splitting up - what to do with house and mortgage

N

Next In Line

Guest
Hi all,

A newbie here so bear with me as I have an awful lot of questions and I hope that I am in the right section.

Here goes...

I am splitting from my partner who I am not married to, we jointly own a house and I need to know what to do next. We split all the bills, morgage but not all the costs. I put down £70k deposite and paid for new roof and windows. He does not want the house as he cannot afford to keep it going but and has said that he is entitled to all of his morgage payments back. Is this true or is it just half of the capital that he should get back?

Then onto the mortgage, how does it work to remove someone from the mortgage? Do I need to apply for a new one and close the old joint one? He says that he is not liable for any costs and has said that he won't leave until his name is off the deeds.

Now I do have a little money to call on but am really worried about how to resolve everything, get him out and not bankrupt myself in the process, loose the house and everything that I have put in.

Not a pretty picture but its where I am. Advice welcome!
 
First off you need to get independent professional legal advice in my opinion. Have you arrange to see a solicitor (or the Legal Aid Board - http://www.legalaidboard.ie or FLAC - www.flac.ie if applicable)? I presume that a mediated settlement of the relevant issues may not be possible given your description of the situation right now?

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/birth_family_relationships/separation_and_divorce/
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/e...ion_and_divorce/family_mediation_service.html
 
He is definitely not entitled to all his mortgage payments back. A friend of mine was in a similar position a few years ago, when she left the joint owned apartment, he remortgaged and bought her out.

To make an easy break she agreed the money she originally put in as a deposit, he got to keep the apartment.

That was a mutual agreement, I am sure she could have gotten more (this was 2004 pre burst) - but she wanted a clean break instead of arguing over it and spending more money in court.

I dont think his request for his mortgage payments is reasonable.

I think you will have to remortgage and agree a sum to buy him out.
 
I want a clean break also and I am happy to give him what he is entitled to. It would have cost more than the mortgage to rent the same size property and I did explain that the mortgage interest now belonged to the bank. I have contacted a solicitor for advice. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
 
It sounds like your ex is confused about what he is entitled to. If children are not involved, then I think barring some explicit agreement, he's entitled to some percentage of the home, based on what he has put in. If you've roughly shared the costs equally, then unless you want to go digging in a forensic manner through all your bills/banks statements, about 50% of the current net property value is likely to be fair. By net value, I mean the value of the property less any outstanding mortgage. If you're home is now worth less than the outstanding mortgage, then he's liable for half of the shortfall. If it's worth more, then he's got a claim on half the value in excess. You might need to re-mortgage to buy him out, or use your savings.

You definitely need a solicitor to assist with getting the deeds updated, and to be honest, with more advice around all the other financial and legal aspects of breaking up family assets (pensions? joint accounts? life assurance? other assets?). If you're in negative equity, then the bank will be reluctant to let you remove his name from the mortgage, as it would have one less person to chase if you fall into arrears.
 
All the rest of our financial obligations are cut and dried.

There are no children, he does not want the dog, we have no joint accounts with money in, no joint debts, no pensions and he is welcome to the furniture that we purchased.

I thought that life assurance was like insurance in that you can't get the money back once you have paid it?
 
ClubMan said:
You're assuming that the original poster is female! ;)
Click to expand...

Doesn't the partnership laws kick in even if it is a male/female relationship? i.e. it is not restricted just to same-sex.
(If this isn't what you are referring to then apologies)
 
ryaner said:
Doesn't the partnership laws kick in even if it is a male/female relationship? i.e. it is not restricted just to same-sex.
(If this isn't what you are referring to then apologies)
Click to expand...
Well marriage/civil partnership is a different ballgame and involves clearer rights and responsibilities compared to living together "unofficially".
 
I am female, he is male and we were engaged but didn't get married. So the traditional assumptions are correct.... Insert own sexist wise crack or joke re assumed differences between men & women ;-)

On to the mortgage information : Costs 250+vat+ disbursements to transfer name off mortgage and deeds. Each party is entitled to half of the mortgage product if they both want to continue on the same deal. Or if one party is willing to give it up, written conformation needs to be supplied to the bank. 4 - 6 weeks from submitting re-evaluation form and income evidence.

The next decision is whether to stay on the same lifetime tracker and save the early closure fee + a new product fee for a different mortgage. Am on 2.94% above the baseline, so I could stay put and rideout any rise, as long as I have the fees saved if I need to switch to a fixed.
 
Next In Line said:
Costs 250+vat+ disbursements to transfer name off mortgage and deeds. Each party is entitled to half of the mortgage product if they both want to continue on the same deal. Or if one party is willing to give it up, written conformation needs to be supplied to the bank. 4 - 6 weeks from submitting re-evaluation form and income evidence.
Click to expand...
Quite interested in this. So once you do a deal privately with other party you can keep the tracker with same rate? Just have to pay 250 etc. to change details?

And both parties can keep half the mortgage with same rates etc. as another option?
 
Your ex is playing tough. Don't worry for now about him saying he's staying until he gets his money back, there are more ways to skin a cat. But you need to be cool, calm and collected and also willing to compromise to get what you want.

Is there negative equity? Do you want to keep the property? You can force a sale, but if in negative equity you might have a problem as then you have to deal with the bank.

If there is equity and you force a sale, the property will most likely be split according to what each party contributed.
 
BTW, was your use of £ a typo, or are you based in the UK ?
If so, as askaboutmoney is an Irish site, we probably cant help, as people are unlikely to know what the law and legal precient is in the UK for your situation.
 
huskerdu said:
BTW, was your use of £ a typo, or are you based in the UK ?
If so, as askaboutmoney is an Irish site, we probably cant help, as people are unlikely to know what the law and legal precient is in the UK for your situation.
Click to expand...

Or the OP is talking pre 2002 ;)
 
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