Divorce/Equity/New House

Catangar

Hi All

In August 2010 I found out my husband had been having an affair for 2.5 years, we have a 1 year old and 4 year old.

In September 2010 I moved out as he refused to and we have shared care of our children.

Our house is worth around 270k and we have 86k outstanding on the mortgage so there is a reasonable sum of equity.

I'm living in shared rented accomodation as are my children for 50% of the time.

I've now found a house to buy but cant progress as my husband isnt focused on giving me my equity and now I stand to lose the house of my dreams.

I need to exchange in 8 weeks or I will lose the house, I dont have savings I can borrow to raise the 10% required to exchange as the Vendor would let me rent until I've released my equity if I could exchange.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do as my husband is being deliberately awkward and is not interested in helping me.

I have a solicitor engaged who has threatened court but if we did do that route it takes time which I havent got.

Thanks, Tania

poppysarah

You have all the time in the world.

You can't buy until you have the money too. End of.

Sort the husband out and make him an ex-husband. Court will cost money though.

CloudCuckooLand

Why go looking for houses without knowing the money is at least in the pipeline..?

Time to force the sale. Which will cost time and money.

There are 25 million houses in the UK. The idea that only 1 can fulfill dreams is a very weird idea, to me.

hazyjo

So would you need to sell your house? Are you on the deeds/mortgage? Would your husband have to take out a bigger mortgage to buy you out if he's keeping the house or does he have savings? If you're still on the mortgage, you won't be able to buy something else yet (I don't think!).

If your house is worth around £270k, the chances are it's actually now worth £250k (and maybe an offer below that) because of the stamp duty threshold.

Can't see how you can sort this out within 8 weeks and also agree with CloudCuckooLand above - why go looking? Why's it only 8 weeks? How could anyone have accepted an offer from you if you don't have funds in place? Have you been going through the process to buy it for a while (although I note you say 'just found') and they've put a deadline on it, or is it something you've literally only just found?

You can't borrow money for a deposit so that idea's out the window, I'm afraid.

Not sure of a solution but wanted to point out a few things.

Jx

evoke

Sort your divorce and your old house out first. If it's on a joint mortgage and the couple (i.e. you and your current husband) are splitting up then there is no way in the world it'll fetch £270K. I've viewed many properties over the last few months where the couple are splitting up. The houses have ended up selling for way below what the couple thought.

Given your estimated equity of £184K, i'd suggest you'd be lucky to sell the house for £240K. This would leave around £154K in equity. Split that between both of you and you end up with £77K. Then you got the estate agents fees (say 1.5% + VAT on £240K which is roughly £4K). Split that and you end up with £75K. Factor in £15K to move home (legal fees, removals, lenders fees, stamp duty, etc, etc) and you have a £50K deposit.

Could you get a mortgage with that kind of deposit in your current financial position?

I'd say get a divorce, sell the house, split the proceeds, pay off any fees that need paying and then start looking for a new home.

ukcarper

evoke wrote: »

Sort your divorce and your old house out first. If it's on a joint mortgage and the couple (i.e. you and your current husband) are splitting up then there is no way in the world it'll fetch £270K. I've viewed many properties over the last few months where the couple are splitting up. The houses have ended up selling for way below what the couple thought.

Given your estimated equity of £184K, i'd suggest you'd be lucky to sell the house for £240K. This would leave around £154K in equity. Split that between both of you and you end up with £77K. Then you got the estate agents fees (say 1.5% + VAT on £240K which is roughly £4K). Split that and you end up with £75K. Factor in £15K to move home (legal fees, removals, lenders fees, stamp duty, etc, etc) and you have a £50K deposit.

Could you get a mortgage with that kind of deposit in your current financial position?

I'd say get a divorce, sell the house, split the proceeds, pay off any fees that need paying and then start looking for a new home.

How can you know what the house is worth you don’t know where it is or what it is. But I agree that OP will have to sort it out legally before she can do anything.

justme111

evoke wrote: »

This would leave around £154K in equity. Split that between both of you and you end up with £77K. .

it looks like she would have probably 100 + , do you really think the court will split it 50/50 where children involved - HA !

evoke

Oh yes, I forgot in this non-sexist, politically-correct world, the woman gets everything.

justme111

I was utterly surprised the OP lives in shared accomodation - the court would make the husband to pay for her renting a house with similar life standarts , she could go on a shopping spree , visit spas and do her hair repairing damage caused to her self esteem by a husband in most upmarket places running a debt that her husband will have to pay as well . well, may be not all of it but the overall idea is clear.

WHITEVANMAN

Catangar wrote: »

Hi All

In August 2010 I found out my husband had been having an affair for 2.5 years, we have a 1 year old and 4 year old.

In September 2010 I moved out as he refused to and we have shared care of our children.

Our house is worth around 270k and we have 86k outstanding on the mortgage so there is a reasonable sum of equity.

I'm living in shared rented accomodation as are my children for 50% of the time.

I've now found a house to buy but cant progress as my husband isnt focused on giving me my equity and now I stand to lose the house of my dreams.

I need to exchange in 8 weeks or I will lose the house, I dont have savings I can borrow to raise the 10% required to exchange as the Vendor would let me rent until I've released my equity if I could exchange.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do as my husband is being deliberately awkward and is not interested in helping me.

I have a solicitor engaged who has threatened court but if we did do that route it takes time which I havent got.

Thanks, Tania

Get on with Divorce.
Divorces are a messy business in general, thinking your husband is going to give you anything out of guilt for his affair or because he once loved you would be nieve.
He will hold on to what he has until the courts lay it out in black and white.
Get onto the solicitor and start it now, if you follow justme111's advice expect for it to turn into war and expect that your husband might whittle away any equity anyway he can.

A complex divorce can take a couple of years to be final, or they can be done in 6 months, keep it as civil as you can if you want it to be the quicker option.

The quicker you start, the quicker your options will be made clearer for you.
If you cant raise the deposit and start paying rent in the meantime, im afraid your just going to have to forget this place.

justme111

hey hey, in no way it was an advice!
It was just an observation on how it often happens.