Kulfold Sat 13-Jul-19 14:55:54

I am concerned by the number of people opining on this who are clearly not lawyers, its actually quite a complex area and some of the statements made are clearly wrong so....1) if you’re fil is making these assertions take legal advice now and give your advisor all the details so you can get proper advice on your specific situation but also generally...2) just because someones name is not on the deeds of a house that does not mean they cannot assert “beneficial” ownership of a part or all of the property..3) the written deed of gift is really important...all the people suggesting you should have ANY discussion with your fil suggesting that that deed is a fiction are giving you very poor advice legally (the morality of the situation and any agreement your dh may have made implicitly or otherwise is well outside of anything I am touching) because...if you accept that the deed of gift is a fiction then you open up the obvious question of whether the 30,000 is a loan or some form of equitable contribution...it becomes your word against his without the protection of that written document. (Even with it in some circumstances but it would be harder for him to assert) and to add insult to injury once you start questioning ownership you potentially also move into the vexed area of marital home rights notices (and here family practitioners should feel free to jump in because this isn’t my area) where there are issues with getting a notice if there is a non resident 3rd party part owner...in summary, in the situation you are currently in talk to a lawyer first before having any discussion with your fil and certainly before considering signing anything and next time before you get into this type of situation make sure everyone understands what they intend and write it all down...ideally with the involvement of a lawyer (although in fairness it does sound like you have made reasonable efforts in that direction)