Sale of house proceeds

hallam109

Hi
I have recently split with my boyfriend and has sold the house which I put the deposit on for the mortgage and now he want 50 percent of the proceeds including the deposit which I will not agree to the solicitor is saying that he must split it 50/50 I am not desperate for the money he is and I have told the solicitor to hold onto all proceeds until we come to an agreement but the solicitor is saying he’s won’t and will split the money 50/50

what can I do

davidmcn

Do you mean "have sold" as in the sale has actually completed, or it's at some earlier stage? The solicitor shouldn't be acting for both of you if you're not in agreement about how the proceeds are being split.

MWT

It sounds like you have left it way too late to be negotiating over the split...

When did you tell the solicitor that they two of you were splitting up and that you had not agreed to a 50/50 split?

It sounds like you left that part until after you had engaged the solicitor to act for both of you together and after the sale...

It is entirely possible that the solicitor doesn't have any choice at this point but to split the proceeds 50/50...

hallam109

The sale is not completed till the 26th and I notified him to hold onto the proceeds yesterday after I found out my ex boyfriend wanted 50% of the deposit which was a gentleman agreement when I put it in that he would not go for half of it if it didn’t work iut

RelievedSheff

Unless you had anything in writing stating otherwise the proceeds would usually be split 50/50.

A gentlemen's agreement means nothing in these cases.

MWT

Are you 'Joint Tenants' or 'Tenants in Common' ?

If you jointly instructed the solicitor to act for you both and you are 'Joint Tenants' then the solicitor doesn't have much room to avoid the 50/50 split if you complete the sale.

Even if you are 'Tenants in Common' if there was nothing documented about the uneven split between you at the time you purchased then there still isn't much you can do.

This should have been resolved before you both instructed the solicitor to act for you as you can't have the same solicitor where there is a disagreement between you both on the split.

Was the solicitor made aware of the fact that the two of you were splitting up at the point you engaged them to act for you?

hallam109

We was both on the mortgage as I needed his income to buy the house yes the solicitor did know that we had split up as it’s his uncle that is doing the conveyancing and at the time of instruction there was no disagreement in what the split would be but now it’s come to it there is

RelievedSheff

hallam109 said:

We was both on the mortgage as I needed his income to buy the house yes the solicitor did know that we had split up as it’s his uncle that is doing the conveyancing and at the time of instruction there was no disagreement in what the split would be but now it’s come to it there is

When you bought the property did you buy as Joint Tenants or Tenants in Common?

hallam109

Not sure what difference does it make 

MWT

hallam109 said:

We was both on the mortgage as I needed his income to buy the house yes the solicitor did know that we had split up as it’s his uncle that is doing the conveyancing and at the time of instruction there was no disagreement in what the split would be but now it’s come to it there is

The 'joint' vs 'in common' question is about how the title for the property was registered, not who was on the mortgage, if you are not sure your solicitor should be able to tell you, or you can check directly with the Land Registry online.

Saying that at the time you instructed the solicitor there was no disagreement on the split is not the same as instructing the solicitor that the split was to be unequal, so was the solicitor actually told that you expected to get the deposit back before the proceeds were split?

Re the 'Uncle' part, are you saying that the solicitor you are using is is your boyfriends uncle?

hallam109

Yes the solicitor it the ex boyfriend uncle and when we instructed the solicitor the ex had already agreed to me that I would get my deposit back first but this was never disclosed to the solicitor