Deed of Trust

[Kelly Jo]

I am currently in the process of selling my property and buying a new house for �220,000 with my partner. My partner will not be putting any money down on the property and I will be putting a deposit of �128,000. We will pay the remainder of the mortgage of �92,000 together. My mortgage company have stated that they will be able to add my partners name on the date we complete, which is relatively easy. We obviously need to get a contract signed between ourselves to state that I have put this deposit down and the remainder is split 50/50. My solicitor has suggested a "Deed of Trust" Please could somebody explain how this works? Is the deposit I put down worked out as a percentage so that if we were to separate I would not simply get my �128K back but a higher percentage of the profit? Many Thanks

[Pumpsticks]

The easiest way would be to hold the property as "tennants in common" rather than joint tennants- you can specify your share of the property as a percentage so that you benefit from any growth in the value of your share of the property. It need not be 50/50 as with a joint tennancy. This will be cheaper too!