How much of the house is he entitled to?

choppedminx

26 years ago my father-in-law(divorced) agreed to purchase a house with his son to enable them to get on to the property ladder.
They purchased the house at approx £64,000, each having an equal £32K endowment mortgage.
Approx 5 years ago father-in-law settled his £32K mortgage as he had made extra payments to the endowment.
My brother-in-law and his wife are now trying to buy him out, and have said that he is only entitled to 1/3 of the property value (approx £180K) as the deeds have my father-in-law, my brother-in-law and his wifes name on them, even though he has paid half.
What are the legalities of this? Is he entitled to half or only a third?

duchy

Three owners makes for a three way split -not sure if the wife is the divorced wife of the FIL or the wife (divorced or not) of the son-but if their name is on the deeds then they are there for a reason and the reason was presumably that they have a financial interest in the house

dimbo61

He paid for 50% of the purchase price and should get 50% of the sale price.
Another for the Legal people to make a great deal of money.
brother-in-law and his wife are being an !!!

regprentice

There is no absolute 'right' split.

They need to come to an amicable agreement. Both a 33% or 50% split could be seen as reasonable in the circumstances. Really they should have agreed this when they entered into the arrangement in the first place.

Neither party can get the other party off the mortgage without the others consent. If they cannot come to an agreement then things will stay as they are - bear in mind that BiL will not be able to sell the property in the future until this is resolved. Only FiL knows how he feels about it and ultimately its up to him... he could sign over the deeds to them for nothing if he wanted to...

Personally i would say 50% of the current market value is appropriate unless significant expenditure has been made by the others (an extension etc)

stator

If they agreed to pay for half the house then they own half the house, unless they have a written agreement to the contrary

Mojisola

choppedminx wrote: »

My brother-in-law and his wife are now trying to buy him out, and have said that he is only entitled to 1/3 of the property value (approx £180K) as the deeds have my father-in-law, my brother-in-law and his wifes name on them, even though he has paid half.

Are all three 'joint tenants' or 'tenants in common'?

choppedminx

Not sure what you mean by 'joint tenants' or 'tenants in common'?

Mojisola

choppedminx wrote: »

Not sure what you mean by 'joint tenants' or 'tenants in common'?

There are two ways to own a house - as joint tenants whereby all the owners own all the house or as tenants in common when the owners own specific percentages of the house.

I can't imagine your FIL paying for half the house if the ownership was split into thirds.

Also, he doesn't have to be 'bought out' if he doesn't like the price.

choppedminx

I guess it is time to see a solicitor ...
And to add insult to injury BIL is now 'requesting' "his" inheritance early so he only has to find £30k!!

choppedminx

Mojisola wrote: »

There are two ways to own a house - as joint tenants whereby all the owners own all the house or as tenants in common when the owners own specific percentages of the house.

I can't imagine your FIL paying for half the house if the ownership was split into thirds.

Also, he doesn't have to be 'bought out' if he doesn't like the price.

How can we find this out?

getmore4less

Bit unusual to have two separate mortgages.