Husband buying me out adding selling fees.

[k1r5tyx]

I am looking for advice please.

I am currently going through a divorce from my husband. We are doing it ourselves to avoid solicitors fees etc as it is very amicible.

The property is 50/50 every part from improvements to furniture has always been split.

Neither of us wanted to move out and both of us wanted to buy the other out.

1. I cannot continue paying a mortgage there when I am no longer staying there. I stay at my boyfriends and the ex also has a new partner so it wouldn’t work.

2. For me to take him to court to try and buy him out, due to us having no kids, this would probably end up in a situation where a judge will side with neither of us and tell us to sell (my only amnunition I would have over him, is that my mum lived with us for a few years and died in that house so I feel I have a greater emotional tie) to me this would cost money and neither of us would end up keeping the house.

After a lot of soul searching from me I agreed to let him buy me out. The agreement being that we would have 3 valuations and then split the equity 50/50.

He has now sent me a letter saying that the equity is £40,000.00 however he has taken ‘selling fees’ off this amount in order to make my offer.

Is it correct that I should be expected to pay half of potential selling fees when the house isn’t being sold? He could remain in the property forever, or he could sell in 10 years. Either way I’m not sure if it is correct that I should be expected to pay nearly 2,000 for something that may or may not happen.

I have no issue paying half of the solicitors fees for the transfer of deeds or for any other obligation, I just want to make sure that selling fees shouldn’t be included in this before I push back.

No.

I take it he won't give you back an allowance for your future purchase costs &stamp duty? Of course not. So you shouldn't pay imaginary sale fees.

The party receiving the property pays the conveyancing fees to transfer.

Of course not. CF.
It's his costs, all of them, not yours and there are few Costs on a transfer to one partbers name in a divorce a (other than solicitors and deeds fee). Make sure he removes you from mortgage, I'd ask to see his new mortgage offer in his own name too. You pay your solicitor, he pays his and the total £40k equity to you.

Agree to paying half the selling fees if he agrees to splitting rise in value between now and sale (if and when it happens)!

Offer to buy him out at half without deduction of notional selling costs. Maybe it could be an auction? Highest bidder wins.

Hi there, I know it's been a while but I wondered what happened in your situation? My husband is currently trying to do the same to me. He's planning on buying me out and pay off the remaining mortgage from a loan from his family but is taking off the early repayment fee as well as the cost of sale?

I wondered if you ever managed to negotiate a fair offer?

I'm in the process of getting divorced and came up against a very similar situation with my solicitor. We have two properties- he is intending to stay in one, I am having to sell the other and downsize. My solicitor took cost of sale and early repayment fees off the house STBEXH is in, which reduces the equity and so was not in my favour. I queried this because my logic was that he isn't selling it so the fees shouldn't be taken into account. Solicitor was adamant that is how it's done, I asked why and she got pretty snappy and said it "just was" and "she doesn't make the rules" .

Sorry OP, I know that's not very helpful, but it does suggest that maybe despite it being illogical that's the accepted way of doing things.

One of my cases had a final hearing last month and this question arose. The judge refused to allow notional selling fees when the property was going to be transferred not sold.

Thank you. It seems very illogical doesn't it?

If he wants to buy me out, why should he receive more money from me when he might never sell the house in the future? It's ludicrous. He is borrowing money from his family to buy me out and essentially pay off the mortgage, I'm not sure if that makes any difference. It's not like he has all the costs associated with selling it if he's just transferring it?

Strange!

Thank you!

So your ex is buying you out and your judge essentially didn't "charge" you for him doing it as you weren't selling it but just transferring it to him?

We're talking about almost £10k in total here so he's deducting £5k off his offer to me (which I'm not accepting anyway) but that's a different matter.

No. I'm a solicitor and it was my client transferring his interest to the wife. I agree with the proposition that if a house has to be sold then costs of sale get accounted for, but if it's not being sold then there are no c.o.s. Some judges agree now, some still don't. It depends how much they want to think about it.

Thank you!

So basically it's luck of the draw as to who you get on the day. That's so worrying. Surely every judge should be working from the same page?

I was in court last week for a dispute resolution hearing for our children arrangements and the judge literally suggested the opposite of what I've read and researched everywhere online. Literally the opposite. I was shocked.

@Emsy999 I'm beginning to realise that the whole process is very uncertain partly due to judicial discretion.

I agree that to it is illogical to a non-legal person applying laymen's logic like you and I.

My solicitor was very snappy and basically told me it was just the way it was and I need to suck it up. However @Collaborate's post illustrates that is not the case and it could go either way.

It would be great to find something 'official' about this written somewhere as I'd like to show my solicitor and it would be useful for you too. There seems to be so little information about the process, which makes things even harder.

I hope this doesn't sound patronising but my advice to you @Emsy999 would be to be mindful of the cost to you of arguing your (perfectly logical) point. It is absolutely not fair but when solicitors and barristers are in the mix it's easy to rack up extortionate fees which obliterate any potential saving that you are trying to achieve.