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Aston Lawyer
Aston Lawyer, Solicitor
Category: Law
Satisfied Customers: 10776
Experience:  Solicitor LLB (Hons) 23 years of experience in Conveyancing and Property Law
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I own a house with someone - we are both on the mortgage and

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I own a house with someone - we are both on the mortgage and are tenants in common. We had a declaration of trust drawn up at the time of purchase. One clause states that ' the trustees will contribute equally to all outgoings and expenses of the property. In the event that either party shall pay an amount in excess of these proportions then each trustee shall indemnify the other against any such payments made by that trustee in excess of the sums so due'. Just wondered what that means? If for example one of us wanted to pay in a lump sum of cash into the mortgage? Many thanks
Aston Lawyer

Hello and thanks for using Just Answer.

My name is ***** ***** am happy to assist you with your enquiry.

You are correct, in that it means that if either of you were to pay more than 50% for any Bill/expense/mortgage payment, then credit has to be given to them by the other party.

In practical terms, if you were to pay off a lump sum of the Mortgage, you can't ask your co-owner to make a similar payment, but you will need to keep a record of the payment, so that you get reimbursed 50% as and when your co-owner can pay it or when the property is eventually sold.

I hope this assists and sets out the legal position.

Kind Regards

AL

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Customer: replied 3 years ago.
Question for Aston lawyer
Many thanks- so by reimbursed 50 percent when sold do you mean I would only get half of my capital back? Ie if I made a £20k lump sum payment into the mortgage on top of regular mortgage payments would I effectively be giving the other person £10k?

Hi,

Correct- if you think about it, you are putting down £20K, £10K of which is "your payment" and the other 10K is the amount your co-owner is legally obliged to pay.

You will therefore get 10K back from your co-owner and you will also have benefitted by the other 10K by way of more equity coming back to you.

Does that make sense?

Kind Regards

AL

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