Am i being unreasonable?

[emylouxxx]

To cut a long story short i separated from my ex partner in 2014, he was very violent and abusive towards me, he kicked me out of our home which was a joint mortgage, i had paid for all the mortgage repayments up until this point as he was unemployed, after i left i believe he took up drug dealing to pay the mortgage himself, he was shortly after sent to prison for 10 months and in the meantime he moved in family and friends into my property to pay the mortgage, the locks had been changed without my consent and i was threatened to keep away from the property, i was unable to continue paying the mortgage as had to pay for alternative accommodation, and could not afford to pay solicitors at this time, i have now contacted solicitors who told me im only entitled to equity up until the point i was thrown out, he is also entitled to all capital reductions for the period of time he was in prison as they were paying on his behalf not mine... We were not married, am i being unreasonable in thinking i should be entitled to more equity as i had tried to reside at the property during the time he was in prison to be threatened away, and it was never my choice to leave in the first place, i was kicked out ?

This is awful I feel sorry for you. When you tried to move back in did you report any of the threats to the police? I think you'll struggle to prove your intent without evidence.

Morally, he is utter scum, and I am sorry that you went through that.
But legally - it seems fair to me that you don’t benefit from payments not made by you or on your behalf.
It sucks that you were paying all the mortgage before you split, but as you were a couple then, I think it is fair that the law presumes you did this as a couple.
Otherwise, how do you argue it when one of a couple pays the mortgage but the other pays an equal amount in other bills? Or a working parent pays it whilst a non working parent supports them with childcare?

Imagine that your ex hadn’t forced you out. Imagine he went to prison for 5 years, you paid the mortgage, then he resurfaced and wanted to claim half the house. Then, you’d be arguing for the same thing he is now, right?

The law allowed you to own the property in unequal shares.
The law allowed you to go to court to force a sale after you split up.

Now I do get that neither of those are easy, the first when with an abuser and the second when dealing with an ex who is an abuser and the aftermath of that for you. I’m sure you were just trying to keep your life moving, no time or money to deal with forcing a sale. I would like to see better support and Legal Aid.

But I do think YABU to expect to benefit from his payments after you split though.

That said - I’m not a lawyer in this area, and there are often areas where the decision comes down to the judge. So I’d advise finding a firm offering 30 mins free and running the situation past them. Good luck!

I'm afraid it doesn't really matter what you think is reasonable here, but only what is legal.