Advice needed...

pixie76

I am going to make an appointment with a solicitor for the week after next but would be grateful if anyone can give me some advice to put my mind at ease a little bit. I have lived in my property for 15 years & bought it from the council three years ago. At the time my husband was reluctant to buy so I got the mortgage based on just my income details but my OH agreed to have his name on it. I have been paying the mortgage & paying for improvements. My OH is basically moving out & I want to keep my house as I got a good discount on the property plus find the monthly payments affordable to make on my own without his help. (I only pay 379.00 per month & would pay much more to rent somewhere. I got the house for 60k & its current value is roughly 100k) Can OH make me put the house on the market or sell it back to the council? Is there any way I could buy him out & take his name off the house as he said he would be agreeable to do this? We have three children 17, 16 & 5 & the thought of having to give the house back to the council or sell it is making my stomach churn. I realise he needs money to make a new start & buy/rent somewhere else but also badly want to stay in my home. My credit rating is not looking too good of late so me getting a mortgage for another property would probably be an impossibility & I do not want to go back to renting.

Uniscots97

If you can prove that its only you that pays the bills and that the mortgage was based on your wage alone and that both you and the children would still reside there then no he can't force you to sell. See a lawyer sharpish and get the lawyer to tell him where to go. He's not paid a penny to it so he has no say.

Seanymph

who had the council tenancy? Was it a joint tenancy? Whose name are the deeds in?

merlin68

I believe you can't sell the property for five years. If you do you have to pay 60% of the discount back.

pixie76

Seanymph wrote: »

who had the council tenancy? Was it a joint tenancy? Whose name are the deeds in?

No the tenancy was in my name all those years. When I got the mortgage I put his name on so I guess his name will be on the deeds.

pixie76

merlin68 wrote: »

I believe you can't sell the property for five years. If you do you have to pay 60% of the discount back.

I know about the five years what worries me is that he will make me hand it back to the council or something.

merlin68

You have to offer it back to the council before you can sell it to anyone else, but I wouldn't have thought he would have got much out of it by the time you pay the discount back anyway.
as you have a five year old the court should allow you to stay in the home till his finished education. He can't make you do anything.

LittleMrsThrifty

pixie76 wrote: »

I am going to make an appointment with a solicitor for the week after next but would be grateful if anyone can give me some advice to put my mind at ease a little bit. I have lived in my property for 15 years & bought it from the council three years ago. At the time my husband was reluctant to buy so I got the mortgage based on just my income details but my OH agreed to have his name on it[/B]. I have been paying the mortgage & paying for improvements. My OH is basically moving out & I want to keep my house as I got a good discount on the property plus find the monthly payments affordable to make on my own without his help. (I only pay 379.00 per month & would pay much more to rent somewhere. I got the house for 60k & its current value is roughly 100k) Can OH make me put the house on the market or sell it back to the council? Is there any way I could buy him out & take his name off the house as he said he would be agreeable to do this? We have three children 17, 16 & 5 & the thought of having to give the house back to the council or sell it is making my stomach churn. I realise he needs money to make a new start & buy/rent somewhere else but also badly want to stay in my home. My credit rating is not looking too good of late so me getting a mortgage for another property would probably be an impossibility & I do not want to go back to renting.

Out of interest, and because it may be relevant - why did you persuade him to go on the mortgage with you and why hadn't he paid any of it?

Poppy9

As he is your husband it's not relevant who actually pays the bills. Not sure how you work out what his "share" of the property is.

Assume you have 60k mortgage if you split now and have repay council a proportion of discount upon sale (say 1/3 and assume discount was 30k so 10k).

Sell 100k, repay mortgage 60k, repay council 10k, selling fees 3k do you are left with 27k split 50/50 = 13.5k so this is the most you should offer your husband to buy him out.

Can you afford this? He will have to pay you maintenance when he moves out so this may fund the extra mortgage you may need.

Seanymph

You may well find you are wrong.

I did exactly this - as it was my tenancy the council would only sell to me - so although my husband ended up on the mortgage, he was never on the deeds because the council wouldn't sell it to him.

He was on the mortgage, but when we got divorced he had no take on the house because he had never been on the deeds - the mortgage company demanded he be on with me because I didn't earn.......... but the council insisted it was only me in the sale details and as the owner.

It's worth checking.

If they haven't the discount was all you - your tenancy, your discount. So he doesn't get that benefit........ a decent solicitor and you will be clear on the house.

Poppy9

Seanymph wrote: »

You may well find you are wrong.

I did exactly this - as it was my tenancy the council would only sell to me - so although my husband ended up on the mortgage, he was never on the deeds because the council wouldn't sell it to him.

He was on the mortgage, but when we got divorced he had no take on the house because he had never been on the deeds - the mortgage company demanded he be on with me because I didn't earn.......... but the council insisted it was only me in the sale details and as the owner.

It's worth checking.

If they haven't the discount was all you - your tenancy, your discount. So he doesn't get that benefit........ a decent solicitor and you will be clear on the house.

That seems very unfair that he was paying the mortgage that enabled you to buy the house but had no claim on it upon splitting up.