Removing ex partner from joint mortgage

Emmsy1976

Hi all
i have a solicitor but she doesn’t seem that great. I have a joint mortgage with my ex partner ( he wasn’t very nice and moved out in October 2020). He paid half of the mortgage since we owned in January 2018. I put in approx 85k, deposit, stamp duty and paid 10k in building materials and fittings using equity I had released from my sole owned flat, he refused to sign the % tenants in common statement that you have the option of saying he would be doing construction. He did approx 10k worth of construction to renovate the property. Amidst all of this I found out he had a HMRC tax debt of 36k & it was at the point of seizing his assets. His response was wanting to go bankrupt. I took charge of the situation and paid 16k, I got a deed of trust drawn up but it has incorrect figures on it but the principle is there. I received communication from his solicitor in the summer dictating what he was owed. Meantime I sold my flat, and have been approved for mortgage in my sole name. Latest letter is his solicitor claiming that he paid my mortgage when he lived at my flat for 18 months. £350 each) and effectively this should be offset against the 16k I paid. Also claiming 5k worth of work to my flat, it was 1.5k max. Help, where do I stand with this.

RAS

How have you managed to sell the flat if he is still on the deeds, or the mortgage?

AskAsk

RAS said:

How have you managed to sell the flat if he is still on the deeds, or the mortgage?

the original post is a bit confusing but i think the OP has sold her other flat, which she owns on her own, and not the family home, where she still resides and wish to have her partner's name removed from the joint mortgage.

Emmsy1976

RAS said:

How have you managed to sell the flat if he is still on the deeds, or the mortgage?

Yes sorry, there was a lot to cram in for context. I had my own sole owned flat which I released equity from to fund the joint owned house. I sold my flat in March 2020 & have the cash and  revised mortgage on my sole affordability ready to take over.

AskAsk

as far as i am aware, you can not force someone to remove their name from a mortgage agreement.  without their agreement, you would have to sell the house to get rid of them.  this becomes even more difficult if you have a joint deed and not tenants in common, which you seem to imply.

what has your solicitor said and why do you think we would know better than she does?

Sandtree

Are you sure its the mortgage you want them off of and not the deeds? Otherwise they own half the property and you have all the debt.

Presumably you weren't married?

sassyblue

Tell him to prove it! if he did pay all those mortgage payments and for those building materials he should be able to prove it with bank statements or credit card statements. They are easily available, any bank can go back 7 years.

put the onus back on him to prove it.

Emmsy1976

Sandtree said:

Are you sure its the mortgage you want them off of and not the deeds? Otherwise they own half the property and you have all the debt.

Presumably you weren't married?

It’s both deed & mortgage. 

No not married. 

I’ve asked on here to see if anyone has any experience of a similar situation, what the likely outcome will be, I don’t want solicitor letters going back & forth at £270 an hour. He is trying to offset his paying my mortgage/ his rent when he lived in my flat against his debt that I paid, it’s a mess and he is a total bully only now he a solicitor to bully me to. 

AskAsk

sassyblue said:

Tell him to prove it! if he did pay all those mortgage payments and for those building materials he should be able to prove it with bank statements or credit card statements. They are easily available, any bank can go back 7 years.

put the onus back on him to prove it.

that is all very well but how is this going to help the OP to enforce the removal of the ex from the property deed and mortgage?

sassyblue

AskAsk said:

sassyblue said:

Tell him to prove it! if he did pay all those mortgage payments and for those building materials he should be able to prove it with bank statements or credit card statements. They are easily available, any bank can go back 7 years.

put the onus back on him to prove it.

that is all very well but how is this going to help the OP to enforce the removal of the ex from the property deed and mortgage?

OP says she has a Solicitor so it should be sorted.  He obviously wants paying off and is lying to get more money.

Her Solicitor simply needs to go back and ask him to prove what he’s saying, if he can’t/won’t then he obviously gets a lesser sum or no money at all.

It's not difficult. OP just has to see it through.

AskAsk

sassyblue said:

AskAsk said:

sassyblue said:

Tell him to prove it! if he did pay all those mortgage payments and for those building materials he should be able to prove it with bank statements or credit card statements. They are easily available, any bank can go back 7 years.

put the onus back on him to prove it.

that is all very well but how is this going to help the OP to enforce the removal of the ex from the property deed and mortgage?

OP says she has a Solicitor so it should be sorted.  He obviously wants paying off and is lying to get more money.

Her Solicitor simply needs to go back and ask him to prove what he’s saying, if he can’t/won’t then he obviously gets a lesser sum or no money at all.

It's not difficult. OP just has to see it through.

the OP can defend the money claim from the ex but this does not do anything to help her get rid of him from the mortgage or the property deed.  her solicitor can certainly defend the allegations of money he claims but the OP's original question was not about how to defend the money claim but how to get rid of him from the property ownership and the only way this is going to be possible is to sell the house and force the split of money.

the OP is asking for people with similar experience but her situation is not usual so i think she needs to pay the solicitors and listen to her solicitor even though it may cost a lot of money to get professional advice.  this is a matter for the solicitors to deal with as it is complicated how to remove the ex from the property ownership and it won't be simply defending the ex claim of money as he won't agree to remove his name until the money he claims is agreed so it will just go round in circles and the OP will be in the same situation.