Help - Ex trying to force me out or pay more for her share

gavinh1175

bris wrote: »

A court would look at the whole situation and take all the facts into consideration before forcing you to sell. In your case if you have made a fair offer to buy her out then the court would look favorably at your offer and dismiss the case. Courts only want to force a sale when the other party stubbornly refuse to cooperate and their is no alternative before making someone homeless.
If your offer is fair taking all the shares and valuation into consideration then you have nothing to worry about.

This is what my solicitor told me:

If a marriage comes to an end & the parties to the marriage are unable to agree between themselves how to divide up their joint assets, the Divorce Court will do it for them. The Court will try to be fair & even-handed.

Where an unmarried couple who are joint owners of a property & their relationship comes to an end, the Court has no legal power to do anything other than interpret the terms of the agreement between the parties. Questions of even-handedness & fairness do not come into it.

I have a property with my partner (we are not married). Solicitor advised us to have a "Declaration of Trust" drawn up as it defines your rights.

LannieDuck

I think if it goes to court, her offer to buy you out at £35k is going to go seriously against you.

notrippedoff

Thanks ladies and gentlemen. Well I will sit patiently at the chess board and await her next letter and decide on a course of action from there with my solicitor. I appreciate the comments some of which have made me sit up and think so thanks

bitsandpieces

getmore4less wrote: »

You are clearly saying with your offer(which you say is reasonable) that their offer is excessive.

Yes - I think the question is why, if you think a sub-£30k offer on your part is reasonable, you're not wanting to jump on their offer. Moving house is a pain, but I wouldn't view it as anything like £5k of pain. If you're sentimentally attached to the property, fair enough - if not, though, I'd question why you're not cracking open the bubbly to celebrate the over-generous offer (seriously, I sold my flat at a small loss, for what I think was a reasonable valuation - if someone had offered to overpay by £5k, I'd have been over the moon!)

Anyway, given the amounts of money involved, I'd imagine it's in both of your interests to avoid court. You could each make one another's lives difficult if you can't reach an agreement - but court cases can drain a horrible amount of money and time.

Final question - have you checked that the bank will let either one of you take on the mortgage in your own right?

notrippedoff

bitsandpieces
See your point but I am in a position to ride out the drop in house prices, retain and live in my house which I like and when prices increase I can get out and not have lost anything. My house is perfect for me, I have sunk time, money and effort into getting it how I want only for my ex to try to force me out. I think she secretly hates the thought of me living here now that she has gone.

I think her family know I do not want to sell and are verbally making these offers - not formally - in an effort to push up the offer I make her.

I have checked with bank and have a DIP to have the mortgage on my own. I have funds sitting in savings ready to buy her out.

She earns sub 20k a year and won't be able to mortgage. Only option she would have is her parents acting as guarantor and she would need to rent a room to make monthly bills I'd expect.

getmore4less

If you are so convinced call their bluff and accept the £35k.

Once she works out she can move back in or put a lodger in you might capitulate

bitsandpieces

Fair enough - though if you're in a position to wait for prices to rise (or fall!) I imagine you could also buy another property and enjoy similar gains/losses. £5k will also cover a lot of work making a new property suitable for you - unless the current place really is unique.

I can, though, understand why you'd be keen to stay in a property that you like and that suits you well. However, if you're staying in the property partly because it's convenient then don't underestimate the inconvenience of legal proceedings :eek:

ValHaller

LannieDuck wrote: »

I think if it goes to court, her offer to buy you out at £35k is going to go seriously against you.

I think that the offer would need to be framed in open market terms.

Sell for 212000

Pay off mortgage = 140000
Pay EA 1.5% +VAT = 3820
Solicitor to sell 1100 +VAT = 1320
Call it 145000 to be paid off

Equity remaining 67610 - OP gets 44/85 of this = 35000



OP could match the offer

Sell for 212000

Pay off mortgage = 140000
Pay EA 1.5% +VAT = 3820
Solicitor to sell 1100 +VAT = 1320
Call it 145000 to be paid off

Equity remaining 67610 - ex gets 41/85 of this = 32600

LannieDuck

ValHaller wrote: »

I think that the offer would need to be framed in open market terms.

Sell for 212000

Pay off mortgage = 140000
Pay EA 1.5% +VAT = 3820
Solicitor to sell 1100 +VAT = 1320
Call it 145000 to be paid off

Equity remaining 67610 - OP gets 44/85 of this = 35000



OP could match the offer

Sell for 212000

Pay off mortgage = 140000
Pay EA 1.5% +VAT = 3820
Solicitor to sell 1100 +VAT = 1320
Call it 145000 to be paid off

Equity remaining 67610 - ex gets 41/85 of this = 32600

Agreed, but £32,600 is substantially higher than he's willing to go.

I think the ex has played her hand very well. She knows the OP doesn't want to sell, so she's using her offer to get him to push up his. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of choice left to the OP if she refuses to budge (raise your offer, call her bluff and accept her offer, or prepare for court...) - as said before, if it goes to court I reckon the judge would find that ex has made a reasonable offer and OP is the one being unreasonable (refusing to either sell at £35k, or buy out ex at the equivalent price).

ValHaller

LannieDuck wrote: »

Agreed, but £32,600 is substantially higher than he's willing to go.

I think the ex has played her hand very well. She knows the OP doesn't want to sell, so she's using her offer to get him to push up his. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of choice left to the OP if she refuses to budge (raise your offer, call her bluff and accept her offer, or prepare for court...) - as said before, if it goes to court I reckon the judge would find that ex has made a reasonable offer and OP is the one being unreasonable (refusing to either sell at £35k, or buy out ex at the equivalent price).

I agree with this analysis. Going to court should be avoided.

OP could consider that there is value in not moving (no buying costs, no upheaval) which would make it worth upping his offer if he wishes to assure his peace and quiet.

Otherwise calling the bluff is necessary - accepting ex's offer of £35000 for a clean break from the property - ex will then take a further £7000 hit (difference between RICS valuation of 205000 and notional value of 212000 represented by an offer of 35000) on sale of the property at RICS valuation. This would leave her with equity of just £18000 compared to an offer of perhaps £29000 from OP.

Assuming that the ex's offer is a bluff, I think it would slide off the table if the bluff were called. (Although there is a possibility that ex has reason to believe that a higher value may be realised.)