How to split property equity with ex partner?

b66165

I’m just hoping for advice or if anyone has gone through a similar experience? 

My ex girlfriend and I separated a couple of years ago and we have a jointly owned property. The verbal agreement on initial purchase, 15 years ago, was that she would use the money from her previous home sale to put down our deposit (approx £50k) and I would pay a higher share of the monthly mortgage contributions. This was not an official agreement at the time but it seemed like a fair agreement and one I was happy to agree to.  

We have been communicating through solicitors this last year and have both been asked to document our financial contributions to the property. Including her initial £50k deposit, our mortgage payments and household bills over these 15 years it's been demonstrated that overall I have contributed 65% of all payments and her side 35%.

We split two years ago and I moved out of the property, at the time she remained living there, at this point she stopped making any payment to our joint mortgage as she believed paying the bills was her fair share. I simply cannot afford to keep doing this anymore as I want to buy a property of my own again. 

All I want now is to sell and split the property equity 50:50, we’re joint tenants, we’ve both contributed more at different points in our past relationship. Initially she paid more with her deposit but I believe I have more then made up for it paying the majority of our mortgage payments for the last 15 years (between £1500-£2000 a month). For the past two years I have paid the entire mortgage despite not living there as defaulting on payments would only affect us both poorly in the long term. 

She is now refusing to consider selling or agreeing a price for me to buy her out unless I agree to give her the £50k deposit back as well as 50% of the remaining equity. 

My solicitor has said if she continues to pursue this and wants to take it to court then I should counter claim for my percentage of the mortgage contributions meaning I could argue for a higher share of the equity as I have overall contributed over £50k more. I really don’t want it to come to this because after court fees we’ll both end up a lot worse off. I believe we bought the property as joint tenants and regardless of who paid what and when, 50% each seems the fairest split.  

I’m at a loss, I’m still paying the full mortgage for her to continue living there with no prospect of us selling anytime soon and now solicitor fees are escalating out of control. 

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, am I being unreasonable? She has made it clear she won't accept any less then £50k and half the equity so do I just let it get decided by the courts so we can sell quicker? 

hippocrates1

Force a sale. Let your solicitor do his his. She can’t have her cake and eat it. Has she spoken to a solicitor? She may back down once she knows she can’t rip you off?

b66165

We both have solicitors, we simply can't speak civilly anymore.
I by far think the easiest solution would be for me to buy her out. I've offered her 50% of the equity based on the the top end of the estate agents valuation, (without her having to pay any fees!), and I've said she can have 6 months living there to find a new home. I'm trying my best but she says this is still £40k short, I'm just so fed up, if I could offer anymore for a quick sale I probably would but this is genuinely the maximum I can borrow.
I imagine this will continue to drag on for another few years otherwise. 

diego_94

Its half your house, move back in.

[Deleted User]

diego_94 said:

Its half your house, move back in.

She’ll end up accusing him of domestic violence and getting him excluded. Ive seen it hundreds of times. 

How much are we talking ?
figures will help - that can put the legal costs into perspective. 

You are both paying around £250 an hour legal bills and they will MOUNT UP very fast. Cost would be approx £25k each at least to force a sale with an actual hearing. 

Whilst she is living there and paying zero she has NO incentive to agree!
Id be tempted to stop paying the mortgage as with how much you have and are still paying and all the legal bills - its going to wipe you out of money anyway