Please Help! Advice Needed Please!

Roma.10

Hi there,

I'm not sure if I have posted in the right place but I’m a little confused and would very much appreciate some advice please should you be able to help.

Okay, my partner decided to leave 3 months ago from our equally shared home we had lived in for 20 months. Due to circumstances we can no longer live together and she has temporarily been living with her new friend while we sort out the house.
We have a joint mortgage of approx £160,000 and the house value is around 210,000.

We have always known that our 3 options were to:

1 - See the house and split the equity 50/50.
2 - She buys me out.
3 - I buy her out.

Originally I was happy for her to buy me out with her sizeable offer so I could move on a buy another place. However after applying for 'transfer of ownership' into her sole name she has been declined to take on the full £160,000 unless she pays off the £40,000 of the mortgage - of which she isn't in a position to do. I however am in a position to do this and pay off more.

Obviously in order for me to do this I need her consent as the mortgage is 50/50 and my question is; if she refuses my offer to buy her out (which is more than fair being half of the equity) how do we resolve the situation?

Would it be a last resort option to take court action and resolve it from there?
Understandably this is not a road I would like to go down as the costs would be overly expensive for both parties, but how would the courts likely resolve the matter?
Would they simply look at the financial positions of both parties and decide who is in a stronger position to take on the property - i.e me? Or could they resolve it by saying we simply sell the house and split everything 50/50?

I ask this as I want to be clear of the consequences we both face in stalling this matter any more.

Many thanks for reading and any thoughts/comments would be appreciated.

Roma.10

pcwilkins

Who would take court action against who and on what basis? What would the court action be aiming to achieve?

Peter

Roma.10

Hi Peter,

I suppose i would take court action against her if she refuses my offer and refuses to sell the house spliting everything 50/50...
How else would the matter get resolved if everyone is at a stalemate?

Thanks,

Roma.10

silvercar

what does she want to do? If you can't reach agreement you are both going to waste money on court costs.

Roma.10

She wants to buy me out also but cannot afford this until the end of our fixed mortgage term in October.

I suppose i would just like to know how the courts would settle such a case so i can use this to back up my offer of half the equity to buy her out puting an end to the ordeal so we can both move on.

Not as a threat as such, simply to apply a little pressure and make her think!;)

pinkshoes

I think you should wait til the end of October until she can afford to buy you out, rather than wasting money on solicitor fees and a court case, and put down the conditions that she also pays half the costs of you having to buy a new house (solicitors fees, stamp duty). Get it all in writing, and both sign it. No point being difficult when the situation can be resolved without too much conflict.

UK007BullDog

Sell the property, each get their shares and move on, as that is in effect what you want to do anyway. She cannot come up with the money, with rates going up she might still not be in the position to do it on her own.

It is just not worth the agro and costs, sell it now and by the time the sale has gone through your mortgage should have finished and you can repay it without penalties (if I understood your situation correctly).

You did not say what your separate incomes are. Are you sure you can afford the mortgage on your own and can borrow more? Did you get that information from your present lender?

pcwilkins

Roma.10 wrote: »

Hi Peter,

I suppose i would take court action against her if she refuses my offer and refuses to sell the house spliting everything 50/50...

I may be wrong, but I don't see how a court could order her to sell her property to you (or anyone else) against her will. Could I go to court to get you to sell the house to me for a tenner, please? :-) I don't get it --- perhaps I'm being thick

How else would the matter get resolved if everyone is at a stalemate?

To be honest, that's nobody's concern but yours and hers. If you can't reach an agreement about what to do next, then things just stay as they are now --- why isn't that an option? I don't see how a court could help you, unless I'm missing something.

Peter

hev_2

I know absolutely nothing about housing, but I do know that someone in the OP's position can apply to the court for an order for sale, though I am not sure of procedure or what course it would take once an order has been obtained.

Personally I would not go down this route - you really would need a solicitor, probably charging between £120-£150 per hour and he would charge you for the time he waited at court before the hearing was called in, amongst other things! It will almost certainly exacerbate any bad feelings.

Hope things go well for you. It must be awful stuck without being able to get on with things, but it is amazing how you can cope with difficult situations if you have to.

Hev