Splitting costs after house sale

[SydSaid]

Hi
My ex and I have just sold a house. Due to circumstances, I paid for things like the survey, the house search, advertising etc. All in all iro £1,000.

The letter from the solicitor states that the money will be shared as follows:

1. I get refunded 50% of costs that I incurred
2. Legal fees get paid
3. Rest gets split 50/50

Now I fully get that we should both pay 50% of costs that I incurred, but looking at that from an outsiders perspective, this looks like I end up paying 75% of the costs.

Can someone that knows more about these things than me reassure me that I'm wrong, and that it's all sorted by some magical jiggery in the legal fees section? For full disclosure, my legal fees are limited to the house sale fees, his side have to pay additional legal costs incurred.

I don't know if this will help illustrate what I think it sounds like

Say I sell something for £100, but spent £20 on advertising it.

£80 profit, should be £40 each.

This sounds like

I get £10.
We both get £45.
My net result is £35 (£10+£45-£20), while he gets £45.

Yeah, exactly!

I don't understand your logic. You get back half of your outlay first, the solicitor gets paid and the rest is split 50/50. In Elephant's example - you don't deduct the £20 from your costs because when you get the £10 back first you have then contributed equally.

Still thinking about this...You need ALL of your £20 back first before the other things happen!

This isn't how I see it.
Say you make £50k on the sale.
You've paid £1k upfront and legal fees are £1k.
So take off £2k, split remaining £48k i.e. £24k each, give you £500 back from your costs and split the remaining £500. You therefore get £24750, ex gets £24250
£50k profit, reimburse your £1k, pay legal fees £1k, split remaining 50;50 you get £25k ex gets £24 k
Did you pay all the fees from joint savings?

No, the OP is right. I've no idea where Soontobe60 gets there workings from.

To take Soontobe60's example and work through what the solicitor has said:

1. OP gets back 50% of costs she has incurred - £500
2. Legal fees are paid - £1000
3. Remaining money (£48500) is split equally - £24250 each

So OP has paid £1000 and receives £24750 leaving her a net £23750.

OP's ex has paid nothing and receives £24250 leaving him a net £24250.

The OP should be refunded everything she has paid towards the sale of the house, not 50% of it.

So it's not just me that sees it that way!

I guess I need to email my solicitor back to clarify!

Thanks all!

It's all about where you make the cut. Take off what you've paid before it's shared between you and you need to take off all of what you've paid. If he's reimbursing you out of his half share then you get half of what you've paid.

yes you are quite right op this plan is wrong. you should have your expenses reimbursed in full at the same time as the legal fees being repaid. otherwise the ex is not contributing anything towards these expenses. some one is getting muddled. it's true that you are supposed to pay 50% of these expenses but that doesn't mean you only get 50% reimbursed. like you say, with this plan your ex effectively only pays 25% of the expenses. is he financially abusive or just a bit dim?

This came from my solicitor, not my ex. My ex hasn't had much to do with it.

I'm sure it's probably fine, just worded badly, but he is now on holiday till next year so I won't know for sure for ages!

Yes, I agree with the others, sum obtained from sale, take all your costs off that and all the lawyer costs, that gives the net balance to divide.

Yes you should get 100% of the costs back.

the OP gets 100% of her costs back does that mean that she does not pay for anything involving the sale and her EX is shouldering the full financial burden of it. So its only the exp paying for the expensese sinc ethe OP is getting ALL her money back

so sale if 50k 1k expenses 1k legal fee's OP gets the 2k back then splits the equity if half so 48k /2 24k each + 2k of OP expenses meaning the OP gets a net 26k and her EX gets a net 24k since he is effectively paying for everything.

I think they’ve put the steps in process order. Step 1 - you get 50% back; step 2 - the legal fees are paid from the profit; step 3 - remaining profit is split.

I think they’ve put the steps in process order

The problem is that if they follow that process the OP ends up out of pocket.

I think the steps should be... everything gets split 50/50 and then EX Pays you back your half of searches etc, then you both each pay half of solicitor fees.

@worridmum no it doesn't mean the op won't for anything involving the sale and her EX is shouldering the full financial burden. because after having been 100% reimbursed, the amount she gets from the sale is 50% the total sale price, minus 50% of the sale costs and 50% of the legal fees, which is all fair.

with the original proposal the OP gets to keep 50% of the full sale price, minus 50% of the sale costs (because that's what wasn't reimbursed) then minus a further 25% of sale costs (as these were deducted from the amount to be split) and minus 50% of the legal fees. meanwhile the ex gets to keep 50% of the full sale price, minus only 25% of the sale costs (as only 50% was deducted so only 25% off his half share) and minus 50% of legal costs so ex gets a way better deal.

Worridmum, I'm not trying to get out of paying my share, despite the fact that I've since EVERYTHING regarding the house sale.

I'm just trying to make sure it's fair. Peeps above have demonstrated how this looks like I'll pay more in costs than my ex.

I do think it's probably all OK, and it's just worded badly.

It's all about the order you do things.

Personally I think the legal fees get taken out first so both paying 50%. Then profit split. Then 50% that op has paid is taken from ex share and added to op's share.

Or op should be refunded the full £1000 from the start so that in effect all costs comes out before profit is split.