Ex husband wants half the profits of the house

emmajones1979

My ex and I got together in 2002, moved in together in 2004 and married in 2006. We bought our house in 2017 (my dad loaned me £26000 for a deposit) and both paid into a joint account to cover bills and mortgage. I paid £1000 more than him as I earned more. He moved out 12 months later. He hasn’t contributed to the bills or mortgage since. I now want to sell but he is demanding half the profits. Where do I stand legally? I’m getting so much differing advice. Has anyone been through this before? We have 2 children and he owes me £9500 in unpaid Maintainance. 

emmajones1979

That should say I paid £1000 a month more into the joint account. 

AskAsk

You need to speak to a divorce lawyer.  Divorce split of assets will often ignore who paid what.  However as a woman with young children, you will unlikely to end up the loser.

Are you sure the property has any profit in it?  Property prices haven't got up since 2017, if anything they have gone down, so I doubt there is any profit to split.

swingaloo2

My sister has just sold her house bought in 2017 for 30,000 more and of course there is the deposit paid so there may well be quite a bit of equity. You do need to speak to a solicitor, is the 'loan' from dad to be repaid on the sale of the house? Unfortunately the maintenance is a separate issue to the house and even though he may 'owe' you the money it is nothing to do with the equity in the house.
You have the children with you so that goes in your favour but he has presumably had to pay rent for his housing so you really do need help from a solicitor.  Were you married or did you just live together? 

RAS

They married in 2006.

Alter_ego

I'm sure your dad did loan you £26k. But how did you explain that to the lender. Did he have to supply a letter saying it was an outright gift?

When did you divorce?

pphillips

Sounds like you don't have a consent order in place that covers all the marital property including savings, investments and pensions. The process usually starts with family mediation and both sides getting independent legal advice.

emmajones1979

The divorce came through earlier this year. I have a signed letter that details the loan from my dad and bank statements which show repayments being made by me after my ex left.

gwynlas

Do you want to stay in the property?  Was this your first property together? Get legal advice sooner rather later, Is there much equity in the house minus loan from father?

[Deleted User]

emmajones1979 said:

The divorce came through earlier this year. I have a signed letter that details the loan from my dad and bank statements which show repayments being made by me after my ex left.

When is this signed letter from and what is the exact wording regarding the loan and the deposit? 

Why did repayment only start after your ex left? 

WillowCat

The financial settlement will look at all assets - property, savings and pensions.  None of it can be considered in isolation.  Also, the courts don't tend to be concerned with details of who paid what.