Keeping a house after a breakup

moneyistooshorttomention

Presumably OP wishes to remain on good terms with the girlfriend? In that case - he would be wise not to take sole benefit of the money spent on legal fees, etc, for buying a house that only he would retain ownership of.

Otherwise - next thing you know and she will probably be doing her darndest to try every trick in the book to make sure and certain he can't manage to keep it anyway - so that at least the loss of money on fees etc was split 50/50.

It's called "enlightened self-interest" to do the right thing by her and repay to her her share of the buying costs. Otherwise known as "protecting your back"....:cool:

FBaby

First step, find out if you can get a mortgage in your sole name. If that's possible, work out if you can afford to pay your ex for whatever funds she is likely to want to come off the mortgage (how much equity is there?). Step 3, negotiate with her.

If you can't get a mortgage, discuss whether she would agree to remain on it (she would be mad to agree, but who knows!).

If you can't get a mortgage of your own and she doesn't agree to stay on it, you will have to resign yourself to the fact that it will need to be sold.

cha1n

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I definitely cannot get a mortgage on my own but after the mortgage payment (£1100) I have £1500 remaining from my monthly salary, so could even make the payments on my own but would prefer to have one or two roommates to help on that front.

She works in law (So we had no legal fees on the house purchase) and has explained the possibility of a transfer of equity. I could easily pay her deposit and stamp duty back in the course of a year, so this may be a possibility.

I don't fully understand the process though, so if I remained on our current mortgage (19 months remaining on fixed term) and a transfer of equity was granted then so long as I don't remortage then I can stay on the mortgage indefinitely? The interest rate goes up to 4% at the end of my fixed term but I think I'd rather do that than sell up and move into a flat.

Would the transfer of equity look bad on my ex's part? It would be a shame of she struggled to get her own mortgage in future because of it.

Thrugelmir

cha1n wrote: »

but I wouldn't get a mortgage on it on my own.

Then you need to be realistic and accept the fact that the property will have to be sold. Base your decisions on this and not some wild schemes of hanging onto the property.

moneyistooshorttomention

Put like that - ie £1500 per month left after making the mortgage payments and that sounds totally realistic to me for OP to continue paying the mortgage on his own. That amount is more than quite a few have to live on before paying out any rent or mortgage.

I'm guessing it would be as well for him to see a mortgage broker and point out the "facts of life" to them in that respect and I would guess the broker could ensure he keeps his existing mortgage (or, failing that, gets it swopped to another firm instead).

xylophone

Your girlfriend has to live somewhere.

Why not share the house but not a bed? And take in a lodger?

cha1n

She plans to leave the city, perhaps the country.

Thrugelmir

cha1n wrote: »

She plans to leave the city, perhaps the country.

Then one assumes will want her share of the money when she does.

cha1n

For the purpose of this exercise, assume that she has no urgent requirement for her share from the house. She is in possession of a large sum from inheritance.

silvercar

cha1n wrote: »

For the purpose of this exercise, assume that she has no urgent requirement for her share from the house. She is in possession of a large sum from inheritance.

Then it is just a question of persuading the lender to transfer the mortgage to you. She can put a charge on the property to ensure she gets an agreed amount when you sell.

In fact, if she doesn't need to get a mortgage elsewhere, she could stay on the existing mortgage and you could just agree that moving forward you are responsible for all mortgage payments and maintenance of the property and she gets X on sale.

It could be that she considers her stake in the property a good investment for future capital growth; better than the interest rate on any savings account.