Resolving share of 50/50 owned home

carohf

Many thanks again to all the thoughts and advice you have all offered.

I've put all the options to my brother and he has declined all of them. For me, sadly, I have no other option than to walk away from my share of the investment.

A very expensive lesson in not having made a contract prior to purchase.

Other sibling/friends house purchasers be warned!

Kynthia

When your brother tries to sell one day in the future you should be able to do something to halt this and ask for your share of the equity. I hope it works out for you.

xylophone

Do you own the house as tenants-in common?
If not, this can easily be remedied. http://tenants-in-common.co.uk/tenants_in_common_information.asp

BigAunty

carohf wrote: »

Many thanks again to all the thoughts and advice you have all offered.

I've put all the options to my brother and he has declined all of them. For me, sadly, I have no other option than to walk away from my share of the investment.

A very expensive lesson in not having made a contract prior to purchase.

Other sibling/friends house purchasers be warned!

I imagine you've done this to keep the peace in the family and would rather an expensive mistake than a relationship breakdown.

However, you can force the sale through the courts though this is presumably going to be expensive and risky. You could have a chat with a solicitor about that.

You've basically found that your brother has no incentive to sell or buy you out nor take a lodger as a means to paying you back as he's rather comfortable as he is, thanks to your initial investment and limited options.

Note that you have the right to take up occupancy whenever you wish.

You will also find that if you need means tested benefits in the future that any capital you have in the property in terms of equity will jeapordise this.

You will struggle to get another mortgage with this one. Also, if your brother gets into mortgage arrears, the mortgage company is very likely to chase you for payment because of your liability.

ticktack_2

carohf wrote: »

I've put all the options to my brother and he has declined all of them. For me, sadly, I have no other option than to walk away from my share of the investment.

OP, you have my sympathy. Difficult situation. Have you discussed the problem with your family? Is there a chance they might want to help, perhaps by helping your brother to see what a difficult position you're in?

If not, then it seems that your equity in the property is now a liability rather than an asset. It affects your ability to buy another home, and it also affects your eligibility for benefits, should you at some point need to apply.

Would it be worth considering gifting your share of the property to your parents? You would then at least be free of the mortgage liability, and your brother could continue to occupy the property. Your parents would be subsidizing him, by allowing him full use of the property he only half owns, but at least it's more appropriate for parents to subsidize their son, than for a sister to be forced to do so against her will. You would still be making a big loss, but it seems that's inevitable.

carohf

Many thanks again everyone for your responses which have all been very helpful.

I followed forum advice on seeking a legal perspective from my solicitor who basically said the same as all of you.

I'm considering gifting the money to my parents and placing them on the mortgage if the mortgage lender will allow this. Problem might be they are retired and so don't have an income apart from pension.

Other than that I'm pretty much out of options without causing major family conflict which I don't want. Just leaves me with the short straw as they say and rather wishing I had never bought a place with my brother. C'est la vie.

carohf

One point the solicitor made was even if I had made a contract with my brother on selling the property he could still have objected to a sale regardless so a contract wouldn't have made much difference.