I want to buy my ex husband out of our property

aussielizard

I have a house, joint mortgaged with my ex husband. We split up because of his drug habit and he is currently in financial ruin.
We have mortgage of £77k, I put down £8k as deposit and he has been paying the mortgage while I was paying foods and holidays when we were married.
In total, he had paid in around £ 30k towards the mortgage until he stopped paying last February.
Now he's asking me to buy him out as he needs money.
However I am not sure if I have to pay him the whole amount he has paid into mortgage.
If anyone knows what kind of % he should be getting, please advise me.

P.S. I will deduct a solicitor fee for divorce, the court fee (which he initially told me he'd pay) and £3k overdraft he has made after we split up on our current joint account (which has dragged me into bad credit rate) from whatever he's entitled to receive as "buy-out".

Running_Horse

If there are no children I would imagine it will be a straight 50/50 split, and so it should be. The latter items you mention are not linked to the house, so would surely have to be settled separately?

getmore4less

The lender will not just let you do this you will have to meet the lending criteria.

Whats the house worth?

What do you earn?

aussielizard

We have no children.
As far as the mortgage is concerned, I will put down enough deposit to get a solo mortgage or pay off the outstanding (£77k).
He knows I'm from wealthy family so he is relying on my money to pay him out.
He is happy to stay on current mortgage contract which is due in a year because of this reason (knowing I will never fail to pay the mortgage).
All I want is to remove his name from the deeds so that I can sell or rent or anything I would like to do with the house without his signature.
And all he wants right now is cash.
But as I mentioned in my 1st thread, I am not sure how much I should pay him.
I thought it depends on how much he paid in and nothing to do with the current house value....
Sorry if my questions are not very sofisticated but I'm very new to this kind of thing and I am from Japan so everything happening here is so different and I cannot get my head around.

aussielizard

Running_Horse wrote: »

If there are no children I would imagine it will be a straight 50/50 split, and so it should be. The latter items you mention are not linked to the house, so would surely have to be settled separately?

50/50 of ???
The amount he paid towards the mortgage does not count??
I am so confused...
But thank you for the reply.

gizmo111

I thought it depends on how much he paid in and nothing to do with the current house value....

How much is the house worth for a quick sale?
How much equity is there in the house?
How much deposit did he put in?
These are the things that are used to calculate the split, not how much you paid in mortgage interest.

tek-monkey

If he paid the mortgage while you were married, he's entitled to as much as you surely? OK, so he's stopped now, but that should only mean he loses any difference between when he stopped and now I'd guess, and he could probably argue that he paid more in than you when you were married?

From what I can see it seems a fair split, and you definately can't deduct solicitors fees for the divorce from it! (unless I'm seriously mistaken, but that sounds insane). Any dividing of equity will have to be done through the divorce, along with debts. Why did you keep a joint account after splitting up?

needaspirin

Get a solicitor! There is no fixed way of dividing the share and a judge would look at such cases on an individual basis. Although he has paid the mortgage, you have a beneficial interest because you have contributed in other ways.
Basically you can split the share in any way that is mutually agreeable. This could be 50/50 or any other percentage.
Make sure that the agreement is drawn up by a solicitor though to avoid future problems.

zzzLazyDaisy

Is the house held as joint tenants or tenants in common?

Tenants in common is likely to mean that the money you put in as deposit is protected, whereas joint tenants means that you both own the house equally.

If you don't know, you can find this out from the Land Registry website, it costs about £3 (do go straight to the LR website as there are other websites out there who offer to do the same thing for you, but charge you more).

Assuming the house is just a normal joint tenancy, then the fact that you put the deposit down is irrelevant in law - though he doesn't necessarily know that, and you might still be able to use it as a bargaining chip. Equally, the fact that he paid the mortgage all this time is also irrelevant, as you were both equally liable for the repayments and it really doesn't matter which partner paid (the courts would accept that you made your own contribution to the household)

So the question is, what is his share?

You need to get a valuation. Probably best if you go to three estate agents and ask them to value the house. Tell them you want a realistic valuation.

You could also look on upmystreet.com to see what similar houses in your area have sold for recently.

Having agreed a valuation, you then need to deduct all associated costs - solicitors fees, land registry fees, any fees for re-mortgaging, etc.

The figure that is left is the net equity. He is entitled to half of that (less if he agrees to deduct the deposit if you can appeal to his better nature )

Of course if you are in negative equity, then he is liable for half the debt. But since he wants some money out of this, that probably won't help you.

However, as this is part of a divorce, you really do need to seek legal advice. There may be other factors to take into account that only someone with full knowledge of your particular circumstances can advice you on.

missile

You are not "entitled" to make any deductions for any debt he may have incurred andany future debts he may charge against the property, while you are married and he is joint owner. You are jointly liable, but if he has no cash, the lender(s) will pursue you.

I would pay off the overdraft and close the account.

It is never too early to consult a solicitor. In your case I would do it today!

gizmo111

How long were you married?