Relationship over - Ex wants to buy me out

Arrow

We have a jointly owned shared equity home purchased 3 years ago for £250K. We have now split up and although my ex simply wanted me to disappear and attempted to instigate that with aggression, eventually he realised that the house was half mine and that I wasn't going to leave while it was still 50% mine. Anyway moving on, he finally accepted that we should sell, we got quotes from estate agents that we should be able to sell for £300K and we put it on the market 2 months ago. So far, no offers, and my ex is now in a stronger financial position to buy me out following a promotion. Initially he suggested paying me what I would have ended up with if we sold to a third party i.e. including estate agents fees and solicitors fees in his calculations. I disagreed as there won't be estate agents fees if I'm simply selling (transferring) my half of the loans to him. We have tentatively reached agreement on an asking price of £300K minus 40% to the equity loan people (120K share) and minus the outstanding mortgage of £140K thus him paying me £20K and I will pay my own solicitors fees as I feel we need separate solicitors working on each others behalf. We have discussed dividing our joint contents separately. Yes I am uncomfortable with my ex 'keeping' our home while I have to start from scratch again but putting that aside it is offering us both the opportunity to move on with our lives. I've said I need a few days to think about it but I've now received a very legal sounding letter from my ex requesting a written response as he had already sorted everything his end, solicitor, finance etc and I'm feeling under alot of pressure to go along with it. He has included a proviso that his new lender may not give the house the same value and he has the right to renegotiate our deal. Any ideas/feedback would be really useful. I did get some free advice from a solicitor who basically said if I was happy with the deal to go ahead but my ex has been very manipulative and completly untrustworthy (why we've split) and while I want the whole episode over I don't want to be rushed into a decision that suits someone else. He does make threats about forcing the sale, selling it to someone else for a knock down price or moving out and not contributing to the mortgage. I don't have to respond to someone's legal letter (from him but alot of legal jargon in it) on their deadlines do I? I need time to get advice as the last year has been very very stressful and I can't see the wood for the trees at the moment.

poppysarah

Go and get a half hour freebie from a solicitors.

missile

Sounds liike a great offer from your ex-partner, bite his hand off and move on with your life.

PS: Please use paragraphs. It makes it much easier to read a post.

GotToChange

If you can, I would actually pay your own solicitor to look at the letter and possibly draft (and send?) an appropriate reply giving him some deadlines of your own which will give you time to gather your thoughts and information.
If the house is still in joint names, then he can't actually go through with selling it "for a knock-down price to someone else" and he knows that would be shooting himself in the foot. Equally though, the threat to not contribute to the mortgage could come and haunt you which is of course the downside of it being in joint names.

Arrow

Thanks for those quick replies. And thank you Missile for the paragraph suggestion. First post and I now see how 'unreadable' it looks so thank you for taking the time to both read and reply.

I do feel it's not a bad offer just wary of my ex, there's been alot of bullying and harrassment which makes it very hard to trust someone is not trying to shaft you. I would wait until we get the price we asked for, 2 months is not a long time to be on the market but I see the advantage of at least one of us having a home and the other getting some money out of it.

silvercar

As part of the deal, he should guarantee your removal from the mortgage. If the lender doesn't agree then its a non-starter, but the last thing you want is for him to buy you out of the equity but still be liable for the mortgage.

princeofpounds

You do not want to be stuck in a mortgage that comes with a bad relationship attached. You are lucky in a way that there is an offer to buy you out, as he will be able to get an order for sale (eventually) if he pursues that route, and that will be more protracted and expensive.

You are not starting from scratch - there isn't any more value in that house than the equity and a big bet on property prices.

You need comfort on two things. Number one is the valuation. You have your own sense for this, but if you really need to ask for a valuation opinion from a surveyor.

The next side of things is the process. Your solicitor will look after that for you, so it's time to go get some representation.

Don't worry about the letter, it doesn't mean anything. At the most, reply saying that you are going to appoint a solicitor to consult with on the potential sale.

Just be aware that agreeing a sale is half the battle. The other part is making sure his lender will finance him taking it all on. The tricky part in particular is likely to be when they do their own valuation on the property. The thing to bear in mind is that even if that is lower than you hoped, it's quite possible the down-valuation would happen for any buyer and so it's not necessarily the case that you would get a better price through a third party.

Normally the 'fairest' route is to market the property for a period and treat the offer from the ex as any other offer, with the highest at the end of the period winning. But I doubt he would agree to that and you can't force it without an order for sale.

Arrow

Hello
I thought I would post up again for the wise sages on here while I am waiting for the free legal aid people to call me back. I did get some legal advice last time round but the goalposts have moved again.

Issue no. 1 As suggested the bank's surveyor has come back with a reduced valuation of £13K which is not the end of the world I suppose but I have no idea if that is just one opinion or if I can get other valuations myself etc.

Issue no. 2 The fixed interest rate we have expires end of May so ideally I don't want to transfer before then as it's £4,500 split between us which I would rather have in my pocket than the bank's. Is it appropriate for me to say not at that price til May as every penny is going to count or alternatively offering to leave earlier if he will up his price to meet me half way as I'm prepared to wait but he is just completely impatient.

I have said I need time to get more advice and make sure I am making the best suggestion for me but he says he doesn't trust me (please bear in mind our relationship died due to his ongoing cheating and bullying) and if I don't let him know asap he will do what he has to do to get me out even if we have to sell the property at no profit. I am surely entitled to time to think about this instead of being rushed into an answer 'yesterday'? Even if I agreed it would still take time to get things moving.

So, ho hum the stress continues, I know I need proper legal advice but would love to hear any feedback or experience anyone has in those areas.

Thank you

sonastin

At the end of the day, time is on your side here. The only threat he can carry out with any sort of speed is to stop paying the mortgage. Everything else will either take time or your agreement. Turn a deaf ear to his attempts to rush you and keep progressing at your own speed. Eventually he will realise that he'll get what he wants quicker by doing it with your agreement (or his solicitor will point it out to him at least!).

You can certainly request that he pays your share of the ERC if he insists on completion before May - feel free to turn his impatience against him at any stage of this negotiation...

InkZ

Bear in mind if you wait until May, you have a potential to lose more than the early repayment charge. Who knows what will happen with the market. It 'could' be much harder to get a mortgage then, or it 'could' be much easier... Property prices 'may go up', or they 'may go down'... Add to that you will have all this going on for another 6 months!

Personally I would just be getting rid of ASAP and get it over and done with. Waiting until May is definitely a risk and personally not one that I would take.

His offer sounds great to me. If you have any doubts then get your own valuation but if he showed you the one from the lender, that would be enough for me. If the estate agent valued it at 300k then it's probably worth 285-290. They always value high to get the business.

If it was me I would be pushing to get this a done deal, the housing market is brutal out there at the moment and and you could end up selling for a lot less if at all. Don't forget you also aren't paying agency fees which would be another 3k+.

sonastin

Don't forget about the stamp duty threshold when it comes to selling to others as well - if it is valued at £300k and doesn't generate a quick sale, you'll end up dropping your price into the "drop zone" where people who are looking won't pay more than £250k for the property because of the extra stamp duty they have to pay at prices above that figure.

In a lot of places, property values have gone down over the last 3 years so even if it isn't quite the £300k that you originally agreed an offer above what you originally paid could work out as a very good deal.

At every step, you need to bear in mind the alternative if you don't do what he wants you to do i.e. how likely is it that you'll end up with less money at the end (falling house prices, hardening mortgage market, increased interest rates, etc) if you don't take his lower offer now / agree to pay your share of the fees / etc? It might feel like he is scr*wing you over but try to be objective and think "is this a better deal than I'll 'win' by fighting"? Beware of cutting your nose off just to win one over on him.

But above all, take the time you need to decide whether it is better to accept or fight, don't just cave because he's setting a deadline.