My Ex Wants Me To Pay Half of His Loan

ReadingTim

katieort said:

Won't the house price/sold price reflect this though..? Say you got a loan for 5k made your kitchen or whatever much nicer, and now your house is worth upwards of 5k more and sells for 5k more than it would have pre kitchen renovation, then there is the money owed. It is part of the house price now instead of cash.

It might - but if matey boy won't sign the papers to sell the house before the loan is paid off then your point is irrelevant.  

ReadingTim

Socajam said:

ReadingTim said:

Lodexmy said:

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate it. 
I feel this is a question of morality above everything else, rather than legality.

Morally, then as the loan was used to improve a jointly owned asset (the house) then it should be jointly repaid.  So you do owe him half. 

Legally - if it's in his name, it's his loan, and therefore his problem.  How he chose to spend that money isn't your concern, or your liability to refund, so no, he can't force you to do anything.  

Practically, however, you're going to need his cooperation to sell the house, so it's probably not a good idea to fall out about this, as he could make things quite difficult by refusing to cooperate, meaning you could stand to lose far more than half his outstanding loan.  

Seems common sense is not common anymore.
Repay the loan from the sale of the house, then split the balance and move on.
Trust me you will feel better in the longer term.

Arguments about money rarely adhere to common sense.  Or any sense at all.  If you had any, you'd know that already.  

es5595

Dear Ex
Thanks for your email dated XX/02/2020.
As we discussed at the time, I did not want to take a loan out and clearly explained I could not afford to, which is why it's in your name only; because you wanted it and went ahead regardless of my consent. 
If you are able to evidence the improvements it was used for, and correspondingly how they have boosted the sale price, upon completion I am prepared to pay 50% of the cost of these improvements from my portion of the equity. 
Regards,
The Moral High Ground

bris

If it came to it then legally you could be on shaky ground. Just because it's in his name doesn't necessarily mean you are not equally liable. So this his name his problem stance is simply wrong.

The small claims court would look at the circumstances and what it was used for and make a decision on who they believed the most. The fact it was for home improvements on a jointly owned home would probably be the swing in his favour. It's not unusual to have one partner take out a loan to benefit both there is a good chance you would lose.

You only need to worry about it if the papers drop through the door though so until then just ignore it.

Lodexmy

Thanks for the additional input, I do appreciate it.

I do just want to get out of this situation with no crap hanging over me.

Niv

Less to the OP and more to the repliers, you also have to consider if the improvements did add any value. As OP says, they didn't think it was needed and couldnt afford it. We do not know what the loan actually paid for. Was it the colour of the carpets rather than due to condition, was it a new shed, was it bedding plants, was it to change the kitchen cupboard doors because the guy didn't like the design etc, those things add nothing to value or desirability.
We really have to be careful not to jump to the conclusion that money spent on a house = increased value or sale ability; that cannot be concluded from the information provided.

Niv

As an example, when I was viewing houses to buy a few had very modern, high spec 'hotel like' (imo) bathrooms. First thing I said to the other half was 'well they will have to be ripped out and started again' because they were not to my taste.

Thrugelmir

Lodexmy said:

Thanks for the additional input, I do appreciate it.

I do just want to get out of this situation with no crap hanging over me.

The sooner you are out. The sooner you can move on. The one thing money cannot buy is time.  For all of us that is finite. 

[Deleted User]

Years ago when my first marriage ended, I had taken out a car loan for my wife.
The legal advice I received was that if the loan was in my name it was my responsibility,  although the asset (the car in question) could be offset against what other stuff needed to be divided up.
Different situation but similar principle?

badmemory

Was the loan definitely spent on the house or on the new girlfriend.  Been in a similar situation when his small inheritance got spent (well disappeared) & then my redundancy money paid off his debts.  Finally found some credit card bills - yes flash dinners for the girlfriend.

So my advice would be to price up what was done on the house before thinking about coughing up.  If it has improved the value of the house then whilst the legal answer would be forget it the moral answer would have to be pay up.  But not until the house is sold & the value increase is proved.