Mortgage with ex partner - not married

[Bec90]

Me and my ex share a mortgage and have done for 20 months
I had my own house before and used the equity from that house to put the deposit down on a new one with him, pay his debts, buy furniture , and have paid for all work done on the house - he is not leaving unless I pay him half of any equity we have - but I don’t think this is fair as he came into the house with nothing other than debt - I’ve lost out anyway as we will have to sell this house as I can’t afford it on my own - has anyone been through this before when not married - does anyone know what he would be entitled to? I need to think of me and my daughter now and where we are going to live , thanks x

Did you protect your deposit by having a deed of trust drawn up? And are you tenants in common rather than joint tenants

Speak to a solicitor ASAP. You will be able to prove that you put in the deposit. If you went to court about this then I think you would win as you also have a daughter.

I was stupid and didn’t protect myself with the deposit , I didn’t know what kind of person he would turn into or didn’t realise at the time as I was sucked in by his manipulation but now I have my daughter she’s the priority
I don’t think he will end up going for the deposit but he wants the rest of the equity , but I still don’t see how that’s fair when it’s all my money in the house and all my money that’s made home improvements meaning we would get a better price for it - but as we have a joint mortgage i just don’t know whether that’s going to stand up , so they will at least say 50/50 after selling costs etc? I don’t want him to walk away with nothing at all as he has paid towards the mortgage but I just don’t know why he should end up being better off going out and me a lot worse off
I know I should have protected myself and I kick myself that I didn’t put some sort of agreement in place but I didn’t see everything that was coming

You need legal advice.

I had a deed of trust with my ex. I got back what I put in plus 50% of any profit once he took his share and the bank got what they were owed.

I also took everything that I purchased throughout the relationship minus a few things that ex asked to buy off me.

Thanks all
I will be getting some free legal advice next week
I just wondered whether anyone had been through anything similar and whether going down the legal route was even worth it
I suppose i feel like finally sticking up for myself x

If you own the house as joint tenants rather than tenants in common then he’s legally entitled to 50%. If it’s tenants in common you’d had to have stated the % of ownership each of you have. Which is it?

Joint tenants as far as I’m aware

OP, I can so see how this could happen. My brother got caught out in similar circumstances buying with his then partner where only he came with a deposit. I think my brother managed to negotiate with his ex via a solicitor to agree something he was more happy with but he had to compromise on some other things the ex wanted.

On the plus side, you can protect your DD from some of this as she grows up as you'll be able to give her some info on the pitfalls.

I was in this situation except it was my ex who put all the money in. Mortgage was a similar length when we split.

I had the higher salary however and elected to buy him out. I paid him back every penny he had put in though there was no increase in value so no increased equity to consider. However, as we were joint tenants my solicitor made it clear I only needed to pay him 50% of the deposit and that anything else was generosity on my part as it wasn’t legally required. I paid the extra because I believed it was the morally right thing to do.

Hi Bec .... I separated from my ex in similar circumstances. We couldn’t agree on a split at first and so I consulted a solicitor. Essentially because we weren’t married it would fall to the commercial courts, which means it is a costly process and can take a long time. He therefore encouraged me to come to a solution between us if we could, with mediation if necessary to avoid court.

As others have said, if you are fifty fifty on the deeds then he is entitled to half the value of the house if you have not made any other formal agreement.

In the end I made the decision to give my ex more than I thought he deserved just to get the matter resolved quickly