financial settlement

beryldog

Hi
I'm hoping someone out there will be able to give me advice.
I have recently split form my boyfriend of seven years. We had lived together for the past three.
He sold his house and used all the equity to buy a yacht which is in joint names. He lent me £20.000 to clear my debts from my previous marrige and to pay him back I remortgaged and had to put his name on for the further advance. He has always said that the house is mine and he would never touch it. But he has since changed his mind!
The house was valued at the time at £200,000, it is now worth £300,000, the mortgage is £140,000.
I have three children (not his) aged twins of 12 and a ten year old.
Since the remortgage he has never paid the full half of the monthly repayments and I paid ALL the household bills including food.
Does anyone know where I stand legally?

hobo28

Assuming you are joint tenants (and you will be unless you signed a tenants in common agreement) then since his name is on the house, he is legally entitled to a share of the equity as he is a joint owner.

Whether or not he pays the mortgage is none of the bank's concern as long as someone is paying it and has no bearing on who legally owns the property.

I would suggest that unless you can agree an amount then you'll have to go through solicitors and then your just throwing money away on legal fees. Its sometimes better to compromise than feed the legal vultures.

Bear in mind though that technically you also own half his yacht so this should factor into any discussions you have.

hayleyjg

I disagree. I think that you should see a solicitor even if only for one visit just to find out exectely whsat your position is. the law in regard to non married couples is changing all the time so you need to know the latest position. The legal ownership of property is separte from mortgages and although your lender won;t care pays the mortgage, the Courts when deicding in these types of disputes can take account of mortgage payments whne making a final settlement. I agree about the yacht - if it is in joint names, you own half of it. A useful bargaining tool.

pinkshoes

If he'd kept his house and the two of you never met, then he'd have a huge rise in his house price too.

Can't you split the equity in half, then deduct 3 years of half the mortgage payments (i.e. 0.5 Equity - 3years x 12months x £xxx) from his half equity share.

He would also owe you half the value of his yacht.

hobo28

By all means see a solicitor. I didn't mean earlier not to at all. My point was that solicitors charge like £150 per hour sometimes more. A few letters and phone calls to & fro and you'll quickly find it was better to not argue over a couple of grand.