My money but joint tenants.

michaelangelo50

Advice needed:
I foolishly bought a house with my ex partner and trusting as I am we bought it as Joint Tenants. I put a large amount of money down on the property and he put nothing down - the monthly mortgage payments came direct out of my account.. We decided to make some adjustments to the property which meant we could not live in the house.
He owned his own house so I moved in to his whilst the work was carried out. He paid the mortgage on his property as I was paying the mortgage. Our relationship unfortunately broke down.
I left the his house and found a home to rent on my own. I continue to pay the mortgage payments on the joint mortgage and my own rent. I would like to keep the property we jointly bought but he is demanding I pay him a sum of money for him to sign the property over (not sure if this is blackmail) to me despite not paying in to house initially and now not even helping out with the mortgage payments. I know its my own fault for not protecting my money. He has threatened to take me to court to force a sale on the property so that he can get this money. Can someone please advise me as to where I stand with this. And would court force a sale even though Ive put so much money in and continue to make mortgage payments on my own. I can afford to take the mortgage on alone but am stuck as he is demanding this money and refusing to sign it over to me. He has told me that if court force a sale at auction he will get a friend to buy it on his behalf so I loose my money that I initially put in.

Help needed desperately.

Thanks

oldbaldman

Firstly, you weren't foolish to buy a house with your partner, you were trusting, an admirable quality.

Is the mortgage a joint mortgage in both your names? You post is unclear on this.

What was your relationship? Was there any formality to it, marriage, civil partnership, any sort of written contract?

The issue of a TIC property can be forced to court with a TOLATA hearing, Google it.

How long did you own the property and how much did you and they put in?

It is not a nice position to be in, having been there.

obm

Guest101

Just out of curiosity how much is he asking for?

It's not blackmail. He has an interest in the property, and offering to sell that to you. In theory he's right. But how long were u together and lived there and then at his place?

All this will be taken into account when calculating the amount u owe him.

michaelangelo50

Thanks for your replies.

I put in 35000 and he put in nothing. We bought the house as Joint tenants. Mortgage is in joint names. I sold my house and used the equity from it as the deposit. There was no formality in our relationship. We have owned the house since last April and as i say I have made and continue to make all mortgage payments despite paying my own rent - he has not offered to pay a penny. Since buying the house all the work so far carried out has been paid for by me and again he has contributed nothing. We have never lived in the property as we decided to make alterations to it so lived in his house whilst this was carried out. (as i say I moved out of his when the relationship broke down).
This is where the foolish part comes in I met him in February 2014 and we purchased in april.
i have read somewhere about Equitable accounting but not sure whether it would stand in this case and not really sure of what it all means.

michaelangelo50

Also he is asking for 17500

Guest101

I think u should get ur initial stake back - if the house has gained or maintained value. But any profit is likely split.

But ultimately I'm not a judge on the case. If you want to keep the house. Have it valued and pay him half of any profit it's made.

Guest101

michaelangelo50 wrote: »

Also he is asking for 17500

Has the house gained 35000 in value. If not then hahahaha, Goodluck to him.

No judge will award him that. If this was a divorce he's not get that, so I just can't see it.

trevormax

If you were the vindictive type, you could point out to him that as a jointly named person on the mortgage, his credit history could be messed up pretty easily if mortgage payments were to stop being paid.

Alas, this would also affect your credit history and would also cost you money. Still, it could be a useful thing to suggest when trying to get him to agree to remove his name from the property.

In the meantime, gather whatever evidence you can to show that the money used for the deposit, the money used for improvements and the mortgage payments all came from your own pocket/purse.

michaelangelo50

Thanks
I have told said I am struggling to pay both my rent and the mortgage and I may soon have to stop paying. He came back with "I'll take on the mortgage" so again i would be left being owed money from the property. Unfortunately because the work being carried out is quite extensive it is currently in negative equity - its laughable really that he thinks he is entitled to this amount of money when there is currently no equity. I have the money to do the works on the property but I am worried that he will demand more and more each time the value increases. It beggers belief that someone can put nothing in initially, add no value to the house with renovation work and expects to walk away with a profit??

trevormax wrote: »

If you were the vindictive type, you could point out to him that as a jointly named person on the mortgage, his credit history could be messed up pretty easily if mortgage payments were to stop being paid.

Alas, this would also affect your credit history and would also cost you money. Still, it could be a useful thing to suggest when trying to get him to agree to remove his name from the property.

In the meantime, gather whatever evidence you can to show that the money used for the deposit, the money used for improvements and the mortgage payments all came from your own pocket/purse.

michaelangelo50

Thanks for your reply

I put in 35000 and he put in nothing. We bought the house as Joint tenants. Mortgage is in joint names. I sold my house and used the equity from it as the deposit. There was no formality in our relationship. We have owned the house since last April and as i say I have made and continue to make all mortgage payments despite paying my own rent - he has not offered to pay a penny. Since buying the house all the work so far carried out has been paid for by me and again he has contributed nothing. We have never lived in the property as we decided to make alterations to it so lived in his house whilst this was carried out. (as i say I moved out of his when the relationship broke down).
This is where the foolish part comes in I met him in February 2014 and we purchased in april.
i have read somewhere about Equitable accounting but not sure whether it would stand in this case and not really sure of what it all means.

oldbaldman wrote: »

Firstly, you weren't foolish to buy a house with your partner, you were trusting, an admirable quality.

Is the mortgage a joint mortgage in both your names? You post is unclear on this.

What was your relationship? Was there any formality to it, marriage, civil partnership, any sort of written contract?

The issue of a TIC property can be forced to court with a TOLATA hearing, Google it.

How long did you own the property and how much did you and they put in?

It is not a nice position to be in, having been there.

obm

Kynthia

Currently you both own all of the property and you are both named on the debt tied to it (mortgage). You weren't married so there's no divorce court to rule on the division of assets. I won't go into the foolishness and terrible financial planning involved in buying a property jointly with someone you aren't married to or at least getting a Deed of Trust drawn up as you know this now, and you do have my sympathy as being naive and not protecting your money doesn't make you a bad person. He on the other hand sounds like a true prince trying to get thousands from you when he put no money into the property and already has his own.

Unfortunately I don't have any experience to offer you. You need to get him off the deeds and mortgage at some point, probably the sooner the better incase the property increases in value and he then increases his demands. Firstly check whether you can qualify for a mortgage on your own of sufficient value either with the current lender or someone else, as you cant remove his name without this and selling will be your main option. Unfortunately you can't remove him without his agreement and he won't do this without a payout. He wants the property sold or his name removed for a lump sum, and he can't force you to do this without going to court and getting a judge to order a sale. So my second action would be to gather all of the evidence that shows how long you were together, that you paid the deposit from your house sale, that you paid the mortgage, that you paid all the buying costs and bills, that he wasn't transferring money into your account every month, and evidence that he owns his own property (land registry). Then I would see a solicitor for advice and do research on similar cases and see how judges tend to rule in these cases. It might then be worth a solicitors letter to scare him off or to then begin more realistic negotiations for what amount it will take to get him to remove his name.