Partner hasn't paid mortgage in 10+ years

[SShapiro1]

Me and my partner, (not married) had a 100% Mortgage around 15 years ago. Both our names on the deeds.

We split around 10 years ago and she has not contributed a penny since and also left me in £1000s of debt. I am now back on my feet and have been paying the mortgage by myself for the past 10 years. However, her name is still on the house

She now thinks she is entitled the half the house after 10+ years of no payments and wants me to sell and give her money!!

Where do i stand on this?

She is entitled to half but you may be entitled to credit for any of the mortgage capital you've paid off.

You could have tried to buy her out earlier and perhaps got away with paying her less.

Do you have any equity? Otherwise is she is just wanting to take on debt?

I think that you can claim back half of all the mortgage payments you have made on your own before any split happens. Double check this though x

You need a solicitor.

Just checking you jointed purchased the property but she left without a payout and you carried on living in the whole house?

In which case you were paying your half of the mortgage and an equivalent amount to 'rent' her half of the property.

I'm afraid it does seem she has a right to half of the current property value unless you have a legal document specifying a different proportion owned by each. She will be able to force a sale so you may want to look at the cost to buy her out.

How much equity is there?

The fact that you've paid the mortgage for 10 years should£ mean you can get the whole mortgage in your name.

You definitely need legal advice, as it will depend if you bought the property as tenants in common (TiC) or Joint Tenants (JT).

If you bought the property as JT, then the starting position is that you each own an equal share. If you bought as TiC, you each own whatever amount you have agreed between you. There are ways in which a JT can be "severed" by the conduct of the parties, but I'm not a property lawyer so can't confirm whether non-payment of the mortgage would be enough.

I would really expect you to have bought as TiC (if you didn't, then your solicitor on the purchase is possibly negligent as it is highly unusual for non-married couples to buy as JTs). If you bought as TiC, then you should have signed something to say what shares you'd own the house in - presumably you didn't do this (again - your solicitor should have advised you to do so, if they didn't, they're possibly negligent). There are ways you can establish that you do own more than half, through your actions/intentions, but you really would need good advice on this.

Any decent solicitor will give you at least the first half hour free and you should try a few to find one that sounds like you can work with them. For the value of 10 years of mortgage payments, it will be worth paying!

I believe because you are not married, she would be entitled to half the value of the house, minus the 10 years of mortgage you have paid in that time.

Or looking at it another way, you have had free use of her half of the first five years payments for a decade, while she has had to pay rent & presumably a deposit elsewhere.

Some solicitor's advice and a compromise seems reasonable.