Spitting feathers

chappers

I am just in the process of my business partner buying out my half of a property we jointly own.
Today I explained to him that he would have to pay SDLT and he came back to me saying we should split it down the middle, I nearly spat my tea out in amazement.
I already cut him a fairly decent deal with a valuation below the lowest of three estate agents fees and that of a professional surveyor.
I have already agreed to split the legal costs of £500+VAT plus disbursements down the middle, despite the solicitor saying that only about half of that related to the transfer of equity and the rest was related to his mortgage.
Then on top of that he has been living in the property rent free, current market rate approximately £1000pcm, for the last 3 years in exchange for maintaining the property, which as far as I am aware has amounted to some new bargeboards and guttering which was split with the owner of the other half of the building, our half was maybe £500 tops.
Only a couple of months ago by pure chance, I found out he hadn't even insured the property.
I just couldn't get through to him and ended up saying, in that case we'll just put it on the market and walked away.
I don't want to fall out over this as we are good friends, but I was left speechless.

Anyone feel I am being unreasonable.

moneyistooshorttomention

It says all you need to know about him that he "hadn't even insured the property". Hell-O - half that uninsured property risk was yours:eek:

Personally - I would work out a table of what he had put in/what I had put in/etc and then tell him the price he would be paying was the average valuation (ie not a particularly cheap one).

BTW - put in that table just how much rent he would have had to pay to live there (at the market rate). That definitely needs factoring in.

Far from being unreasonable - it looks to me like he's getting away with blue murder.

csgohan4

Sounds like you need a new friend and a new business partner

theartfullodger

chappers wrote: »

..... Only a couple of months ago by pure chance, I found out he hadn't even insured the property......

Any property owner who fails to check insurance is in place etc etc etc (all the other things you need) needs to examine their own failings, not the perceived failings of others...

Cheers!

G_M

Agree to split the SDLT 50/50 provided he agrees to pay the local market rent for the last 3 years also split 50/50.

NewShadow

Personally, If you want to remain friends... Put it on the open market.

chappers

moneyistooshorttomention wrote:

It says all you need to know about him that he "hadn't even insured the property". Hell-O - half that uninsured property risk was yours:eek:

Personally - I would work out a table of what he had put in/what I had put in/etc and then tell him the price he would be paying was the average valuation (ie not a particularly cheap one).

BTW - put in that table just how much rent he would have had to pay to live there (at the market rate). That definitely needs factoring in.

Far from being unreasonable - it looks to me like he's getting away with blue murder.

We did do that and to be honest I'm not that bothered about the rent(maybe stupidly) but was just so taken aback.

theartfullodger wrote: »

Any property owner who fails to check insurance is in place etc etc etc (all the other things you need) needs to examine their own failings, not the perceived failings of others...

Cheers!

I fully realise that and should have been more vigilant and on the insurance front we have got lucky, but to be fair when he moved in I was very specific about insuring the property as I had cancelled the empty property insurance we had in place and never for a moment thought he wouldn't insure the place.

Maybe the fact that I always took care of the paperwork side of everything we did should have been an indication

G_M wrote: »

Agree to split the SDLT 50/50 provided he agrees to pay the local market rent for the last 3 years also split 50/50.

Well I suppose that's my point, I think I have been more than fair and my only complaint I suppose is the selfishness about the SDLT, everything else was negotiated so got no complaints on that front.

NewShadow wrote: »

Personally, If you want to remain friends... Put it on the open market.

I don't think we need to go that far and to the expense, we will remain friends I'm sure as we have been friends since long before we had any business ties. But in all fairness that was what we decided to do when we went in together, it's just been complicated by the fact he wants to remain in the property.

Thanks for all the relies, guys, I suppose I was just venting.
We have always negotiated our business dealings in a fairly informal way and always come to a fair agreement, I suppose a different side of people comes out when the splitting of large sums of money are involved.

Maybe the signs were there, for the last couple of months I got the impression he thought I was getting the best part of the deal, as he was having to take a mortgage out on the property. But seemed to ignore the fact that he will have a mortgage at about 45% LTV on a property in a very secure, bouyant market and that I want my cash to put into a small campsite business in rural Pembrokeshire.

the split of our other joint asset should run smoother as that is a straight forward sale and split.

Again thanks for the replies, I feel ready for todays conversation on the subject now.

Lungboy

Any expense for putting it on the open market should be more than covered by getting the significantly higher value.

konark

Doesn't spitting feathers mean you are thirsty?

Gingernutty

konark wrote: »

Doesn't spitting feathers mean you are thirsty?

It seems it can mean both impotently angry or very thirsty

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Spitting-feathers

m1kjm

konark wrote: »

Doesn't spitting feathers mean you are thirsty?

It's an age thing!

'Many people, especially those under 50 years of age, are clear what 'spitting feathers' means to them, that is, 'angry, or agitated'. Some also attempt to explain the derivation of that meaning as arising from the imagery of someone foaming at the mouth when angry, or even of losing feathers like an agitated bird in a cockfight.

Others, predominantly from the older generation, are just as clear in their understanding that 'spitting feathers' means 'extremely thirsty'. The imagery there is a little more intuitive and matches the American expression 'having a mouthful of feathers' and 'spitting cotton', and the Australian 'spitting chips' (of wood), which all mean extremely thirsty. That interpretation seems to be especially commonplace in the northern English counties, although it isn't limited to there. I can recall my father using it with that meaning, in the UK's Black Country region in the 1950s and, as anyone from there will be very ready to point out, the Black Country isn't in the north. In more recent years it has crept south and, in 1997, it cropped up in the BBC comedy series that was undoubtedly southern, The Fast Show:

"All joking aside, love, I'm spitting feathers here, let's have a nice cuppa."'