Yet another potential breakup thread

Rosie1970

I hope someone can give me some advice on my current situation. A bit of a long story....
With a lot of help from a mortgage broker I managed to buy my house about 7 years ago, my partner was not able to go onto the mortgage as he had just started a new job and was still on a 6 month probationary period so the house was in my name, he contributed about 5k to the deposit i contributed about 2.5k and we paid half the monthly mortgage each. About 3 years ago the relationship went through a really bad patch, i thought something was up as i had a look on his computer, on msn messenger was a females name, i challenged him on it he denied everything saying it was a work colleague, work related chat blah blah, anyway all this resulted in us breaking up and him going off with his "work colleague" but still living in the same house. It was 3 months of complete hell for me, i dropped three stone and was very unwell, he wanted his money from the house and basically was going through the process of forcing me to sell so he could get his deposit money and half the value of the house. Due to a past bad relationship (do I attract them or what?? LOL) I had been left in major debt and although i have spent years trying to sort out and pay off the debts I now have such a bad credit history that getting a mortgage on my own would be nigh on impossible. Anyway right at that time I had a major family tragedy (murder) and somehow or other we ended up back together. Since then I have started a new career which is going very well and have a pretty good income. We remortgaged the house so that we could get some badly needed repairs done, and got a joint mortgage this time, with either joint tennants or tennants in common??? cant find the paperwork at the moment to figure out which. Well things seem to be starting to go down the pan again, this time I want to know where i stand before it all goes off because i know i will not be in any shape to find this stuff out if/when it does. How easy, time and money wise, will it be for him to force me to sell the house if I refuse to sign the paperwork? Is it possible for one person to basically hand over their share of a house and the mortgage to another and walking away without money changing hands? The facts are that if this does happen i will basically be out on my ear, my credit history is awful although i havnt had an overdraft, credit card or missed payment on anything for about 4 years now, i would not be able to get a mortgage on my own, or borrow enough money to buy his share. The remortgage wiped out most of the equity so I wouldnt walk away with a lot anyway. Renting is out as i have 5 dogs. . Sorry to ramble but I am just trying to get all this straight in my head before the &*^% hits the fan.
Thanks in advance
Rosie

oystercatcher

Firstly a big hug for you Rosie , in a horrible situation .
I really think you need to get some legal advice. You certainly wouldn't be able to change property details without a solicitor, and they would be able to advise you of where you stand etc etc.

Good luck

Oyster

Debt_Free_Chick

Rosie1970 wrote: »

We remortgaged the house so that we could get some badly needed repairs done, and got a joint mortgage this time, with either joint tennants or tennants in common??? cant find the paperwork at the moment to figure out which.

You need to find this or buy/download your title from the Land Registry. It could be straightforward - you might have bought as TIC with the shares that you each own clearly stated e.g 45%/55% or whatever. Or, you might hold it as joint tenants - in which case, the starting point is that you own the property 50/50 and if either one of you thinks you own more than half, you then need to gather the evidence that you have contributed more than the other.

How easy, time and money wise, will it be for him to force me to sell the house if I refuse to sign the paperwork?

He cannot force you to sell the house - you own it jointly. However, if the house is not sold, then you need to think of two things. The cost of living there alone, on your income only. And .... if he is owed any equity, how you are going to pay that to him, if you want to remain the home.

Is it possible for one person to basically hand over their share of a house and the mortgage to another and walking away without money changing hands?

Not really. If there is equity in the property then he is owed his share. You would effectively have to buy the house from him and get a new mortgage, alone, for the amount of the current mortgage (settlement figure) PLUS the amount he is owed.

The facts are that if this does happen i will basically be out on my ear, my credit history is awful although i havnt had an overdraft, credit card or missed payment on anything for about 4 years now, i would not be able to get a mortgage on my own, or borrow enough money to buy his share. The remortgage wiped out most of the equity so I wouldnt walk away with a lot anyway.

If there is little equity, then he is also owed little.

Renting is out as i have 5 dogs.

Whilst the dogs will make renting very, very difficult, it's not entirely out of the question. I sympathise, though - whilst not holding out much hope. I find it difficult to rent with three dogs!

But if you know you can't finance the house alone, you need to think of selling. You should sell this property and look at what options you have to buy a cheaper property. A mortgage is not out of the question, even with a poor credit history - after all, the last four years look good. But you must be realistic about what you can afford and start to look at what's available to you.

Your priorities are ... establish how the property is owned; value the current property and determine how the equity is split; find out what you could borrow, alone; have a look at suitable properties.

HTH

Rosie1970

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I have had a quick look using online mortgage calculators and the most I could borrow (not taking into account bad history etc) is 85k, not enough to buy anything in this area and I can't move away from here because of my job. He earns 35k and has a good credit history so will have no trouble getting another place, i feel sick just thinking about it all.

vaio

How much is the house worth? How big is the mortgage?

Rosie1970

the mortgage is for 84k and the property was valued two years ago at 125k, I have managed to find the mortgage paperwork but no sign of whether it is joint tenants or tennants in common, I know we filled in a form and am sure i would only have signed for a 50/50 although this was all done not long after the murder and that year is a complete blur. I am only just coming out of the fog now.

Debt_Free_Chick

Rosie1970 wrote: »

the mortgage is for 84k and the property was valued two years ago at 125k

You need a current valuation ...... £110k??? Ask 3 local EAs to come and value the property and post the results here.

I have managed to find the mortgage paperwork but no sign of whether it is joint tenants or tennants in common, I know we filled in a form and am sure i would only have signed for a 50/50 although this was all done not long after the murder and that year is a complete blur. I am only just coming out of the fog now.

Put your postcode into the Land Registry, select your property and then pay £3 by debit card to download the title deed. Post what it says here

completelyspent

Rosie, just want to send you big hugs. I haven't got any decent advice on this but I hope things will work themselves out for you.

Rosie1970

<<<Put your postcode into the Land Registry, select your property and then pay £3 by debit card to download the title deed. Post what it says here >>>

It is giving me two options, title register and title plan??? Getting EA's round without him finding out will be difficult.
Thanks for the advice and support everyone:D

Debt_Free_Chick

Rosie1970 wrote: »

<<<Put your postcode into the Land Registry, select your property and then pay £3 by debit card to download the title deed. Post what it says here >>>

It is giving me two options, title register and title plan??? Getting EA's round without him finding out will be difficult.
Thanks for the advice and support everyone:D

Title register is the important one as this will show how the property is owned. The title plan is the map which shows the boundary of the plot - not important for your situation.

EAs ... you need to get them to visit when he's not around. They'll be in & out within 30 mins

Rosie1970

Right I have bought the title and all it says on there is the purchase price in 2001 - 73k and my name and his name as the owners, the lenders name and a lot of whittering about covenants etc