Can you please tell me what makes a contract between 2 people legally binding

H-2007

Hello

My ex-partner and I have just split up after living together for 13 years. He owns the house we are both living in at the moment. He has owned the house for 8 years, prior to that we always rented together.

We are still on good terms and he has decided that he is going to sell the house and after some debts are paid, split the profit with me 50/50. It may be quite soon as he is planning to sell to one of those home buying companies.

He would like to draw up an agreement between us to state this fact and seems to think that if we just lay it all down on paper, sign it and maybe get a couple of witnesses that it will be legally binding (for my peace of mind). I have tried googling it and cannot find any evidence to the contrary…..

I was just wondering if it really is that simple?

Thanks
H

BitterAndTwisted

Yes, it will be legally binding if the language is clear and unambiguous and it's been witnessed. That's the hard part. In your position I would try and dissuade your ex-OH from selling to one of those home-buying companies as they prey upon people who are desperate to sell and give very, very poor valuations as that's their profit-margin. It will be worth both of your whiles to sell in the conventional way if you're not pressed for time to realise the money

H-2007

Thanks Bitterandtwisted.

Unfortunately, time is of the essence. He has accepted a job offer in his home town over 200 miles away and will be moving in about 2 months and I just want to move on because as over-emotional as it sounds I cannot bare to be here anymore so I am looking for somewhere to rent. We need to get it all sorted as quickly as possible.
H

BitterAndTwisted

In that case expect to be offered at least 25% less than the market-value. Once any debts are paid off that might not leave either of you with enough to move on. It's not impossible to sell a property with the vendor hundreds of miles away, you just need a decent agent to market the place and show prospective buyers round. It's not free money I'd be prepared to see going down the drain when I could get more especially when an agent's commission is a couple of percent

shaven-monkey

Have the house valued, tell estate agent to make the asking price 5% lower, gain 19% the capital you would have recieved selling to this house buying company.
It's unlikely that the ex will pay more than half that to rent in his new area and it would give him time to find a place to buy, assuming he plans to buy.

But to answer your question, yes. A document signed and witnessed by all parties to the agreement does constitute a legal contract. You could pay a solicitor between £5 and a lot to be a witness if it would make the thing seem more legal if you like,

Pee

Agreed, it would be valid, but it would be very easy to miss points. I would get someone to read through it to make sure they think it says what you think it says.

You could call a solicitor for a quote - i should think you could get one for between £250 and £400, depending on the level of detail, which might be worth it for the peace of mind.

con_fused

Even cheaper than a solicitors you can get a consent order from https://www.divorceonline.co.uk for £174 I think.

You put in what you want to agree on and I think they re-word it into 'legal speak'.

We are putting our divorce through the at the moment and will be completing a consent order.

sulkisu

What you are describing isn't actually a contract, so it is not enforceable. For a contract to be valid, there has to be something called 'consideration', which in laymans terms means 'something for something'. Both parties need to give something in return. He is promising to give you half of the profits from HIS house if/when he sells, but this makes it a gift which if he later decides not to give it to you, no court will force him to.
If when you moved in with him, you had agreed that you would pay half of the mortgage in return for a share of the profits when the house was sold, this would satisfy the requirement for consideraton.
There are other elements which need to be present to form a valid contract (namely offer and acceptance, meeting of the minds (i.e. you are both thinking about the same thing - so if he owned three houses, you both understood which house he planned to give you the profits from), lawful consideration and performance (i.e. you have done whatever you promised to do). There is a lot of information on the internet, just google 'elements of a valid contract' but make sure that you look at UK responses because the law varies in different countries.