Family loan

foxy-stoat · 17 May 2019 at 11:13AM

MEM62 wrote: »

It is a predictable tactic. Divorce is often a dirty business. (Although I can see FIL's view. Why should his money benefit you to the tune of £17.5K when you are divorcing his daughter?) Ultimately, a court will decide whether it works or not but if you and your ex choose to fight it that far you will loose more than that in legal fees. You'll both be far better off being sensible and coming to an agreement rather than making you lawyers rich.

Errrr no - they have to pay the FIL £63,000 based on current value - its not clear that FIL wants the original sum or 1 5th of the property's value in 2012.....

System · 17 May 2019 at 1:45PM

Flip1234 wrote: »

The ex wants to buy my share of the house. It looks to me that this is a way of reducing my equity in the property. If FIL gets his share I will be left with 30000 for a 315000 house.

You owe the money. No doubt you have nothing in writing about him writing off the debt as I asked and you didn't say you had. I'm failing to see the issue, it isn't like you're having to go out and find £35,000 from elsewhere, you're literally paying him back out of money you've gained from doing nothing but living in a property that he helped fund you to get.

MEM62 · 17 May 2019 at 4:20PM

foxy-stoat wrote: »

Errrr no - they have to pay the FIL £63,000 based on current value - its not clear that FIL wants the original sum or 1 5th of the property's value in 2012.....

I based that on the statement in the original post original post that he 'wants his money back' not that he wanted his share of house value. But as you say, it's not clear.

Kentish_Dave · 17 May 2019 at 10:56PM

Flip1234 wrote: »

Hi apologies if I'm posting in the wrong area. In 2012 my wife and I bought a property. My FIL leant us 35000 towards the cost. We had an agreement that within 10 years we would repay him 1/5 of the properties value. 10 years went by and he wrote the debt off. We are now getting a divorce and ex has said that FIL now wants his money back. Is he able to do this?

When you say that he wrote the debt off, do you mean that he told you to keep it, and he was changing it to being a gift?

If so, that was that, really. You can’t demand a gift back years later.

diggingdude · 17 May 2019 at 11:14PM

I hope you both declared this loan to the mortgage company at the time, you wouldn't want this to go to court and show you are trying to benefit from fraud

gycraig_2 · 18 May 2019 at 8:40AM

Did the loan company know you was borrowing money from the fil at the time or did he say it was a "gift" to help you buy the house. If it was a gift he will of signed a legal statement it's a gift and he doesn't expect it back"

robatwork · 18 May 2019 at 7:19PM

These aren't the answers the OP wanted!

enthusiasticsaver · 19 May 2019 at 9:27AM

foxy-stoat wrote: »

Errrr no - they have to pay the FIL £63,000 based on current value - its not clear that FIL wants the original sum or 1 5th of the property's value in 2012.....

OP you signed a contract and if I had been in your FILs place and given my daughter a substantial deposit with written confirmation of the arrangements I would want it enforced should her and my son in law split. The legal costs will be high so you are better off coming to some arrangement and pay what you promised to pay. Presumably as you only own half the property it is just 20% of your share so half of the total value. Being greedy never ends well. You will still walk away with £30k and considering he helped you buy the property it is the least you could do. Of course he wants his daughter to benefit the most.

AnotherJoe · 19 May 2019 at 9:44AM

To be fair OP also said the debt was written off so is it fair that FIL now wants his money back ?
No doubt nothing was documented at any stage.
But odds are high FIL signed a doc for the lender agreeing this was a gift so he doesn't have much standing either.
Either this goes legal or they will have to come to an agreement. OP will need to search his conscience. If it goes legal OP is in the driving seat because as it stands FIL has no way to get the money without what would be expensive legal action.
Ps it's also unclear if FIL wants / expects ;
Original money back
1/5 value at the time of write off that it turns out wasn't a write off
1/5 value when sold.

Kentish_Dave · 19 May 2019 at 10:51AM

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

OP you signed a contract and if I had been in your FILs place and given my daughter a substantial deposit with written confirmation of the arrangements I would want it enforced should her and my son in law split. The legal costs will be high so you are better off coming to some arrangement and pay what you promised to pay.

I disagree. You cannot forgive a debt then change your mind six years later.

Once the debt was gone it can’t be resurrected.

Family loan

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