Shared onwership with children

[misunder1938]

About 12 years ago my mum asked me to take out a mortgage so we could buy a house and move out of the flat we lived in. We bought the house for 62k. My mum put in 40k and I got a mortgage out for 25K. At the time, she insisted that her name was put on the mortage although she has never contributed towards it. I moved out of the house 7 years ago and moved in with my partner. She now wants to sell and has offered to give me whatever I've in paid in plus interest. I thought that I would recieve a 40% share of the profit, not just the money I have paid in plus the interest due. We never had an agreement in writing and she's getting really peculiar about it all. Where do I stand legally? This is how naive I was, I don't even know if my name would be on the deeds. Thanks in advance for any help recieved.

[lady_p_gold]

Of course you should share in the profit and I doubt if you would have got a mortgage without being on the title, you can check with the Land Registry. You will have to decide if a family rift is worth it though! I expect Mustafa will advise on this one, or Ethel!

[Ethel]

Firstly, it is unlikely that you would have got a mortgage without your mother's name - if her name is on the deeds it would be very difficult for the mortgage company to repossess should you go into arrears otherwise.

Your name will be on the deeds.

This is very tricky - your mother has had sole enjoyment of the property for the last seven years, without paying rent or consideration to you. Presumably you have been paying the mortgage all this time. You could argue that your share should be more than 40% if this is the case.

Is there any mortgage outstanding? Have much have you actually paid in mortgage payments? Who pays maintenance bills?

The best advice you can have is - sort it out between you. Get solicitors involved and the profits will diminish and you will both lose out. Stand your ground. Tell your mother it will not be sold until the profit share is agreed.

As already advised - get a copy of the deeds today. It will cost around �3 and you can do it online.

[janetsflower]

your name will be one the deeds if the mortgage was yours. whilst i agree that you should certainly get back what you have paid in plus a share of the profit perhaps you need to take into consieration the cost of any repairs/maintenance/improvements etc that your mum may have paid for over the years. Also your mum may not be in a position to re-house herself if she gave you 40% so you need to weigh up what that means to you and if you are in a better financail position. Also bear in mind, harsh as it may sound, that in all probability one day it will all be yours anyway if in the natural law of things you out live your mum and she leaves it to you, however if you have brothers, sisters or other people likely to inherit maybe you need to hae a heart to heart with your mum about how she splits things when she has gone if you feel her wealth is due to your favour. Its a tough one and maybe something that legal advice should be sought for if you can't agree something reasonably easily without causing a rift

[Ethel]

Do not make allowances on the basis that it may be all yours one day.

Your mother could remarry. She may need to sell her home to pay for nursing care in her later life. She may do an equity release to fund her retirement years and that world cruise she has always hankered after. She could leave everything to the cats' home.

[misunder1938]

Thanks everyone, I've been on the land registry paid my �3 and I'm a registered owner. A

As for how much is outstanding - about 20k! And rough calculations mean I've paid about 27k. The only agreement we ever had (suggested by a very good mortgage broker at the time) was that if ever I met anyone and wanted to settle down, she would get a lodger so i could get my own mortgage. She never went through with it claiming that the house was too small!

Becasue I've had to continue to pay the morgage I've always thought that I would get my share. When she decided to sell, she offered me what I had paid in, (she didn't realise it was as much) plus she was going to give me 50k inheritance. (i know this sounds incredibly generous but I pointed thought that in all reality that the 50k was my own money i.e my share of the property. She went loopy and we had a major argument.

As it turns out, I even offered to pay my lump sum into her next property and keep the mortage so she could release some of her equity and live more confortably.

Unfortnately she's very stubborn and thinks i'm trying to do her out of money, whcih I don;t think I am. In my mind the day she decided not to get a lodger was the day I became part owner.

I'm going to have to go to a solicitor because she can't talk about it blowing her top.

Its very sad that its come to this but she won't listen to me.

Thanks for your help and your different perspectives, its good to listen to objective opinions.