should i sell or hold out?

samanthajane

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What does everyone think of buying and selling a property at the moment? I moved to london nearly a year ago to do a college course and i will be finished in a few months and i'll be moving back to ireland. I own a house in dublin at the moment with my ex partner who currently lives in the house and he is having major problems in paying the mortgage at the moment, so i'm thinking of selling the property ( if thats even possible ) and getting out now. I paid 250k for the house and if i can sell it i should get back what i paid for it and a little extra, it's valued at around 280k at the moment. But i cant make my mind up on what to do. There are so many houses for sale at the moment in the area i live in i think i'd have to really reduce the price to even get a sale, or i could offer to help out with the mortgage payments for a while and keep the house. I took me 2 years of hard work and saving to get on the property market in the first place i'm worried if i do sell my house it will be years before i get back on the irish property market again. Another thought i had was to buy in the north the house are alot cheaper and i've already been approved a mortgage but with everything thats going on at the moment with the market am i just going to get myself in further trouble by buying another property. I'm moving to newry when i get back anyway cause i cant afford to live in dublin anymore, i'm on an ok wage but it's not great and after i pay rent on a property, childcare, bills....... the list goes on, i wont have anything left over actually i wouldn't even be able to pay everything. And it's not an option for me to move into my own house cause i cant afford the mortgage on my own. So what should i do...................???
 
First off, is the 280k a realistic valuation? who gave it and how long ago?

If you can sell the house now and make a profit or even break even then i would jump at it. The market is terrible but houses will sell if they are realistic prices, have a look on www.daft.ie at similar houses in that area. If your mortgage balance is 250k, then you would really need other houses to be advertised around the 300k-320k mark for you to be able to get a quick sale at 250k or hopefully above.

I would not worry about selling now and not being able to get back into the market again. If the mortgage repayments are tight now for your ex and you wont be living in Dublin then there is no point keeping the house especially if you can sell.
 
hey senna, yes 280k is realistic as far as i know, not too sure after reading other posts on here. I have a few people that i used to do business with that are estate agents and they said for a quick sale i would get 280k weather they are just saying that too me i dont know. There are other houses in the same estate as me that are for sale but none are of the same type as mine, so it's kinda hard to judge, other houses around the same area as me are priced similar but then again none of them are selling. My mortgage balance is less than 250k i had a good deposit and i purchased the house a few years ago. I think the best way is too sell the house but the only problem i have now is getting the ex to sell the house. I wanted to sell a while ago when the market hit the peak cause i had a feeling that something would go wrong and he refused, i even had someone willing to pay 400k for the house!!!!!! Dont i wish i could turn back time. I have mentioned it to him and he doesn't want to sell and the fact that he cant afford the mortgage doesn't seem to bother him, all this talk about being given a year by the banks before they will try and take the house from you, he thinks that gives him breathing room. I haven't looked into it that much but i'm sure there's a catch somewhere like it effecting your credit rating and being charged huge amounts of interest on top. Also he's now self employed and knows with out a joint mortgage he has little chance of getting into the market again, especially since his business isn't doing very well.
 
That does make things a lot harder and i dont think i could give much useful advice. But you should make him aware that even though the house cant be repossessed for 1 year there are consequences to not paying for one year, your mortgage balance will increase with the missed payments and penatlies. Your balance could be 5% (or more) higher after the year and the house could be worth alot less.

I would direct your ex to www.thepropertypin.com, get him to read a good argument as to were the housing market is going and what your house could be worth in 2/3/4 years time. You are not in negitive equity now and this is great news for you. Once your house is in negitive equity you might not be able to sell unless you have sizable cash reserves. Get out now and come back into the market when the blood shed is over.

I assume that if its in both your names than your ex will get half the profit, wave that money in his face and force him to see that this makes good sence for both of you.
Best of luck.
 
I've told him all this but he wont listen......bloody men ( no offense to other men who can see sense) He thinks that in a few years the house will be worth 400k again!!! He should be counting his lucky stars that were not in negative equity cause there are so many people out there who are in a worse situation than us.

Yes the house is in both our name but i own a larger share than him so he wont get half the profits he'll get 35%
 
I remember the UK market in late 80's and early 90's it took 10 years to get back on track again.. we are told that is a much deeper recessions and will last longer than the ones before.

My son put his property on the market in the late 80's unfortunately it took over 10 years before he could get the price that it was first valued at...also his property was in a very good part of London area as well.

Joody
 
I very much doubt that house prices will ever be the same again as having seen how bad things can get, people will refuse to pay the astronomical prices which were being bandied about for the last few years. Maybe banging his head firmly against the walls of this house will make him see sense Samantha??? Sorry, I know I shouldn't be joking, but seriously.. Head to wall may work!
 
In broken relationship situations, you are always better making a clean break, even if it costs you a little money. Its just not worth the hastle on any level and you have a huge risk of your credit rating suffering if your ex doesnt pay the mortgage.
 
I very much doubt that house prices will ever be the same again as having seen how bad things can get, people will refuse to pay the astronomical prices which were being bandied about for the last few years. Maybe banging his head firmly against the walls of this house will make him see sense Samantha??? Sorry, I know I shouldn't be joking, but seriously.. Head to wall may work!

HAHAHAHA i think your right, i might have to give that a try. We spoke about it a lot today and he said that if we sell the house he'll feel like he failed and i can understand that, i feel a bit that way as well. We were only 23 when we got the house and we were so proud of ourselves cause none of our other friends owned there own property, we had our own business and we were doing really well considering our age. Because our business ( i keep saying our although it's his now cause i signed everything over to him when we split ) hasn't been doing well lately that's the main reason for having problems paying the mortgage, so it's not just the house that he could lose it's the business as well. I was thinking of helping him out for 6 months and if after that he still cant manage then we will have to do something about it. Since i'm saving on rent by moving to newry i'll be able to pay some of the mortgage and he's managed to get a part time job delivering chinese at the weekend which will go towards the mortgage as well. So at least he is doing all he can to keep the house. At the moment i still have equity in the house, so i'm not in any debt, i think that would be the time i would take further measures to get rid of the house.

Also just had a thought there...... when we took out the mortgage we only got a 25 year mortgage, ( we have just over 22 years left ) we could of got a 35 year mortgage to make the repayments lower but we decided not too as then we could afford the payments, Would the bank allow us to extend the mortgage a few extra few years to lower the repayments. I've heard about this 1 years period before any action will be taken but i dont know much about it, am i right in saying in that year if you dont make a singe payment they wont take any action against you or is it if you dont make the full payments. Surely the banks would prefer to extend your mortgage and still get your money than not get anything from you at all.
 
In broken relationship situations, you are always better making a clean break, even if it costs you a little money. Its just not worth the hastle on any level and you have a huge risk of your credit rating suffering if your ex doesnt pay the mortgage.

I cant totally make a clean break as we have children together so on that level we're always going to be apart of each others lives, so for their sakes i want us to get along as best as we can, i hate it when were arguing with each other, but i totally get where you are coming from. I did give the business to him and everything else is sorted out like joint account ect, the only thing left that we own together is the house. As for my credit rating i think that has already suffered, at this point i'd have problems paying cash for things ha ha. When i first found out a few days ago that he was having problems with the mortgage i rang them to find out how bad it was, for the last 6 months he hasn't made a payment on time, as of today he still hasn't paid feb's payments and were nearly in march!!!! And he only paid jan's payment on the 15th feb. credit rating....................what credit rating??
 
i love this site so much!!!!! being nosey and reading other people's posts really pays off, i've just found out that i can rent our house out!!!! ( i really must pay more attention to the budget lol ) it's not 5 years anymore it's 2. The only reason he was staying in the house was cause i was my This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language paying 1000's in stamp duty!!!! I'm so happy happy happy....... so new plan...... he's moving back to mammy's... house is getting rented out and i wont be having a nervous breakdown just yet.
 
Don't get too excited yet Samantha. When you have somone in the house renting, then you can get excited. Rental prices are falling and the amount of properties for rent is increasing. The very best of luck getting someone one in though. Let us know how you get on.
 
Good luck Samantha!
You can join us on the other threads defending greedy landlords now ;)
 
Hi Samantha, could you get him to a counsellor? Might help him deal with the feeling of failure so he doesn't run himself into the ground trying to rescue a dying business and help him move on. You seem to be doing great yourself, well done!
 
Good luck Samantha!
You can join us on the other threads defending greedy landlords now ;)
I'll see you there!!! Although i have no intention of being greedy, i know that i'm probably still going to have to pay something towards the mortgage i doubt i'll rent it out for what my mortgage payments are. But if i get someone in that will at least pay most of the mortgage and not trash the place then i'm happy.
 
Hi Samantha, could you get him to a counsellor? Might help him deal with the feeling of failure so he doesn't run himself into the ground trying to rescue a dying business and help him move on. You seem to be doing great yourself, well done!

Well the business isn't totally lost yet, and things are looking good for the house if we can rent it out. The good thing is the business isn't in any debt we have no loans or anything that needs to be repayed. It's just getting the business in the first place. Our business depends on other business and with so many closing down and just not having the money to advertise anymore it's getting harder each week to have money left over once you've paid wages, fuel, insurance ect.

But if the worst should happen it would be a good idea for both of us. Even though i have nothing to do with the business anymore i still want it to do well, i spent 4 years building it up with the ex and i wouldn't want all that to be for nothing.
 
I'll see you there!!! Although i have no intention of being greedy, i know that i'm probably still going to have to pay something towards the mortgage i doubt i'll rent it out for what my mortgage payments are. But if i get someone in that will at least pay most of the mortgage and not trash the place then i'm happy.

Just make sure to read up on the tax implications on renting out. For example, only mortgage interest is allowable against rent so you need to factor that into any shortfall calculation. There are lots of threads about renting out your PPR - have a read of those before you do your sums.
 
ok i'm blonde and a bit thick lol when you say only mortgage interest is allowable you mean i have to pay tax on the part of the mortgage that is repaying my loan??? My mortgage is 1200 a month Broken down the interest is 800 ( i hate having to say that) and only 400 a month is coming off my actual loan. So what percentage do you have to pay? Also is my house considered an investment we only own that house we didn't go out a buy a 2nd home just to rent out. Where are these threads??? i typed in renting out property on the search and all i seem to come up with is people arguing over other people paying rent on time and should you kick them out straight away? ( which apparently legally you cant) Also a bit cheeky........ but since we dont own any other property how's the tax man going to know were renting it out unless we tell them? I'm sure not ever landlord has informed mr tax man.
 
Once your partner has moved out of the house and it is being rented out, it is then an investment property. Mortgage interest allowable, means that currently, mortgage interest relief is being given against the mortgage as it is your ex's PPR. Once he rents it, that mortgage interest is gone, but it can be written off against tax when tax returns are filed against rent received.

Open to correction on that!
 
Once you rent out a house, it's an investment property, even if you don't own another house. It only qualifies as a PPR (Principal Private Residence) if you live in it (I'm assuming that stays the same because one of the owners is still living in it)

Anyway, if you mortgage is 1200 and your interest is 800, let's say you rent it out for 1100 a month. (I'm ignoring other costs that you can offset like insurance etc). In that case, you pay tax on 300 per month (the diff between the 800 and the 1100) and also have to make up the additional 100 per month in mortgage shortfall. Also note that your bank may change your interest rate if the original rate is dependent on the house staying a PPR.

If you do a search on "renting PPR", you'll get threads ().

You should pay your tax. If you start asking about how the taxman will know, you'll be in danger of people not replying to your thread. AAM doesn't condone or encourage tax evasion - quite the opposite.

During the course of this thread, you've been able to move from worrying that you'd have to sell the house to realising that you can indeed rent it out without stamp duty clawback - don't overreach by trying to discuss avoiding tax.
 
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