Equity conundrum ... wizard required

buyaka

Registered User
Messages
23
Can someone with a more finely tuned brain than me figure out this conundrum for me .... it'd be much appreciated!

I'll try summarise ....

Living with my girlfriend, who is selling her house ....

When she does she wants to invest the equity she'll get back into my house .... so we'll own it 50/50 .....

I've a mortgage of 280k on a house worth somewhere between 460 and 480 .... so I've between 180 to 200 in equity if I sold it tomorrow ....

She will have 140k to invest ... which will cut the mortgage in half ....

What we cant figure out is does that fairly entitle her to own half the house as if we sold it down the line she'd benefit from the equity I've accrued ....

If someone could do the figures on this for me I'd be really really grateful ... and feel a bit less stupid too :)
 
I'd have said that if she paid you 90 or 100k (based on the equity) and you split the existing mortgage repayments (on 280k) 50/50 from now on you'd be even.

Has she been living in this house with you, if so for how long, and has she been contributing to mortgage?

If you really want to own 50/50 then you need to get a valuation (or 3 and average it across the 3).

Presumably you'll put her name on deeds and the mortgage, so she shares benefits and risks?
 
Let's say your house is worth 480k.

Your girlfriend must pay you €240k to buy half of the house.

If, for example, she had €240k cash, then she could give you this money and she would own half the house but none of the mortgage.

If she gives you €140k cash, she will owe €100k on the mortgage.

Your mortgage is €280k. For simplicity, you could pay just €80k of the mortgage off and invest the balance of €60k in your own name.

Now
She owns half the house.
She "owns" half the mortgage - i.e. 100k of a €200k mortgage.

Alternatively, reduce the mortgage to €140k. She still owes €100k of this, so she would be responsible for 100/140ths of every repayment.

Brendan
 
OP, sorry my figures didn't include you you using the money she gave you to pay off a lump sum on the mortgage. If you do that, then she'll need to pay much more, as per Brendans figures.
 
How about another way?
Work out what you have actually spent on buying the house - i.e the deposit, the mortgage repayments so far plus any other expenditure on it structurally. If she pays you half of that - and then pays 50% of all future mortgage repayments that should be it. You will have to get her name on the deeds and the mortgage obviously.
You can then both pay in an equal lump sum to the mortgage to reduse the LTV below 50% and get a lower mortgage rate.
 
Is this approach not giving her an unfair share of the equity built before her involvement?
 
Yes, I would have thought it was. However, you have also been living in her property with her for some time. Were you contributing to her mortgage while you were there? She has allowed you to live in her property while it has built up equity (which she will now be giving to you to allow you to release your equity) so it is a little more complicated than it first seems.

The simplest way would have been to value the house now and tell her if she wants 50% then she has to give you 50% of its value.

You will then have to add her name to the deeds and split all future mortgage payments 50/50.

That way, whatever happens in the future you both have a proper 50/50 share in the property.

However, like I said, if you have not contributed anything to her so far, then she may feel aggrieved at handing over her equity to you.
 
Back
Top