What now? Buying ex out of house.

[moveon]

ExP and I were not married, but own house in joint name.

He has moved out and I am living here with DS. I already said that I want to buy him out.

I have had 4 valuations, 380k, 340k, 350k, 340k.

So what do I need to do next?

Should I contact the bank first to make sure they will continue to give me a mortgage / switch it. Or should I contact a legal person? Is it better to do this in a dialoge with him first, or via a legal?

And what do you think is the reasonable thing to do with regard to how much the house is worth?

If the valuations are in the area you expected them to be I would look at an average price and offer your ex that amount (or a bit less if you are cheeky and he is rich enough!). Zoopla have also listed house prices in your area for comparison. If your ex is a reasonable person get the agreement sorted with him first. Approach your mortgage company and discuss the situation with them and your options re remortgaging etc.

The above costs nothing!

You would probably both be safer to get a solicitor to draw up a formal agreement between you about your wishes, and to organise a change to the land registry. If it is straightforward and already agreed it should not be too expensive.

Sorry, but using Zoopla would be a joke for something like this. You need to know how much your house is worth - not the average for your street or area. It's not like valuing a car.

I presume you got 4 market appraisals rather than a valuation. They will each tell you how much you should market the house for - that is not the same as telling you how much you would get for it. You need to both agree which surveyor to instruct, then ask the surveyor, at joint cost, to value the property for you. If you're buying him out, IME using market appraisals is more likely than not to lead to you paying over the odds.

Think about how much you're going to have to pay him. Going halves on the cost of a joint survey is minuscule in comparison.(£300 + vat in my area)

If you can't afford to remortgage to buy him out, take legal advice on whether you can apply under Schedule 1 of the Children Act for the property to be put into a trust so you can house your son until he's 18, though presumably from your OP you're able to afford to buy him out? He's entitled to half of the equity unless the deeds say otherwise or one or other of you paid more into the property (and I don't mean mortgage payments here) than the other and the deeds are unclear as to your beneficial interests.

Yes it was estate agent market appraisals. I didnt even think about the surveyor thing, will try and find one now.

first speak to mortgage company - they would want their own valuation any way. you might need to pay for this., maybe a few hundred pounds .

to get a proper valuation by a surveryor you likely going to have to pay,

what does exP say? is he amenable to you buying him out and would he agree on the lowest market valuation?

yes he is/was the last time we spoke about it. Didnt get to the specifics about lowest price/mid price.

Would a proper valuation really differ massively?

It might differ. They usually write to you on a market appraisal to tell you how much to MARKET it at, not how much it's actually likely to sell for. Anyway, the market appraiser is unlikely to be qualified. A surveyor is, and will draw on suitable comparable sales to inform their opinion.

If you want it doing properly you have to pay for it, like most things in life.