Relationship breakdown

StumpyPumpy

Unless you've (daughter) got a Deed of Trust explicitly detailing who paid what and how this affects the ownership of the house, he will own 50% of it and will be entitled to 50% of the profit (or loss) on the sale of the house. You would also have to have stated that the money you gave was for your daughter alone and not to both of them.

This might not be a problem if it is an amicable breakdown, and he might acknowledge the unequal payments, but if things get messy then the only recourse is to the courts who many not agree with your viewpoint and the only people who will profit are the lawyers. Bank statements showing who paid a deposit is not much proof - he could claim he paid half the deposit and it just came out of her account at the time or that he contributed extra to compensate for this during the time in the house.

Your daughter will have to ask herself whether it is worth all the stress and hassle (and uncertain outcome) for the money she would get if he does decide to argue about it.

SP

rpc

You could spin this any way you want, what matters is agreeing.

- They are joint owners, so split it 50:50
- Give everyone the deposit back and split any equity left
- Give everyone deposit and renovation money back and split any equity left
- She gets 75% and he gets 25% because the deposit was invested in equity and the original cash value was not relevant

Take your pick! If it goes legal then he gets nothing, she gets nothing, lawyers get new sports cars.

Excited13

How do they own the house? Did they take it as tenants in common or joint names?

I bought my first house with an ex and put down a much higher deposit that him. When we split originally he accepted that I'd paid more (my deposit figure was 11 times what he put down) and would split accordingly but things got nasty and I ended up having to go 60/40 but my solicitor told me I was lucky to get that.

I would suggest they try and sort as much as possible privately but realistically despite all the money she has put down and you have helped her with it would probably go 50/50 if solicitors get involved.

Lunar_Eclipse

Gigglepig wrote: »

current value
Minus any transaction costs (solicitor, for getting his name off the property?)
Minus 4500 to her and 1500 to him for deposit
Minus 10k to you and 5k to him for paying for and carrying out renovations
= sum to be split in half

I think this is a good starting point, and it (in realistic theory) represents the highest possible settlement for your daughter.

My goal would be value minus (deposit & half your contribution) being split. I think it is only 'fair' that your daughter gets to 'keep' at least half of your investment into the property, whilst recognising that you're happy for him to keep some of this 'gift' too, with the added bonus that this will probably have increased the overall value of the house. (Yes I know potentially he only ends up with 1/4 of it.)

My lowest acceptable offer would be value less deposit being split. I am fairly confident most solicitors would deem this a fair compromise.

StumpyPumpy

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

My lowest acceptable offer would be value less deposit being split. I am fairly confident most solicitors would deem this a fair compromise.

Most solicitors would demand proof of who paid the deposit in the form of a Deed of Trust. If this is in place, I'd agree with you, otherwise if solicitors need to be involved it is going to be a long and costly battle.

SP