Buying my husband out of our house as part of separation

[notnowImreading]

My husband and I are separating. We don't have any children between us (my husband has a 19 year old daughter from his first marriage who will be leaving home in a few weeks) and he has said that he has no interest in staying in our house, although he is living there at the moment while I am staying with my parents in the meantime. We are behaving very amicably. I, in particular, am clinging to the dignity of the moral high ground. It is civilised. We have agreed to split the assets 50/50 - we each have our own cars, pensions and separate savings but we own the house together. We haven't had it valued yet but I think there is about £80K equity in the house. I have been working it out and I think I can afford to take on a mortgage that would release my husband's half of the equity and have booked an appointment at the bank to work this out formally.

What would we need to do from a legal point of view? I would want the house to be in my sole name and would want to split any legal costs equally. Also, if we don't sell the house to other people, would he be liable for capital gains tax?

Thanks.

[Selba]

I did exactly this with my exhusband.

I paid him an agreed lump sum, we used a lawyer ONLY to transfer the deeds from joint names to mine only. this did not cost much.

NO other legal involvement at all. We are both v fair people. We didn't need to pay a lawyer to put all the minutia in writing .

Never thought about CG tax. In effect he was selling his primary residence , so I don't think it applied ( could be wrong)

Desperately civilised and we are still friends.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

It is best practice to get a financial consent order to prevent anyone coming back at a later stage and demanding more.

[notnowImreading]

Thanks for your replies. I will find out about financial consent orders - I've never heard of them before.

Selba, did you ever regret it? I love our house and am desperate to go home but am worried that it might be too sad to live there alone (although not really relishing living anywhere alone in fact) and that it will be too much of a stretch financially.

[MOSagain]

You really do need to consider getting a financial consent order. This is a document setting out the agreement which would then be sealed (rubber stamped) by the Court which would make it legally binding.
Without such a document, either of you could make a further claim against the other in years to come. So, supposing you gave him 50k to buy him out, there would be nothing (technically) to stop him coming back in a few years and asking for more. A consent order will have clauses in dismissing all other claims which gives you protection.

[Selba]

OP I never regretted it. It was never sad living there without him . It was very sad in a w ay to split up , but once that bit was decided it was all ok.
Interesting comments about a financial consent order.

My ex husband was very wealthy . He had earned it all by his own graft, no help from me. I could have made a claim on his wealth but that would have been deeply immoral IMO.

MORE PEOPLE SHOULD THINK HARD ABOUT THIS WHEN SEPARATING. THE LAW IS AN ASS.

We separated amicably without lawyers, as stated. I paid him the agreed amount to buy him out of the house. A few months later , out of the blue, he asked to meet . We met in a pub, chatted and stuff then he presented me with something to sign . From what is said here I think it was a financial consent order .


The conversation went something like this :

Him " you know how you said you would never make a claim on my immense wealth and assets ? " ( I paraphrase )

Me " yes....? "

Him " well, I have been to see a lawyer and have been advised that we get that in writing and signed , so my lawyer has drawn in this draft agreement , would you mind signing here ? "

Me " how well do you know me ? "

Him " er, very well "

Me. " so when I say I will make no claim on your vast wealth, do you believe me ? "

Him " er, yes, I suppose so "

Me " so you can stick your lawyer's document up yer jacksie, right ? "

Him " righty ho "

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Selba financial consent orders can be good things though. My ExH and I between us accumulated a couple of businesses between us through joint effort he is busy spending and destroying his portion whilst mine is growing. I need to use a financial consent order to protect myself from him coming back in a few years and claiming my portion was worth more than his and he should have more, because he has frittered his away on OW.

[worley]

wish i'd have known about this. i couldnt afford to buy my ex out so we verbally agreed an amount to oay him back when dc are 18. i paid to have his name removed off mortage and yook on whole mortgage. since then my finacial positions has improved and im much better off. ive had a lot o work done to the house and increased its value a lot. i now have 86k equity where as before it was 40k. ex has bow decided he wants more money out of house when dc are 18.

(things doing to house were needed such as having gas installed as heating broke down, new kitchen and bathroom as house was a state when we brought it; so are things we planned to do but couldn't afford when i was with ex due to his drinking habits :( )

[Selba]

yes, i totally agree FCOs ae, in general good things, and would not dissuade anyone from seeking one.
I was mightily pissed off at XH for thinking one was necessary with me. He had known me for ten years and knew fine well what I was like ( furthest thing possible from materialistic opportunist)