I want my ex to buy me out.

Pushmeen

He bought the house in the first instance, and I was put on the mortgage jointly after.. 

I have always said if we break up I will only ever want what I'm entitled to and what I've put in to the house.  I've actively done things to improve the value of the property.

He said he would value what I've done at nothing above 4k..
It's pathetic but adding everything up and adding up the increase in value property I am owed atleast 10-15k.. 

That's all I want and I know I'm legally entitled to more but not morally and that's what I want to go off. What I am morally entitled to despite what has happened over the years between us. 

theartfullodger

The prices are what the two of you AGREE.  Until there's agreement there's no agreed price.  Obvs..

Being sensible, fair and logical does to always happen when couples break up.

Artful, now on third "successful" marriage.

Exodi

Pushmeen said:

He bought the house in the first instance, and I was put on the mortgage jointly after.. 

I have always said if we break up I will only ever want what I'm entitled to and what I've put in to the house.  I've actively done things to improve the value of the property.

He said he would value what I've done at nothing above 4k..
It's pathetic but adding everything up and adding up the increase in value property I am owed atleast 10-15k.. 

That's all I want and I know I'm legally entitled to more but not morally and that's what I want to go off. What I am morally entitled to despite what has happened over the years between us. 

Just to help aid the negotiations, I just wanted to add some insight into the calculations (having been through a break up before and needing to work all this stuff out).

Firstly the cost of improvements rarely translates into an increase in house value. E.g. if I changed my white kitchen to a slate grey kitchen at a cost of £15k, I would not have added £15k to the value of my house - I could well have added nothing or even reduced the value if prospective buyers didn't like it. Even if my improvements were widely viewed as positive by most prospective buyers, it's very unlikely spending £15k would translate to £15k on the price of the house.

Secondly you mention 'doing things' and I wonder if you are alluding to things like 'sanding down walls' or 'painting' as you said in your opening post. As I said before, I really don't think you should devolve the negotiations into haggling labour rates for tasks performed while still a couple. Courts take a relatively dim view on this sort of thing also (as well as gifts that aren't gifts after a break up). Even with things like carpets or fixings or what have you, they are impractical to remove from the house, so many write them off in their calculations.

Likewise even calculating house price increase is a difficult thing to do. Of course the person wanting to realise equity has an interest in suggesting the house price is as high as possible, whereas the person buying out wants to do the opposite. You commonly have situations where people use famously inaccurate sites like 'Zoopla' to (over)value their house and use it as the basis for negotiation. To that end, I'd ask how you arrived at the house price you have. Likewise, people will have different impressions on how equity should be shared. As an example, if two people own a £500k house, one person owns £1 of it, and the other person owns £499,999. If the house price doubles overnight (turns out you have a gold mine underneath), should the first person get £2 or £250,001? There's no right answer, these sorts of considerations and differences of opinion are why things like Deeds of Trust exist. How do you calculate the equity in the property more generally? Is it based on the mortgage balance now or when you originally left two years ago?

The reason I say all of this is because you may think you are being reasonable (and if you assume the default position of 50:50, you are), but if your calculations are based on the amount you paid in improvements being added to your equity, includes labour for various tasks round the house, and carpets which you can't remove in any case, on top of a high zoopla estimate based off a mortgage balance today that you haven't towards for 2 years, then it might appear to him you're not being reasonable at all (though again, more reasonable than assuming the default position). 

This is why I don't think it will be resolved amicably, I just think you two will be too far apart, and you both will feel hard-done by/cheated. With my ex, I ended up having to compromise a lot because I realised there's 'what's fair' and 'what's best'. If I didn't make as many concessions as I did, we very well may be arguing about it to this day - fortunately I did as I'm now happily married with our first child on the way! 

Albermarle

OP,
You need to find out for sure whether you own the property as Joint Tenants, or Tenants in Common.

Pushmeen

Albermarle said:

OP,
You need to find out for sure whether you own the property as Joint Tenants, or Tenants in Common.

Declaration of trust. The transferee is more than one person and they are to hold the property on trust for themselves as joint tenants.

That's what it says on my mortgage. 


It's difficult because I pretty much kept it runnin. I worked full time, put my savings into it and bought all the "white goods" all the furniture..

I just want the money I've put into it back.  I don't think this unfair. It's a conversation he's just not willing to have. It's been like this for 2 years. 

Albermarle

Pushmeen said:

Albermarle said:

OP,
You need to find out for sure whether you own the property as Joint Tenants, or Tenants in Common.

Declaration of trust. The transferee is more than one person and they are to hold the property on trust for themselves as joint tenants.

That's what it says on my mortgage. 


It's difficult because I pretty much kept it runnin. I worked full time, put my savings into it and bought all the "white goods" all the furniture..

I just want the money I've put into it back.  I don't think this unfair. It's a conversation he's just not willing to have. It's been like this for 2 years. 

I think it is clear what you want and what you think is fair. However on its own, this does not bring any progress.

Did you read this link. Most likely you need a solicitor, if only to send a stroppy letter to your ex as a first ploy.

How To Force The Sale Of A Jointly Owned Property - Property Disputes

Jude57

Pushmeen said:

Albermarle said:

OP,
You need to find out for sure whether you own the property as Joint Tenants, or Tenants in Common.

Declaration of trust. The transferee is more than one person and they are to hold the property on trust for themselves as joint tenants.

That's what it says on my mortgage. 


It's difficult because I pretty much kept it runnin. I worked full time, put my savings into it and bought all the "white goods" all the furniture..

I just want the money I've put into it back.  I don't think this unfair. It's a conversation he's just not willing to have. It's been like this for 2 years. 

No-one else seems to have mentioned this, but as you are an owner of the property and the other owner is hostile to reasonable negotiations, you'd be wise to make sure he can't do anything with the property without your consent. You can register with the Land Registry a Property Alert for free so that he can't re-mortgage or sell the house without you knowing. Please don't use lookalike Land Registry sites. Any official website for local and national government has the suffix gov.uk. See here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/property-alert

theartfullodger

""" No-one else seems to have mentioned this, but as you are an owner of the property and the other owner is hostile to reasonable negotiations, you'd be wise to make sure he can't do anything with the property without your consent. You can register with the Land Registry a Property Alert for free so that he can't re-mortgage or sell the house without you knowing. Please don't use lookalike Land Registry sites. Any official website for local and national government has the suffix gov.uk. See here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/property-alert  """"

Very good point: gov.uk land registry.

I had HMRC trying to sell a property I owned when a welsh barrister of exactly the same name (not normal spelling) was declared bankrupt.....

anselld

Pushmeen said:

Albermarle said:

OP,
You need to find out for sure whether you own the property as Joint Tenants, or Tenants in Common.

Declaration of trust. The transferee is more than one person and they are to hold the property on trust for themselves as joint tenants.

That's what it says on my mortgage. 

You keep refering to the mortgage.  However, what is said on the mortgage is not what determines ownership.  You need to see what is stated on the Title at Land Registry in order to know for sure.  Is your name on the Title and what are the restrictions listed?

Pushmeen

anselld said:

Pushmeen said:

Albermarle said:

OP,
You need to find out for sure whether you own the property as Joint Tenants, or Tenants in Common.

Declaration of trust. The transferee is more than one person and they are to hold the property on trust for themselves as joint tenants.

That's what it says on my mortgage. 

You keep refering to the mortgage.  However, what is said on the mortgage is not what determines ownership.  You need to see what is stated on the Title at Land Registry in order to know for sure.  Is your name on the Title and what are the restrictions listed?

Land and property information I am a registered owner no restrictions.