Declaration of Trust - advice needed

Hi, I''m new to the site and am hoping for some advice on where I stand legally.

My partner and I have been together for 7 years, and purchased a house together 5 years ago. We are not married and have no children.

Before buying the house we signed a Declaration of Trust, stating he was putting in more money than I was. I don''t have a problem with this, other than the fact that the house now has less equity in it as we used some of it to purchase other items. My argument is that we will split the equity in the house in accordance with the agreement, but all other items should be split 50/50. He says he will force me to sell the house unless I give him the money he put in.

I would also like to point out that he has paid nothing towards the house or bills for the last three years, and everything has been paid out of my salary. I have also said to him, that if he insists on selling the house he must pay half the bills until it''s sold, or I will keep a track of it and knock it off his money at the end.

It is his infidelity that has caused the split, and I am trying to be reasonable with him. I also need to find out how I legally tell him we are financial separated, as he is continuing to spend my money as it is held in a joint account as part of our mortgage, and therefore I cannot remove him from the account until the house is sorted.

Any advice you can give me would be much appreciated. All the information I seem to find relates to married couples rather than cohabiting couples.

Many thanks.

As you are not married civil rules apply. The starting point is that the declaration of trust applies and you must look to that first before trying to superimpose any other settlement on top of it.

Secondly, you should open an account in your sole name and pay your money into there otherwise it is going to difficult to determine who had paid what to whom.

You should seek legal advice as a civil case which is litigated usually ends up with a winner and a loser. The loser usually pays their own costs and the costs of the winner.

Charles

Charles, many thanks for the response.

The Delaration states we each get the money back we put in, then anything else is split 50/50, but the money originally put in is no longer there. There is nothing relating to other assets.

I do have a separate bank account, but have to transfer all my salary to our joint account to cover bills and spends. I was trying to just transfer the money to cover all the bills, and no additional spends, but he keeps withdrawing the money and I can''t risk my bills no being paid.

I already offered to pay all legal costs involved, but I will look into getting legal advice as you have said.

Many thanks.

I would guess that the trust is couched in such a way that the division of funds is from the net proceeds of sale? If this is the case, it is likely that your ex will receive all of the proceeds and no more. If he thinks that you can somehow ''magic up'' extra monies he possibly needs to wear a helmet when taking part in extreme sports.

Unfortunately idiocy is an element that is not in short supply and some people can produce it at a phenomenal rate. Don''t expect simple mathematics to neutralise the effect.

Open a new account and have your salary paid into that. If you need to cancel your direct debits and pay manually for a couple of months then so be it.

Charles

Charles, you''ve cheered me up, thank you! It does indeed say net proceeds of sale and despite the use of simple mathematics there''s just no getting through to him. Where he thinks the extra money will come from, and why he thinks he is entitled to it I shall never know!

We will battle on! If he''d have kept his trousers on, then none of this would be an issue!!


Thanks again.