Buying someone out - help

reeceg353

Hi all,

Have a bit of an odd situation. 

My girlfriend and I have been together for around 18 months and we are looking to move in together - here’s the tricky bit.

I am a home owner and so is she, but her house was actually bought with her ex. They have been split for 2 and a half years but they have kept paying the mortgage on the property half each (he lives with his parents separately since a couple years ago) until the sale goes through.

My question and advice seeking is for how I would go about buying him out… does he need to agree to it?

my house value is £475k and theirs is on sale for £525k

Do I effectively have to get a mortgage on half the value of their house, I would assume I would need to sell my house in the first instance as I’m pretty sure I can’t afford two separate mortgages.

completely new to me, I will be calling a mortgage advisor but wanted to ask for opinions and advice here at the same time

reeceg353

Would we just approach their current lender and go through due process to see if they would accept a new mortgage application with myself and my other half? Then if accepted does the lender pay out her ex and then recalculate costs over to myself?

penners324

Why would he take half the payments already made?

Surely he'd only take half the profit / equity?

wilfred30

reeceg353 said:

Hi all,

Have a bit of an odd situation. 

My girlfriend and I have been together for around 18 months and we are looking to move in together - here’s the tricky bit.

I am a home owner and so is she, but her house was actually bought with her ex. They have been split for 2 and a half years but they have kept paying the mortgage on the property half each (he lives with his parents separately since a couple years ago) until the sale goes through.

My question and advice seeking is for how I would go about buying him out… does he need to agree to it?

my house value is £475k and theirs is on sale for £525k

Do I effectively have to get a mortgage on half the value of their house, I would assume I would need to sell my house in the first instance as I’m pretty sure I can’t afford two separate mortgages.

completely new to me, I will be calling a mortgage advisor but wanted to ask for opinions and advice here at the same time

Yes, of course he does.  You can't force him to sell his share of the house to you!

p00hsticks

I'm a bit confused as to what you are trying to achieve here.

Are you intending to move into your girlfriends house ?

You say that the house is on sale for £525k - do you mean that it is actually on the market (in which case why do you need to be involved at all - why not simply let the pair of them sell it and decide how they wish to split the proceeeds between themselves) or do you mean that's what it's been valued at in order for you to buy him out ?

canaldumidi

Since she and ex jointly own the property, yes, he must agree any sale. Which means he'll need to agree any price you suggest. Ultimately if he refuses you could apply to court for an order to sell (well, not you, your girlfriend). But this is slow, stressfull, and expensive.

I'm amazed he's been paying half the mortgage. Do they have kids and is this part of a maintenance agreement for the children? If not, I trust your gf has been paying him rent for the half of the property he owns but has no access to, while she benefits from sole use of the whole property.....??

If not, he could quite justifiably claim he's entitled to a larger % of the property value on its sale.

Once you've agreed a price with him, you will have to decide how to finance it, either from savings, and/or sale of your current property (after paying off your existing mortgage on it), and/or applying for a new mortgage.