Family home + no will + share

[Ed999]

You must consult a Solicitor. This problem is too complex for a self-help forum.

 

If you were making payments in repayment of the mortgage capital - not merely towards payment of the interest, but actually in repayment of the capital sum outstanding - you might have acquired an equitable interest in the property, which would possibly become an overriding interest even if not registered at HM Land Registry, as a consequence of you being actually in occupation of the property.

 

You need to see a Solicitor and have him arrange to properly protect your interest, i.e. potentially a part-ownership of the property, by proper registration at the Land Registry.

 

The mortgage lender might have required that you sign a waiver of your rights, so that your occupation of the property could not prevent them selling it if the mortgage is not repaid. Less than an abandonment of your rights under the Will, that might be the type of document you signed - just a power of sale, in limited circumstances, not an abandonment of all your inheritance rights. Such waivers are very common, and it would be surprising if the mortgage lender had not insisted on you signing one if you live there.

 

You can have a Solicitor find out from the lender just what it was you signed, and he will explain to you its legal effect. But the effect might not be what you seem to think it is, for the reasons I've mentioned.

[Ed999]

The o/p said -

 

i paid via the direct debit mortgage, internet and sky

 

so how do we reach a situation of saying he was only paying rent to his mother, and thus made no direct contribution to the mortgage? Plainly, folks, he did make a direct contribution.

 

 

The only issue is whether this was an endowment mortgage, i.e. one in which interest only was paid to the mortgage lender each month, with the capital repaid by the endowment policy at maturity; or whether the monthly payments to the mortgage lender were partly capital and partly interest.

 

A subsidiary point arises, in the former situation, as to who was paying the endowment policy premium each month.

Edited April 23, 2011 by Ed999

[Ed999]

I understand the legal technicality you are raising; but the facts stated by the original poster don't seem to bear the interpretation which you're giving them. He has simply stated that he paid the mortgage, by direct debit.

 

But even if the facts are as you assume them to be, I for one am certainly not willing to presume to second-guess what decision a court might come to on the issue of contribution, particularly if the mother was wholly financially dependent on him.

 

Reading the o/p's statement, one matter leaps to the eye. Clearly, he is out of his depth in relation to all of the legal aspects of this problem. It would therefore be unsafe to take his statement literally.

 

It appears to represent only what he thinks the situation was, but would need to be closely enquired into to learn whether it can be corroborated at any points, something we aren't able to do for him, which is why I suggest he consult a Solicitor - who would be able to make the necessary enquiries.