Maintenance payments and mortgage payments

Itsallgonepearshaped

Hi. I split up with my ex nearly 5 years ago. For the first 2 years I worked as a health care assistant which didn't pay very much so I could only contribute around £200 per month. I then managed to get myself a much higher paying job so for the last 3 years I have been giving her £1500 per month. She has now moved in with her boyfriend but our children don't want to move in with them so I am going to move back into the family house with them until my youngest is 18 in 2_years time when we will either sell the house or one of us will buy the other out. She is now arguing that I only paid maintenance and didn't give her anything towards the mortgage after we split up so she should have a bigger share of any proceeds from the house sale. I paid the mortgage for the 10 years we were together. I assumed that the maintenance payments would count as a contribution to the mortgage (especially for the last 3 years where its been the higher amount as this would have covered the whole mortgage plus all the bills and left a few hundred pounds over every month). Does anyone know if she has a valid argument ? Thanks

Person_one

We're you married or did you have any legal documents drawn up when you bought the house detailing how it would be divided if you split up?

You might get better advice on the housing part of the forum, but if you do post there, include the answers to those questions!

duchy

Might be useful to calculate CSA payments to see if you were paying a fair amount or much more as you appear to think.

FBaby

I am assuming the payments were not made via csa but private arrangements? If that is the case, it is going to be a difficult case, especially if you were not married and the house was registered as joint tenants rather than tenants in common.

To start with will go to your advantage as it will assume a 50/50 share (unless you are tenants in common). However, she can then make a case in her direction if she can show that she did pay the whole mortgage for the years you were not together. You will be able to do the same for the years you paid it all, however, you would have to prove that she contributed nothing towards it at all, which might be difficult because she might make a point that she contributed in a different way, ie. not financially but being the children main carer.

Your best chance would be if you can show that the payments you've made included mortgage payments, ie. direct debits stating maintenance and mortgage, or at least some kind of written communication to her that this was what it was intended to, ideally with clear separation of which amount was for maintenance and which towards the mortgage.