Being bought out of mortgage by my ex

sugarbabe84

50/50 split seems very reasonable

jamint

Thanks all for your input. I really appreciate it. See this is the thing, we do have a good relationship still. We talk quite often and it's always lovely to see her. I'm very happy she's moving on with her life and after a few wobbles I think she is to vice versa.

I can confirm we did not have a pre-drawn agreement regarding how we'd split it in the eventuality of a sale.

We met this weekend specifically to talk about where she is at. As it turns out, she has proposed the idea of me staying in the house for another year, and we'd look to sell it OR her buy me out this time next year. The reason for this, I should add, is that she is due to give birth in December and she doesn't want any house stresses any time soon. I'm happy with this idea as it allows me and my current girlfriend to live together for a while before deciding if we're compatible enough to buy together in a year.

In regards to my original post this is a lot less "immediate" than I thought this time last week! But still relevant. To cut a long story short based on the meeting this weekend, she thinks that when we come to sell it, she thinks any profit we make on it should be 50/50. Obviously good from my POV. But, she thinks that on the contribution side, the amount she's paid over the years (I think she said £20,000) should be taken into consideration. So for example if she decided she wanted to buy me out and needed to pay me £80,000 to do so, she proposed the scenario where we would negotiate together to what we feel is fair and right (she mentioned maybe £70,000 as an off the cuff suggestion).

I'm not against negotiating with her on this as I do want to do right to her, and I don't want to be greedy. But are you all saying in the unlikelihood things turned nasty and we had to go the solicitor route, could she, based on the scenario above, have any grounds for demanding more than 50/50?

I'm purely asking this now as I just don't know how motherhood and the responsibility of having another life to look after might affect her. Hence why I'm sort of analysing this scenario just in case.

tlc678910

I think it would be very tough for your ex to enforce legally anything more favourable to her than a 50/50 split without anything in writing about anyagreements you made. A court process would be expensive so it would be better to agree between you.

When calculating the division I think it is important to remember that when you pay a mortgage (say one of 25 or 30 years) usually only around half comes off the mortgage and the rest is lost as interest so I don't see why the full amount should be deducted to repay your partner. You paid the bills when you were a couple (did this include the food bill?)

I would suggest that the split should be 50/50 for all repayments made when you were living as a couple as the division of mortgage/bills was to reflect your different earnings as a unit and your ex certainly should not reclaim fully all the payments as you contributed bills and 1/2 vanished into interest and was not paid off the mortgage. You don't get that back it's gone. At the time I imagine you saw this arrangement as a fair division in the circumstances.

I think any different arrangement from 50:50 should focus on the time you have lived apart. If your girlfriend begins to pay rent your ex is not out of pocket and 50:50 resumes. So if it is 1.5 years of your ex paying half the mortgage while you lived there alone the negotiation should focus on that.

By the time you consider she is equally obliged to pay the mortgage you both hold (joint and severally liable) - and she was not asking you to sell, that only 1/2 of what you have paid comes off the mortgage capital owed and half is lost as interest and she will be more than repaid what she has paid out in this time period by benefitting from this period of capital growth then I would say 50:50 or only a small amount more to her.

You can point this out in quite a straightforward way if you offer to repay her mortgage payments for the 1 and a half years that she paid and did not live with you (on sale) but having paid all of the mortgage you would keep 100% of the capital growth for this period. She would be worse off I expect. The gain 40k each over 5 years or 8k a year is I expect more than she paid. Don't pay and don't get the gain. You don't get to both not pay the mortgage and take the capital growth.

Tlc

EDIT: Having looked back at your OP
Get a RICS qualified surveyor to value in writing (you will need to pay). Tell them it is being valued for a fair split in separation.
Also You need to review how you hold the house legally. If joint tenants I think this means if one of you dies the whole house goes to the other. If this is not what you want anymore seek advice - you maybe want someone in your family to inherit your half? If tenants in common update who gets your half if needed. Seek advice - I'm not sure if this is through your will.

Carrot007

tlc678910 wrote: »

I think it would be very tough for your ex to enforce legally anything more favourable to her than a 50/50 split without anything in writing about anyagreements you made. A court process would be expensive so it would be better to agree between you.

This! Court would eat all your the "profit" for both of you. Come to some agreement even if you lose 10K you are better off!

getmore4less

jamint wrote: »

Mortgage payment-wise it's a bit messy. For the first 3.5 years of owning the house, she was paying all the mortgage and I paid all of the council tax/bills

jamint wrote: »

But, she thinks that on the contribution side, the amount she's paid over the years (I think she said £20,000) should be taken into consideration. So for example if she decided she wanted to buy me out and needed to pay me £80,000 to do so, she proposed the scenario where we would negotiate together to what we feel is fair and right (she mentioned maybe £70,000 as an off the cuff suggestion)

It will be possible to quantify that in equitable terms to get a realistic deduction.


What may be a sensible approach is to get the basic agreement in place to delay the process as that seems to be a mutually agreeable position to be in.

then start the discussions on how the finances should work at the time.

A year should be long enough to come up with something that works for both of you.

you could use the numbers now as a basis and then stick the new numbers in when the time comes.

looks like you are going to have 2/3 periods to deal with.

The first 3.5 years then the 1.5 years and if anything changes from now till sale.

A value at the 3.5 year point and the cost split of mortgage bills would be useful to crunch the full equitable share process up to that point. as that won't change.