Declaration of trust for joint owners

Answer the questions and your declaration builds as you type. Check your names, property and amounts are right, then pay £59 once to unlock and download the full document. No subscription, and you can download it again any time.

Already paid? Find your declaration with your email address.

1The property

Have you completed the purchase?

Not yet, we're buying it Yes, we already own it

Most couples sign before or on completion day. Your declaration starts to apply the moment you complete.

Address

Address line 2 optional

Town or city

Postcode

Purchase price £

Land Registry title number optional

The seller's title number, from your conveyancer's paperwork or the title register (£7 from GOV.UK). Leave it blank for a new build that doesn't have its own title yet.

Tell your conveyancer you're buying as tenants in common. That's what your declaration is written for.

For homes in England and Wales.

2The owners

First owner's full name

Second owner's full name

Use your full names exactly as they appear, or will appear, on the Land Registry title.

It's also a home for children who live with us

3What each of you put in

First owner's deposit £

Second owner's deposit £

Want Stamp Duty or buying fees (conveyancer, survey, mortgage fees) back first too? Add what each of you paid towards them to your deposit. Include money a parent or anyone else gave you as a gift. If a gift was to both of you, split it between your two deposits. If it was a loan that has to be paid back, this template isn't the right fit.

Mortgage lender optional

As it's written on your mortgage offer.

4How you split it when you sell

Deposits back first, then split the rest equally
The most common choice for couples with different deposits. Fixed percentages
For example 60/40, whatever the property is worth. Equal shares
50/50, regardless of who put in what.

If you sold for £

After paying off the mortgage as it was at purchase. Sale costs and mortgage paid off since aren't included. If a sale doesn't clear the mortgage, you share the shortfall.

5Paying for the home

Your declaration says you each pay half of the mortgage, insurance and repairs unless you agree otherwise in writing.

If one of you pays more than half

Your shares stay as agreed
Paying extra, including a lump sum off the mortgage, is treated as a choice, not a loan. Simplest, with nothing to keep track of. The extra is paid back when you sell
Including any lump sum off the mortgage. Fairer if one of you will pay more, but you'll need to keep records of who paid what.

If one of you moves out

Nothing changes
You keep sharing the costs and no one pays rent. The one who stays pays the costs
They pay the whole mortgage, insurance and repairs until the home is sold or bought out.

Either way, if one of you covers the other's missed mortgage payment, the other owes it back.

6If one of you wants to sell

Notice the other owner gets

The other owner can buy out the leaving owner's share first, at market value

Taking on a bigger share of the mortgage in a buyout can mean Stamp Duty Land Tax to pay (Land Transaction Tax in Wales).

7If one of you dies

Your share doesn't pass to the other owner automatically. It goes to whoever your will names, and they could ask for the home to be sold.

Can the survivor stay in the home first?

8Get your declaration

Email address

So you can download it again on another device. We don't send marketing.

Post me printed copies, £12.99
2 copies on quality paper, so you can both sign each one and keep a signed original each. Sent flat, Royal Mail 1st Class, to the address you give below. I want my declaration straight away, and I understand I lose my 14-day right to cancel once it's ready to download.

Total £59

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