Selling the house that I bought with my ex, is she entitled to 50% equity?

jarek1103

Hi, 

I'm looking for advice on my situation, I have not yet contacted a solicitor about this and hope to find someone who has been in a similar situation who could advise me on how to approach this.

I bought a house with my ex partner (not married but do have a 3 year old child with) in September 2022. Around a month after the purchase I found out that my ex partner was cheating on me and she ended up moving out of the house and back in with her mum (as I was able to cover the mortgage payments and she wasn't) and shortly after in with the person who she cheated on me with.

I put in around 70% of the original deposit into the house, have renovated the house during the 18 months of living in it and have been paying 100% of the mortgage every month without any contributions from my ex.

What are the chances that I would be awarded more than 50% of the equity after the sale of the house (the house is sold STC) if this went to court?

Just some extra pieces of info, we bought the house as joint tenants, and I also have 50% of the time with my son, so he spends a full week with me, and then a full week with my ex partner.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Brie

I think your best chance is to be able to prove that you put in more of the deposit than she did.  That she was not making mortgage payments may not be relevant nor the reason for her moving out - but a solicitor will know better about that than me.  

I don't think that the split of the value of the house will be impacted by who has your son how much of the time.  That will affect any potential maintenance payments - but again IANAL.  

kingstreet

Have a read of Jones v Kernott as it's relevant to your situation.

Yorkie1

kingstreet said:

Have a read of Jones v Kernott as it's relevant to your situation.

The Supreme Court judgment?
https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKSC/2011/53.html 

Newbie_John

It also really depends where she stands, she could be happy for you to keep all the money just paying back her share in deposit, she could demand 50% etc. The best approach would be to sort it out as quickly as possible - either sell the house and buy something else, or buy her out.
Any court battles will only be costly and will make relation more sour (especially from your son point of view). So really depends on the stakes.

Other than above, she possibly lost her "first buyer" privileges, you potentially obtained a house that you may have not been able to buy just by yourself.

Hoenir

jarek1103 said:

What are the chances that I would be awarded more than 50% of the equity after the sale of the house (the house is sold STC) if this went to court?

Has your ex agreed to the sale and indicated a % or figure that they would be willing to accept?  As without their agreement the sale is going to stall and highly possibly lost. Court is an extremely expensive option where neither party will gain financially. 

kingstreet

Yorkie1 said:

kingstreet said:

Have a read of Jones v Kernott as it's relevant to your situation.

The Supreme Court judgment?
https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKSC/2011/53.html 

Yeah. It went backwards and forwards up the court chain until it was finally resolved by the SC. It was all about a couple who split and one coming back and demanding half the equity after paying nothing for years.