Mortgage advice needed after relationship split

jpmcbrien

Hi all. I'm hoping this is an appropriate forum for these questions.

My partner and I recently split after nine years. At the moment I'm trying to get a grip on what our options are with regard to buying a property. We would both prefer to buy rather than rent and for various reasons my ex wishes to stay living in the current property which I'm happy for her to do.

We bought our first property in 1999 for £59995 and sold it in 2002 for approximately £93000 at which point we purchased the current property for £135000 which is now valued at around £180000.

My ex earns significantly less than I and would need help with paying the mortgage to be able to stay there. I have suggested that I get solicitor's advice and pay an amount (e.g. £200/month) towards her mortgage costs and regard the property as an investment. The problem is that taking my current mortgage/household costs as a guide, this would leave me with approximately £400/month available to pay for a property for myself to live in.

I'm aware that my options my well be limited here and one thing I've considered is that I may be able to get a more expensive property and having a lodger to help with costs. One of the big unanswered questions for me is the amount of equity available to my ex and I, what we can do with it in regard to buying a property after a split, and anything else I may need to know in regard to this situation.

Many thanks,
Jonathan

bridiej

A similar thing happened to me years ago, in the end I just got a "pay off" to cover my part of the mortgage payments made and work done, it was only £2000 but we had only lived together for 2 years.

I'd advise you talk to a solicitor to discuss the options - although you probably want to do this amicably things can easily turn bad and it will be much better if you know exactly what your and her rights are at the beginning.

Hope it all goes well.

StockportGerbil

Hi!
I got divorced 3-4 years ago after being married for 11 years. If you and your ex are still amicable then try and arrange for mediation rather than solicitors, as it'll be less drawn out and less nasty. Ultimately looking at the figures you've given us they don't add up and if that message comes from an independant 3rd party it would be better received.

There's £85000 plus of equity tied up in the house and what you seem to be proposing is to give her your half of that plus some extra on top. Irrespective of fault the most your ex can expect is to be given 60% - 70% of the equity and that's pretty much it. If there's kids involved then 15 - 20% of your income will have to go to support them. After that, in the short term you need to look after number one - sorry, I guess you don't want to hear that....

I'm not bitter about the whole divorce thing (except the solicitors fees, mediation was not acceptable to my ex) and I'm OK financially now, but at the time it was bloomin' scary!

Regards

Kevin