husband wants to buy me out....advice please.

dizzydolly

Im about to leave my husband and take myself and my kids back to my home town ,I will be renting a property there , the thing is my ex wants to buy my share of the house(one were in now), the house was valued at £180 000, we have a mortgage for £140 000(we borrowed alot for improvements).
so if we did sell it we would end up with about £15 000 each .
my ex wants to stay in the house and give me my £15k ,but I cant help feeling that if he does that I will have been short changed ,I mean if he finishes doing it up it will be worth around 200k, the thing is if I hadnt of bought/sold the council house that I originally had on my own ,we wouldnt of got this far up the housing ladder any way .
Im I been petty/ greedy or should I ask for more .....opinions please.

thanksalot

If he puts more work in the house he should be entitled to see the money for his work. It is also a bit of a gamble looking at how the housing market is now.
I think it is simpler for you to take the money and let him handle the stress of selling if he so wishes to.
Also, if he stays in the house for while, it might be nice for the children to have a bit of continuity there.
Maybe ask for £20 k. He can recoup the costs associated with selling off his improvements.

debs66_2

can i suggest you see a solicitor. i say this because my ex-hubby bought me out when we divorced, but i got a bigger chunk of the equity based on the fact that i had to provide a house to support our 2 children, who were going to live with me. I therefore needed a house with 3 bedrooms. if my ex had wanted a house with more than one bedroom, then that was his choice, but it wasn't a necessity for him. likewise had he kept the kids and I had gone alone.

you might have to make some concessions with regards other things, such as pensions/policies etc, but a bigger chunk of money might be necessary to set up a house for three people.

if you divorce, you will need to sort out more than the house, in terms of possessions/policies/finances etc, and the house should be one of them. I am a fair person, but it does cost more money to bring up and provide for children on a day to day basis, and this should be taken into account when calculating the percentage due to both of you. i am of course presuming that the kids are his too, as you don't say??

even if not, please think about taking legal advice before signing anything over. you're not being petty, and if a solicitor thinks it's fair, then that's it. however, you have kids to think about as well, as you will need every penny.

btw, i don't think it fair to consider how much the house might be worth if he does it up later. if he puts in the money and the work, then he deserves to reap that reward.

pinkshoes

I'd say take the £15k, and perhaps pay half the fees of having to change the name on the deeds and mortgage.

When it comes to divorce, it's best to have a clean break, so stop thinking about "what ifs", and accept the offer as it's pretty fair. That way the divorce is over as soon as possible, and the kids don't have to witness the bickering over who gets what, which can often turn quite ugly.

£15k is enough to move and set up a new life with your kids.

floss2

Was the council house you sold bought in your name? Did your OH put anything towards the deposit?

I would seek legal advice & clarify exactly what share you should be entitled to.

hobo28

dizzydolly wrote: »

Im about to leave my husband and take myself and my kids back to my home town ,I will be renting a property there , the thing is my ex wants to buy my share of the house(one were in now), the house was valued at £180 000, we have a mortgage for £140 000(we borrowed alot for improvements).
so if we did sell it we would end up with about £15 000 each .
my ex wants to stay in the house and give me my £15k ,but I cant help feeling that if he does that I will have been short changed ,I mean if he finishes doing it up it will be worth around 200k, the thing is if I hadnt of bought/sold the council house that I originally had on my own ,we wouldnt of got this far up the housing ladder any way .
Im I been petty/ greedy or should I ask for more .....opinions please.

Since you've said "my kids" rather than "our kids" i'm assuming the kids are not his.

With £40k equity, was the £15k each worked out assuming you'd sell the house and have to pay estate agent fees etc? If so I can see where he's coming from but the simple fact is that those fees are not needed if he's simply buying you out. The only "expense" so to speak is the legals which shouldn't be more than £1k at the very VERY most. So personally I'd suggest a figure closer to £20k

As for the value of the house once the works finished then I'm afraid that to me would be unfair. Agree a figure based on the price today as the house stands now.

Also bear in mind that in a falling market the longer you leave it the worse it gets. And another thing, see a solicitor by all means but I wouldn't waste too much time arguing the toss over a grand or two because before you know it the solicitors will eat it all up in fees.

galadriel

Hi, I agree with Debs you might be better talking to a solicitor. When I left my husband, he carried on living in our home for four years before he decided to sell it. I left with two children, one stayed with him so I didn't feel I wanted to force him to sell/buy me out at the time. For most of our marriage I had been a stay at home mum so obviously he had paid the mortage etc, and he had carried on paying it for the four years after I left. He had paid a large chunk off the mortgage a few years earlier when he got a large redundancy payment. I would have been happy with a 50/50 split or maybe even less, but ended up with 70/30 in my favour. I had lived in rented accommodation, but this gave me a large deposit to buy again.