Ex wants half the house but hasn't paid anything towards mortgage

clumsymumsy_2

I'm am looking for some advice please regarding my husbands mortgage.
His ex-partner's name is on the mortgage, but she left after 6 months of taking it out and has not contributed towards it for 12 years (we have proof of this). Mortgage company have refused to remove her name but we do have a copy of the letter she wrote saying she wishes to be removed from the deeds. Now suddenly she wants half the house. We are not entitled to legal aid and cannot afford a solicitor.
Is she entitled to demmand this? I have contacted CAB but am loosing my mind waiting for an appointment.
TIA

ACG

She can demand what she likes.

Likewise, your husband could demand half of the payments for the last 12 years.

But you would have to go to court to sort this out if shes not prepared to back down. Best to sort this out sooner rather than later. If something happens to your husband, you could find your out of house and home.

Kirstyb1987

My friend has just been in a similar situation and unfortunetly the court ruled against her and she has had to sell the house and split the profits with her ex partner, however he did have to pay 50% of the costs she has incurred on the mortgage.

Thrugelmir

Be prepared to negotiate. As this should have been resolved years ago.

Did the ex contribute to the original deposit?

dimbo61

Do you have kids ?
Have you both made a will ?
If not see a solicitor this week !
He/ she can also give advice about what if any claim she might have.
We're they married ? Has the property increased a lot in value over the last 12 years.
It is very expensive to try and take this to court to force a sale and No court or judge in the country would make a child/children homeless until they are 18 to repay a 12 year old debt.
You could offer say £1/2000 to get her off the deeds as a starting point. But then she may see big ££££££ and demand £20,000
Has the EX sent a letter from a solicitor or just a call/ text or email?
She may well want to be off the mortgage herself as she cannot get a mortgage until she is.
Speak to CAB or get your Will,s sorted and ask the solicitor then

CKhalvashi

Be prepared to negotiate.

It will probably be 50% of equity minus 50% of payments made by your OH.

CK

clumsymumsy_2

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Be prepared to negotiate. As this should have been resolved years ago.

Did the ex contribute to the original deposit?

Just £2.5k for the deposit and nothing since.

clumsymumsy_2

dimbo61 wrote: »

Do you have kids ?
Have you both made a will ?
If not see a solicitor this week !
He/ she can also give advice about what if any claim she might have.
We're they married ? Has the property increased a lot in value over the last 12 years.
It is very expensive to try and take this to court to force a sale and No court or judge in the country would make a child/children homeless until they are 18 to repay a 12 year old debt.
You could offer say £1/2000 to get her off the deeds as a starting point. But then she may see big ££££££ and demand £20,000
Has the EX sent a letter from a solicitor or just a call/ text or email?
She may well want to be off the mortgage herself as she cannot get a mortgage until she is.
Speak to CAB or get your Will,s sorted and ask the solicitor then

Thank you for your reply. They were not married, have no children together. We are married and have children together. We have been renovating the house and have just increased the value to £100k, mortgage owing on the property is £50k and mortgage payments that have already been made are £40k. We were thinking of offering her £2.5k deposit she contributed and returning half of the 6 months mortgage payments that were made while she was here. She is expecting around £25k, we are offering £3k so chances are we will have to bite the bullet and pay solicitors somehow. She has only demmanded this verbally and we have not received any official demmand. ( we have made an appointment for a will after reading this, thank you)

Annisele

I think you're offering too little, and she's expecting too much - but I'm not an expert in this sort of thing. (But I strongly suspect she isn't actually wanting £25k; she's starting asking for half the equity so she can negotiate down).

In her shoes I'd want some sort of investment return on my money. You could calculate it as something like:

Original purchase price: £60k (or whatever it was)
Her original deposit: £2.5k
So, she paid for about 4.1% of the house - and since it's now worth £100k, she should get at least £4,100.

The figure you get from that may not be a million miles from CKhalvashi's suggestion, depending on the initial purchase price.

Do you know why the ex has suddenly become interested in the house? It might be that she doesn't really want any money at all, she just wants shot of the mortgage liability so she can buy by herself. That's probably much easier to deal with than if she really does want the cash.

Is it an option for you to go on the mortgage in her place (transfer of equity)? In other words, do you and your husband earn enough jointly to be able to take on the whole of the liability without needing her income to support the mortgage?

clumsymumsy_2

Annisele wrote: »

I think you're offering too little, and she's expecting too much - but I'm not an expert in this sort of thing. (But I strongly suspect she isn't actually wanting £25k; she's starting asking for half the equity so she can negotiate down).

In her shoes I'd want some sort of investment return on my money. You could calculate it as something like:

Original purchase price: £60k (or whatever it was)
Her original deposit: £2.5k
So, she paid for about 4.1% of the house - and since it's now worth £100k, she should get at least £4,100.

The figure you get from that may not be a million miles from CKhalvashi's suggestion, depending on the initial purchase price.

Do you know why the ex has suddenly become interested in the house? It might be that she doesn't really want any money at all, she just wants shot of the mortgage liability so she can buy by herself. That's probably much easier to deal with than if she really does want the cash.

Is it an option for you to go on the mortgage in her place (transfer of equity)? In other words, do you and your husband earn enough jointly to be able to take on the whole of the liability without needing her income to support the mortgage?

Thank you for your response. Her sudden interest is due to her children becoming adults and no longer being able to claim for them. We have tried on a number of occasions with her consenting letter to be removed from the mortgage, but the Halifax were not willing to and as my credit rating isn't at it's best, I cannot go on instead. I think what you're offering seems fair, but would have to factor in what has already been paid and what is left to pay on the mortgage, as the original mortgage was an endowment and no account has ever run along side it. This means we have paid £40k towards the mortgage and still owe just under £50k as we only changed the mortgage to re-payments 2 years ago. That would make £90k between what we have paid and what is still owed. On a property of £100k value.

Spirit_2

clumsymumsy wrote: »

as we only changed the mortgage to re-payments 2 years ago.

How did you change the mortgage and keep her on it?