Splitting up and sorting the house.

walkerscrisps

Myself and partner have been together 2 years we have both sold our houses and bought a lovely house mortgage free, he sold his for £70000 and mine for £127000, we used his money for moving, stamp duty and buying stuff for new house and a little towards the cost of the new house, my £127000 all went towards the new house. we have decided to split both names are on the house deeds, how do we decide who gets what, he is saying he wants all of the £70000 is this right or do we get the house valued and i give him back his £70000 or or just split it 50/50, either way i will loose out as i put £127000 and was mortgage free also before i bought this new house with partner, please help.

TTC40

Are you staying in the house?

Do you have a mortgage?

If yes, I would suggest that 'fair' is you get 3 valuations.

From these, identify how much equity is left & split this based on the share you put in i.e. 65/35 in your favour. Of course you then need to agree how to split the stuff you have bought.

There could be many other factors such as whether one of you has contributed more to a mortgage etc. - but you have given limited information so can't advise on this.

If you are selling then again once sold I would split 65/35.

walkerscrisps

hi No we have no mortgage. i would like to stay in the house, but unable to buy him out if he wants the full £70000 what he sold his house for. You say split 65/35 who gets the 65??

yoyoegg

we used his money for moving, stamp duty and buying stuff for new house and a little towards the cost of the new house

NOt sure how £70k was spent this way!

Moving * 2 - £4000
Stamp Duty - £1500 (est)
EA fees * 2 /conveyancing * 3 - £6500

That leaves £58,000 for "buying stuff for new house and a little towards the cost of the new house"!

Although his £70,000 isn't all equity in the house, it was spent in order for you both to purchase the property together.

In the circumstances, breaking up after 2 years I'd say it was reasonable to divide the value of the assets you have now in proportion to the total contribution in acquiring the property, even if that spend was on fees.

Unless there's been a miracle rise in house prices after 2 years, everyone will have to take a haircut.

TTC40

You - as it's based on the % which each of you put in. i.e. you put almost double in what he did so you 'should' get this % out.

That said, without anything legally agreed & signed it's a 50/50 split.

I think you need to put aside that 'his' input was fees & a little towards the house & 'yours' was totally equity. Surely it was going into one pot at the time?

There's also a chance based on the current market that it's worth less than you paid for it - although if the £70k has gone on the house, you may have made some improvements?

What did you pay for the house & what's it likely to be valued at?

keyser666

Think it is obvious who should get the 75%

BitterAndTwisted

It doesn't matter where his £70k actually went, it was pooled with your funds to allow the joint-purchase.

If you didn't have a Deed of Trust drawn up to protect your greater contribution then the starting-position could be 50/50. It certainly would be if he took legal advice.

I suggest that each of you arranges an independent valuation and start negotiations from there. But it could entail selling the property to give him his share back if you're unwilling or unable to raise a mortgage for it.

Don't forget that the costs of selling would have to be taken out of any shares as well.

ruggedtoast

walkerscrisps wrote: »

Myself and partner have been together 2 years we have both sold our houses and bought a lovely house mortgage free, he sold his for £70000 and mine for £127000, we used his money for moving, stamp duty and buying stuff for new house and a little towards the cost of the new house, my £127000 all went towards the new house. we have decided to split both names are on the house deeds, how do we decide who gets what, he is saying he wants all of the £70000 is this right or do we get the house valued and i give him back his £70000 or or just split it 50/50, either way i will loose out as i put £127000 and was mortgage free also before i bought this new house with partner, please help.

Generally with divorces it would be a 50/50 split of marital assets, so if he's willing to only take his £70k back I would say you are doing alright.

Fire_Fox

walkerscrisps wrote: »

Myself and partner have been together 2 years we have both sold our houses and bought a lovely house mortgage free, he sold his for £70000 and mine for £127000, we used his money for moving, stamp duty and buying stuff for new house and a little towards the cost of the new house, my £127000 all went towards the new house. we have decided to split both names are on the house deeds, how do we decide who gets what, he is saying he wants all of the £70000 is this right or do we get the house valued and i give him back his £70000 or or just split it 50/50, either way i will loose out as i put £127000 and was mortgage free also before i bought this new house with partner, please help.

If you own as joint tenants then legally you each get 50/50, you may well lose out if you did not make clear agreements at the start who owned what and what would happen in the event of the relationship breaking down. If you have a Deed of Trust (can protect a percentage or a fixed sum) or own as tenants in common with an unequal split then you go with that. Didn't your solicitor go through any of this when he realised you were putting all the money up for the property itself?

You won't be mortgage free again, a load of money was spent on selling two properties and buying another, and a lot more on furniture and whatnot. Might be best seeking legal advice, preferably not from the solicitor who didn't advise you to be tenants in common/ Deed of Trust.

Trajal

You have a number of positions that you can take here dependant on the value of the current house.

If property value exceeds £140,000 then get a mortgage for £70k, write him a check and count your lucky stars.

If property value is less than £140,000 then get a mortgage for 50%, give him a check for his 50% and be done with it.

Having a 50/50 equity split is very bad if there is an asymmetrical split of the money used to buy the property, but you are where you are.

hazyjo

I bought a house with my ex 2 years ago. We are selling and each taking back the money we put in (me: £137k; him: £28k) and splitting what's left 50/50. I suppose I could have pushed for whatever percentage split on the rest, but I've tried to play it as fair as I can as we both made the joint commitment to buy, sold our homes, and shared the mortgage 50:50).

Any solicitor will tell you you're each entitled to take out what you put in (cos you've owned it less than however many years). You should take advice on the rest, or come to an agreement you're both happy with.

Obviously it depends on what you sell it for...

Jx