Advice on selling house after almost 2 years

AmyParkes94

So me and my partner of almost 10 years have decided to call it quits but we have a house together, almost 2 years in March since we bought it. I really don’t want to get messy in the situation but what’s best to do,have him pay me out of it or sell it? Would I gain anything from selling it?

oldbikebloke

AmyParkes94 said:

So me and my partner of almost 10 years have decided to call it quits but we have a house together, almost 2 years in March since we bought it. I really don’t want to get messy in the situation but what’s best to do,have him pay me out of it or sell it? Would I gain anything from selling it?

how do we know if you gain anything since you give no information to assess
Q: how is it owned?
- Tenants in Common (deed of trust in place to evidence the shares)
- Joint Tenants ?
Q: what is it worth and how much mortgage is in place?
Q: who paid how much deposit? 
Q is there a declaration of trust covering how the deposit is repaid in the event of a relationship split 
Q does he want to leave, I note you assume you will be retaining the property if it comes to that

GDB2222

If you sell, there can be no arguments about value. 

If he buys you out, you might save the sale costs. It depends on the offer that you receive from him.  I certainly would not insist on selling just to make life difficult for the pair of you. 

anselld

Does he want to buy you out?  Can he afford to?  You certainly can't force him as your wording tends to suggest.

Unless you each contributed differently to the purchase (and hopefully that would be documented in Deed of Trust) then the net proceeds after sale and costs will be split 50:50, as would any loss if it goes the other way.  So it depends entirely on the figures which you have not stated.

AmyParkes94

The house we own 50/50 as joint owners and bought it through a first time buyers mortgage with the help from the 5% scheme we put £11000 down as a deposit £5500 each the house it’s self was £180k and we have both put money and time into making it our own. I don’t think he would be able to afford to buy me out as he’s got a lot of debit on his hands through multiple cred cards loans and excessive financed things

oldbikebloke

AmyParkes94 said:

The house we own 50/50 as joint owners and bought it through a first time buyers mortgage with the help from the 5% scheme we put £11000 down as a deposit £5500 each the house it’s self was £180k and we have both put money and time into making it our own. I don’t think he would be able to afford to buy me out as he’s got a lot of debit on his hands through multiple cred cards loans and excessive financed things

then he can't "pay you out of it" and if you want to keep the house the opposite applies - it is you who owe him since the deposit is partly his.

can you afford a mortgage on your own? If you can't then you have to sell, the rest is irrelevant

it would be "unwise" to force him to remain a joint mortgage - you'll cripple his financial position in terms of him being able to buy on his own and the repercussion from that will get "messy" 

unlikely the property has increased much in value after 2 years (also possible it has gone down) so the question of whether there is an equity to be split 50/50 needs to be established. The best way to do that is to sell, then you have indisputable "valuation" not some made up number from an estate agent which one of you will be bound to think results in an unfair outcome for them when they look back in few months time and see what the financial to them has been compared to the person still in the property 

If the property has gone down in value you also need to realise that neither of you will get back your respective deposits in full since it is 50/50 ownership and the deposit will decrease in line with the valuation as it appears you do not have anything in writing covering deposits in the event of relationship break 

"money and time into making it your own" is not money owed to you or to him unless you have clear evidence that the payments were unequal and can agree to refund in that manner - highly emotive and best you just forget it ( even then if one paid and the other did the work/time, the time should itself be valued to redress any unequal financial input)  

AdrianC

oldbikebloke said:

it would be "unwise" to force him to remain a joint mortgage - you'll cripple his financial position in terms of him being able to buy on his own and the repercussion from that will get "messy" 

There may also be repercussions on the OP, if the ex is in debt.

missile

If he is deep in debt, he may simply decide to move out and stop paying mortgage and bills.

GDB2222

Really, this is pretty simple. Your ex is not in a position to buy you out. So, get some estate agents round to value it ASAP, and get a mortgage redemption figure. Hopefully, you’ll be able to sell without too much difficulty, and there’ll be a bit of money left over to share between you. However, if it was a new build, bought with HTB, you might even be in negative equity.


unfortunately, making it your own doesn’t necessarily make it more valuable. In some cases, less valuable!