Buying out ex-partner

DeclanA94

Hi there,

Not sure if this is in the correct section of the forum, was hoping to get some advice from people’s own experiences.

Basically myself and partner are separating we have a 2 year old son together and are both on the mortgage. She is wanting me to buy her out as she cannot afford to pay the house on her own due to her salary.

Since our last remortgage which was for 120k the house was valued at 135k. I should be able to remortgage to give her atleast 8-10k as she paid most of the deposit for the home. The only issue I have is that both cars and a credit card which we used for home renovations are all in my name, so I’m really not sure if I should proceed with a remortgage or sell the home so we can both downgrade and clear those debts? Just really worried about the impact it will have on my son moving to a smaller home and going between his mum and dad.

Any advice is appreciated

Thanks

Declan

Chandler85

Are you separating amicably?

If so then both get a list of debts that you both have, decide what is "joint" and one is one persons or the others. For example, you might have 2 x car loans, where you both agree to keep the loan associated with the appropriate car.

The debt for home improvements, she might agree they are for the home, and goes 50/50 on them. Assuming she has no money to pay her half right now, then take the amount from her half of the equity.

So say you have 20k of equity, so you would on paper need to pay 10k to buy her out. But due to other joint debts, she owes you 2k to clear them. Offer her the 8k. As long as it is all really clear, you have a separation agreement etc then you should be ok. From experience if you try to deduct estate agent fees if you sold etc, you will end up in a cycle of issues.

If it isn't amicable then it's a case of how much will you pay to keep the house, tell her she if she accepts it. She might counter offer, then decide if that's acceptable.

You also need to tell your mortgage company and get a solicitor involved, all additional costs.