When You Lose

[Ashleylee]

My parents gifted me money in 2019 as early inheritance for me and my 3 boys and with the sale of my own house I purchased a property with the verbal agreement with them that they could reside on the property in a mobile home as overflow accommodation. But would not have any hold over the property.
They agreed the house was conveyed to me and my husband. We paid for the property and moved here in late 2019. Unfortunately during the pandemic relationship with my parents and I broke and my father claimed he never wanted to be here in the first place.
My mental health deteriorated to the point of suicide. I asked them to leave in September 2020 and within 10 days they sent a letter from their solicitor to say they never gifted the money they have a beneficial interest and want the house sold.
They pursued a formal claim in May 2021 and this led to
a 3 day trial in July 2022 and the judge took until the second week in November to rule that he sided with them as he believed that they had a verbal agreement with me that I relayed this to my husband in Nov 2017 and it was on the understanding that we were owning the property 50/50. It was a verbal agreement.

NO PAPERWORK EXISTS FOR THIS AGREEMENT THERE WAS NO DEED OF TRUST.

I am absolutely devastated.
We spent 70k fighting this, the judgement is that we are to sell the property and pay 40k costs.
Not sure what to do for the best as the reason for this move was for my 3 sons, one of which almost lost his life to sepsis in November 2017. I just feel like the most unluckiest Mum in the world right now.
Not sure what to do for the best?

[dslippy]

That sounds very uncomfortable.

You should consider an appeal, but be very careful. Most of what the judge found were factual conclusions. Any appeal must be on the ground that such conclusions were clearly wrong. A court of appeal would hear arguments only as to errors of law.

You had solicitors? Listen to them.

[DE DOGS]

Sorry to say but take the advice from Slippy, listen to your Solicitor as you possibly may waste more money and stress, as compensation, I had a similar problem, the lesson is anything to do relating money family or not, getting it in writing

[Ashleylee]

Thank you for the response.
This is a piece from the judgement which proves that my husband wasn't aware of the supposed agreement between my parents and I, until I told him and even after that he had no discussion with them that mentioned the words joint venture.
C2 said that she her husband and her daughter spoke about it being 50% on both sides. C2
went on to say that in the conversations that she had with D2, she never had a doubt
that it was a joint venture. The relationship that she had with her daughter at that time
about purchasing a property and living there for the rest of her life led her to believe
that it was a joint venture. C2 stated that the first mention of doing this was without
D1 as he was at work. Later however she understood that it was a joint venture,
involving D1. She said “why would we believe it was not a joint venture when
everything was about living on the same property? D1 didn’t say joint venture
directly, but his actions and what he did indicated that it was a 50-50 joint venture. He
did not say directly it was a joint venture, but why did he search for properties and
include us if it was not a joint venture?”
Doesn't make any sense to me. We purchased the property and had the deeds put in to our names, with the arrangement that they would reside on the property as overflow accommodation.They wanted to know that the money they were going to leave to their grandsons was invested in property and that the government would not be able to touch it if they required future care.
Who would buy a property with their elderly parents and not have a Deed of Trust? We had paid our mortgage off. We have lost it all.
I believe we were not advised well by the conveyancing solicitor and we are now paying the ultimate penalty.

[atticus]

You have solicitors and counsel. They have probably advised. I am sorry that their advice is probably not what you want to hear. I am not going to offer a different opinion based on a small extract from the judgement in your case.

[Ashleylee]

Thanks for your comment Atticus