Separation rights

Notahappybunny31_2

Hello, I am looking for advice on what I should do next.

Nearly two and a half years ago I split with my partner of seven years. We jointly own a house together, where he still lives. We also have a son together. When I left the house, I moved into rented accommodation and continued to help pay for the council tax, secured loans etc for the jointly owned home for about 4 months, until I financially could no longer afford to. I have tried to remain on good terms with my ex partner for the sake of my son and have let things go on for too long. Last June we can to a spoken agreement that because he has been paying for all the mortgage and secured loans on the house I would sign the house over to him as long as he gave me maintainance for our son, including a lump sum back payment from when I moved out as long as I gave him the time to sort things out with the mortgage company.

I have never actually made a mortgage payment on this house but paid for the utility bills and the cost of running the house, groceries, clothing etc and half of the secured loans on the property.

my ex partner told me that the mortgage company would not let him take the mortgage on, on his own as he does not earn enough money so he now wants me to sign a legal document saying that although I am on the mortgage as a joint owner, I give up any of my rights to this house.

Last week he decided that he was not going to keep to his agreement, as he has seen a solicitor and claims that I am not entitled to anything. He says that if I don't sign the papers he will sell the house and as the house has no equity I will end up owing money.

I am sure that I must be entitled to something, I have now contacted the CSA so that I will get regular maintainance for our son, but they said that I can not claim any back pay.

I am really looking for some helpful advice and realise now that I have been compleat lay nieve about this whole situation and I really can't afford a solicitor

FBaby

You need to provide more details:
-How long ago did you purchase the property?
-Did you contribute to the deposit?
- Was there equity in the property when you moved out?

The most common approach when you separate with a joint property and not married is to consider that you were entitled to entitled to half the equity +/- the deposit depending at the time of the separation. After that, whoever pays the mortgage in entitled to the full equity remaining.

Saying that, it is not a rule, just what is often considered fairest. Officially, you are entitled to half, so he would need to either agree a settlement with you (as he is now) or take you to court to convince a judge why, having not contributed towards the mortgage in anyway, at least since the split, you shouldn't be entitled to 1/2 of the proceed when the house is sold. If he presents his case well and can show you have contributed nothing, it is highly likely that the court would agree with him.

I gather the main issue is whether you should be entitled to a lump sum? It is to be negotiated. You are both right, you in that if there was equity by the time you left, you theoretically should be entitled to 1/2 that equity (assuming no or 50/50 deposit), however, he is right that he could sell the house now and you would get nothing. He's got you in that he hasn't have to give you any lump sum, you've got him in that you don't have to sign anything, and of course, there is csa. If you don't agree and sign anything, he would have to take you to court at some stage if you still can't agree anything and then it is open to the above or whatever else a judge would deem fair.

From an outsider, I would suggest that the fairest deal would be for him to give you a lump sum that represent not a share of the house, but what he should have paid csa (as they will only back date from the time you contacted them), and you sign the agreement on the house.

ecgirl07

FBaby wrote: »

You need to provide more details:
-How long ago did you purchase the property?
-Did you contribute to the deposit?
- Was there equity in the property when you moved out?

to be fair we would also need to know
-how much the debt is?
-whose name the debt is in?
-who has been paying the debt for the last two and half years?

FBaby wrote: »

From an outsider, I would suggest that the fairest deal would be for him to give you a lump sum that represent not a share of the house, but what he should have paid csa (as they will only back date from the time you contacted them), and you sign the agreement on the house.

sounds fair but the ex could argue that half the debt repayment for the period could be subtracted from this amount IF the debts are in joint names.

OP sounds like there is no equity in the house so think on half of nothing is nothing but half of the debt is half of the debt. which is more? because now waking away with nothing sounds better than walking away with owing something and paying a lawyer to confirm you are due nothing and owe would be a sore one!

fluffnutter

Notahappybunny31 wrote: »

I would sign the house over to him as long as he gave me maintainance for our son

As an aside, the two are completely separate. He has a responsibility to provide for his son, regardless of what you do with the house.

pinkshoes

It seems quite simple - you owe more money than you have equity.

The best solution would be to sell the house and take out a loan each to pay off any remaining debt. That way you can both move on with your lives.

As it stands, it would seem he can't afford to pay any maintenance as he's paying the mortgage.

It would be best for everyone to sell up and move on.

FBaby

Indeed, I left out that he was also paying debts. Depending on the amount and whether there were indeed joint debts, I would totally agree that trying to claim what you might have been entitled to if you had gone through this process during the separation, assuming there was equity in the property 2 1/2 years ago (which isn't much likely if there is none now), might not be worth the fight if it is less then half of the debts.