenups are not worth the paper they’re written on in the UK.
That sounds good to us.

Although we’ve hit another issue. The person who gifts the money shouldn’t be living in the property… So now we have all that to try and deal with :joy:

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Is there a shed?

:joy: yep. I’ll let her know.

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