Ex partner not paying his bills

zeddy_2

Hi

I hope I have posted this in the correct forum, but I'm not 100% sure it is.

Basically my ex partner and I split up last September. He ended the relationship (turns out it was because he was having an affair and wanted to be with the other woman) and we both walked out of our house.

There was quite a lot of work that needed doing on the property and (because he kept it a secret that he was with this other women) we were on good speaking terms until January. I had done nearly all the work on the house myself and my Dad stepped in to help me in January when it was clear I couldn't cope with it on my own. Consequently I had to spend some money doing the place up.

However, since this other women arrived in March, my ex has now decided not to pay his 1/2 of the bills for our house. I have been having to cover them myself, meaning I am now in debt. As we are jointly named on the mortgage, please can someone tell me what rights I have in getting him to pay up? Also, what rights does he have on the property, any equity in it etc? (My friend told me that you relinquish the rights to the equity if you don't pay the mortgage when you're supposed to).

Luckily the house was let to our tenants last week, so hopefully some rent should start coming in and paying for it.

Needless to say I'm quite annoyed that he has just walked out on his responsibilities and left me to deal not only with the emotional heartbreak of it all, but now a whole lot of financial problems too.

Thank you to anyone who can offer advice or point me in the direction of someone who can help.

ACG

Legally he is required to pay his share of the bills - the lender doesnt care who pays the bill so long as someone does.

You can take your ex to court to force him to pay his share of the mortgage. You can also request half of any bills upto when he left. After he left hes no longer responsible for gas/electric etc as he never used it.

If you have any kids then you can also take him to court or CSA for maintenance payments.

Ignore your friend, hes entitled to half of the house - his name is on the deeds. If you were to sell the property you could probably argue that your entitled to half plus the extra you paid in mortgage payments.
Hes also entitled to half the rent received - although, again i would argue that until any back payments of mortgage he missed out on has been recouped - hes entitled to sod all.