transfer of equity

Jenny139

My partner owns a house with his ex. She moved out of the property years ago and has not contributed since, nor did she contribute to the initial deposit when the property was bought - and a little while after leaving requested that my partner have the house transferred into his sole name. After years of time wasting, (presumably hoping to allow enough time to pass for my partner to do up the property and house values to rise), she is now refusing to sign the transfer papers to remove her from the mortgage/deeds unless he pays her 50% of the equity. Which of course is her legal right due to their joint mortgage, but also largely unfair.

He therefore had three valuations carried out on the property at her request, two of which were estate agents she specifically requested be used. The valuations show that there is no/negative equity in the property. So i.e. 50% of nothing is nothing. On this basis he asked her to confirm whether she will sign the papers and finally walk away (he has repeatedly offered to cover the solicitors costs for the transfer), otherwise he would apply to Court to have her removed.

Semmingly unsatisfied with this, she stated that she will be applying to the Court to force sale, and has decided she wants "her own" further valuations done. ?!

Please can someone advise the way forward on this? Is my partner in a good position to apply to Court to have her removed with an order for her to pay his legal costs in light of there being no financial reason for her to remain on the mortgage/deeds and her unnecessary behaviour preventing matters being settled out of Court?

Or, if she went ahead and applied for forced sale of the property, would the Court simply remove her name from the mortgage/deeds in light of the absence of any equity and the fact a sale would leave them both in debt - and, again, that it couldn't have been settled out of Court?

Any advice would be hugely welcome!

Thanks

AskMeAnother

Ok, not my area of expertise but I have come across similar situations.

The sale of the property would not benefit her at all if there is no equity.

She has been offered to be released from the property at no cost.

Even in law common sense can sometimes prevail so you may be ok here. Better to seek legal advice from a professional in that area IMO.

In the case that I was aware of, there ended up being a court order against the woman refusing to sign basically saying she had no choice. The property was then signed over to her ex and everyone moved on.

Would defo like to hear anyone else's views on this, and indeed how it turns out.

kingstreet

I'd stop messing about with valuations by estate agents. They are about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Pay the £20 for a proper valuation from HomeTrack, or better still get a valuation by a chartered surveyor, explaining it's for matrimonial purposes.

Cost will be in the region of £100.

Send copies of the valuation and the mortgage statement to the former spouse and her solicitor and hope her solicitor talks her into a more sensible approach.

Thrugelmir

Going to court will cost both parties a large sum of money. Unless your ex wishes to force a sale of the property. A judge will probably throw you out of court for wasting time. Courts don't rule on domestic disputes.

So suggest that a sum of money is offered as a buy out sweetner. The ex holds the cards.

One question though. If the ex left years ago. Why is there no equity in the property?

Jessikita1983

kingstreet wrote: »

I'd stop messing about with valuations by estate agents. They are about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Pay the £20 for a proper valuation from HomeTrack, or better still get a valuation by a chartered surveyor, explaining it's for matrimonial purposes.

Cost will be in the region of £100.

Send copies of the valuation and the mortgage statement to the former spouse and her solicitor and hope her solicitor talks her into a more sensible approach.

Sorry to hijack your thread. What is a "hometrack" report? I think I get the gist, but could you clarify? Do they have to come and look or is done online?

AskMeAnother

Jessikita1983 wrote: »

Sorry to hijack your thread. What is a "hometrack" report? I think I get the gist, but could you clarify? Do they have to come and look or is done online?

Hometrack is a company that provide valuations based on Land Registry information. It's actually not that reliable IMO as the info they use is at least 3 months out of date.

Some surveyors also register their valuations with Hometrack, but not many so not really that useful.

I think you will find that most Independent Estate Agents will give you an accurate valuation if you tell them the reasoning behind it. (No I am not an estate agent ) The big corporate guys maybe not so much as they really don't seem to care what is going on.

One thing I do know is that when surveyors acting on behalf of mortgage companies are not sure on valuations, they ask estate agents! So if they are going to rely on it, I'm sure we can

Jessikita1983

AskMeAnother wrote: »

Hometrack is a company that provide valuations based on Land Registry information. It's actually not that reliable IMO as the info they use is at least 3 months out of date.

Some surveyors also register their valuations with Hometrack, but not many so not really that useful.

I think you will find that most Independent Estate Agents will give you an accurate valuation if you tell them the reasoning behind it. (No I am not an estate agent ) The big corporate guys maybe not so much as they really don't seem to care what is going on.

One thing I do know is that when surveyors acting on behalf of mortgage companies are not sure on valuations, they ask estate agents! So if they are going to rely on it, I'm sure we can

Thank you. Unfortunately despite your help I just could not resist getting one (not very good I suppose £20 down the drain lol.) It was quite interesting!

AskMeAnother

well, it won't be far wrong and may make some interesting bedtime reading

But you can find out all the info yourself if you really try hard

Jessikita1983

AskMeAnother wrote: »

well, it won't be far wrong and may make some interesting bedtime reading

But you can find out all the info yourself if you really try hard

I recently re-mortgage to a 90% LTV rate with HSBC and was worried I was going to be turned down, as I thought they may say my house wasn't worth as much as I wanted to move me onto this much better rate.

When the surveyor for HSBC came round I tried to do some digging and get him to put a price on it, so I could work out when I hit a next LTV mark so I could keep moving to better rates, but he wasn't giving anything away, the best I could get was "I can't see any problem with what you are asking for".

I told HSBC my house was worth £92k (I think £85k on a good day) but hey ho they were ok with that.

I have since swapped to an 85% LTV rate after overpaying loads, I'm about six months away from hitting 80% LTV!

Jenny139

Thanks all for your replies, extremely useful!

To answer the question of why there's no equity - the property was in negative equity at the time she left, due to the drop in house market at the time and the fact it was still a bit of a shell that needed work doing to it to make it at least livable in. My partner has done his best in the last few years with DIY, a lick of paint, carpets etc on his limited budget, but there hasn't been much improvement to the house values in that particular area unfortunately in that time - plus the type of property it is and building materials used gives it a ceiling price etc etc.

I think this is what she is finding difficult to accept, that there is simply no money to give her. She's not being diddled out of millions here. But she can't seem to move on.

In light of the fact there is no financial sum to fight over here, would it be doable to submit the Court form himself without having to instruct a solicitor?