Can anyone help please?

Redsally

I am posting here about a problem my daughter has and hope someone can throw some light on our best course of action please.
My daughter moved into a new property last year with a boyfriend which they went into jointly. My daughter contributed almost half of the deposit, the rest being made up by her boyfriend and a £5000 loan from his father. I call it a loan because he now says he wants the money back and says he told him it was required back, but in the mortgage documents it's referred to and signed by the father as being a gift to them. The mortgage is as equal joint owners.
They only lived in the property for 4 months and the relationship broke down. My daughter who is a vulnerable chronically sick lady was threatened with violence and told to leave which she did as she was frightened to stay there. He refused to sell the property. They later tried to make an amicable agreement that both parties should come out of the situation with something so my daughter was given their joint savings of £4000 to put into a renovation project at my property, the total cost of the renovation was £10,000 and the rest of the money was to come from him sub letting a room to fund the rest of this project. For this my daughter was to walk away from the house with no claim to it although none of this was a legal agreement. The work on the renovation began and the money was spent mainly on materials and preliminary work. The boyfriend then changed his mind and decided he wasn't going to let the room and my daughter was left with no where to live as there were insufficient funds to finish the work.
6 months later in which my daughter has lived sporadically with friends and occasionally stayed with me, she is unable to work at present due to ill health and can't rent a property as she's still on the mortgage of this house. he has now decided to sell and needs my daughter to sign sales papers. However he's decided to put it on the market for £20,000 more than any other houses on the street and we think he's trying to recoup his fathers deposit money and money paid to my daughter for the renovation from the sale of the house. He's claiming that because he's lived in the house and paid the mortgage for 6 months that my daughter has no rights to say what the sale price is and also that she won't be entitled to any money from the sale, but that if money is owing to the bank in the end that she will have to pay a greater amount as he's been paying the mortgage? Sorry if this is garbled just so upset about it and don't know who to talk to about it.

Pixie5740

Your daughter really needs to seek legal advice. The ex won't be able to sell the property without her cooperation. The ex's father can't turn a gift into a loan unilaterally. If the paperwork says it was a gift then it's a gift.

I'm a little unclear as to where the £4k your daughter had had gone. Has it been spent partially renovating your home? Can your daughter not live with you whilst this all gets sorted out?

Redsally

She's living with me and a friend but can't settle anywhere, she really needs her own space and is finding it very difficult coming back home. She feels a failure. The £4000 was spent on materials which are still in the basement of my home and paid for a floor laying and insulation, planning etc but is in no way habitable.

Redsally

It's his claims that she has no rights to a say in what happens to the property because he's been paying the mortgage that we are really having a problem with

sultanabran

Assuming you're based in England, have a read of the Citizens Advice website while you wait to speak to someone for legal advice.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/relationship-problems/relationship-breakdown-and-housing/if-you-live-with-your-partner-relationship-breakdown-and-housing/if-you-live-with-your-partner-and-you-own-your-home-relationship-breakdown-and-housing/relationship-breakdown-and-housing-rights-if-you-own-your-home-jointly-with-your-partner/

Redsally

Thank you for the link I'm off for a read now

FBaby

How much a deposit did she put in then? What is she expecting back? Surely not more than what she put in initially as 4 months worth of contribution towards the rent isn't going to go far claiming any equity increase (which is probably very limited at a year anyway).

Are you saying that he had initially agreed that he owes her £10K (the full cost of the renovation)? Was that the amount she put towards the deposit? So she is owed £6K regardless of what the house sales for. If there is some increase in equity that can be accounted for the 4 months she paid towards the mortgage, I can't see much being left of this after her contribution towards the agent fees.

I'm then confused about the renovation business. Why has she put money towards expending your house if she has no intention of moving there? Surely you owe her £4,000?