Divorce and the house

clayton16749

I've no doubt someone's asked this on here before, but I can't find the right info for the life of me - sorry.


I thought renting the house out could be an option. But then there are costs with that.


Has anyone here rented their house out and how easy/hard was it? Did you have to pay tax on the rent you got?


Thanks.

Guest101

It's easy if you want to rush it and make (costly) mistakes.

Its hard, but ultimatey worthwhile if you do the research.

- yes you pay tax on it.

Go to the housing boards, G_M has a guide

NewShadow

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16

Link to the housing forum (as you say you're new to MSE and I wouldn't want you to get lost )

BrassicWoman

renting will tie you together for longer

selling will let you move on

justme111

This. I understand you don't want to lose everything from past life. Not likely to work though. You would both have to pay mortgage, divide responsibilities or often discuss something or do things together and will have to agree on a lot of things and it is likely that you will be in different positions with different priorities - what would you do if tomorrow she says she has no money for upkeep of the house ? What would you do if she arranges house insurance which you unhappy with ? And so on.

Ozzuk

You haven't said what is driving you to try and keep the house - hope of reconciliation?

On the facts provided, I'd echo above comments, this is a really bad idea. Being a landlord can be trouble free but it can also be a nightmare - at a time when you don't need the extra stress. Also, too many what if's, she moves on, you move on, new partners, someone wants a house etc. Unless there is a strong reason to keep the property, sell and move on with your new life. Good luck!

TBagpuss

What would you be trying to achieve by renting out the house? Do you anticipate that one of you will be in a position to buy the other out in the near future?

If you rent the house out, then your capital remains tied up in the house, so neither of you gets a lump sum to be able to use as a deposit and start again. You also remain tied finacially to each other, and there will be issues over costs of repairs, covering the mortgage in void periods, amanging the proeprty etc.

If you do decide to go down this route I would strongly recommend that you treat the house as you would a business partnership - have a proper agreement drawn up whcih explicitly provides for:

- When / in what circumstances the hosue will be sold (e.g. can either of you trigger a sale by giving the other notice, will it be sold at a specific future date, will it be marketed if you get into arrears)
- What responsibilitiy will each of you have for payment of the mortgage, insurances, costs of repairs and upkeep
- What happens if one of you can't, or won't, pay your share
-Who will be responsible for day-to-day management of the property and will that person get any financial recognition for their work
- How will any profits be split, and how much f a sinking fund will you build up to cover repairs, replacements and void periods before you start to take any of the profit
- how will you deal with repairs, redecoration, replacement etc? Have a mechanism in place for agreeing on how you will get and accept quotes, how you will resolve any disputes and what situations require agreement and which either of you can deal with unilaterally.
- When you do want to sell, how will this be managed? Bear in mind that selling with a sitting tenant significantly limits your market so youmay well have to budget for a void period at the end, so you can sell with vacant possession

If the delay in selling is due to being lockd in to a mortgage deal then it may make more sense to agree to 'house share' until that ends, or try to make temporary arrangements (maybe gettign a lodgr or two in to help with the running costs) until the fix expirs. It is also worth looking at the actual penelty and whether simply biting the bullet and paying it is the best option.

Topcat1982

If you can't afford the mortgage, what will you do if it ends up having no tenant for a period of time?

shiny76

another example of why it might be a bad idea to try and keep the house:

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/nov/11/ex-husband-9000-mortgage-debt-title-deeds