Ex buying out of a mortgage

[Athenajm80]

Hi, my friend is having problems with her ex and coming off the mortgage so I said I'd post here to get some initial advice.

She bought her house in 2016 with her then partner. Her parents gifted them the whole deposit, but nothing in writing except that it was a gift. She then split with her partner in 2018 and agreed via text that he would buy her out for £12,000. He has now had a mortgage approved but claims that the bank said he only needs to give her £2000 for her part of the mortgage payments from 2016 - 2018.

She wants to know where she stands now legally. She has contacted our legal department at work but they have said it will take 21 working days for a response.

It is not anything to do with "the bank" how much the ex should be paying to buy out his ex apart from their valuation of the property. If the mortgage is joint then the starting point should be 50/50 on the value of the property (minus the mortgage remaining) if it was sold, if your friend contributed the whole deposit then the value of the deposit should be added to her share. If your friend cannot come to an agreement then she should use mediation, and if necessary court to come to an acceptable arrangement. She should not simply accept whatever the ex offers at face value unless she thinks it is fair.

She can only get the deposit back if that was what was agreed or inferred when the property was bought, and the property is held under a tenancy in common. Otherwise she's entitled to 50% of the equity.

"The bank" can't make those decisions. They can only agree (or not) her ex mortgage amount.

They need the equity calculated. Her ex then pays her 50% of that.

What is the equity?

Pretty much what Collaborate posted, unless there is a prior agreement as to the deposit being in your friends or her parents name then she will probably lose the money and will be entitled to half the equity.

Not quite true about the deposit if your friend has evidence she could go to court - make a small claim - the risk will depend on the strength of the evidence she has and a small claim can be cheap and straight forward and done mainly online. There is not enough info here to know either way. This is why mediation will be useful first if your friend and her ex can't agree a neutral third party might help.

No evidence (evidence of what?) will be enough if there is a joint tenancy.

Small claim? When it's a dispute over property so a Chancery case? Not possible.

@FlemCandango

Your post says that her parents gifted THEM the deposit. Therefore half of that equity is his.

Unless there is a contract to the opposite she is looking at them sharing the equity 50%. Of course now he has changed the goalposts she could refuse to allow the buyout and that might prompt a rethink. However, given how the property market is likely,to be after this, loosing £10k might be a minor problem compared with getting her name off the mortgage

Sell property, then split the money

Is there anything in writing from her parents saying it was a gift for both of them?
If not they can always say it was a gift to their daughter.

Always get an agreement drawn up as to who has gifted what and to whom and how the money will be treated if there is a split. This is very basic but so few people seem to do it. Always get an agreement in place stating exact intentions. Especially when people are not marrying.

Nothing to do with his mortgage,she should not agree to anything until she has legal advice

Maybe she'd like to rent out her half of the house instead, make a bit of the money back that way?