Can ex claim on my property

[Oakleygirl]

My ex has contacted a solicitor about claiming a percentage of my property. The facts (I can prove) are:

1. He moved in and lived with me from a rented property.
2. He paid no "keep" for the first 22 months. 3)He lived with me for 34 months only. 4)He altered my property (blocked in 1 door way, removed conservatory doors and decorated so we could use lounge as a bedroom and conservatory as a lounge) in order that his daughter could have a bedroom. 5)He now claims the work he did increased the value of my house and is taking me to court for a share.

I had to get a full time job to support us (previously worked part time) and am currently still paying off the debt I accrued while supporting this sponger.

Has anyone had any experience of this sort of thing? Has he got a chance of winning his claim?

He won't get anything.
My friend who was in the same position as your ex tried that one and she got zilch.

Also now you are married, it's not a 50/50 split as the house was bought by your partner before marriage it's only a 50/50 of the value it has increased since the date of marriage.

Not true. My now exh bought a house. I moved in a few months later. We were dating before he bought the house. I was a student for the first 1+ year so paid no rent or mortgage, just my expenses and kept my car on the road. We married 2 years after he purchased the house.

A couple of years later I wanted my name on the deeds as I was contributing and had invested a large sum of money in work on the house. Financial advisor said it wasn't worth spending the money to do that as we were married it was a marital asset.

Roll on 12 years and 2 kids I left him as he was abusive. My Solicitor and his Solicitor advised I'd be entitled to at least 50%, possibly 60. I took 50% (after his debts had be taken into consideration....also a marital debt even though I had no access to the cards etc and didn't know where most of the money went).

So by my experience alone, your information is very very wrong.

watching
Have we had an update on the OP being married?
Must admit when I replied I took 'ex' to mean ex DP.

If the OP is married, I take back my advice that he'd probably not be entitled to anything based on zillions of threads on here where women in his position have been shafted

OP has explicitly stated she wasn't married.

I was specifically referring to your comment starting * 'Also now you are married*...', not the op's situation.

Not me who mentioned marriage, sorry.
But caught up now.

My understanding of both married couple going back to what they had before marriage is accurate for what is considered a 'short' marriage, which although I believe is not officially defined, is usually considered under 5 years of marriage, although years living together before marriage can also be taken into account.

Op - when you had the house valued, did you ask them what it would be If you hadn’t changed it?

From what you and others have suggested, it could be worth more to have conservatory doors from the lounge, not to mention easier to sell (or even an expense that you will have to make the changes so you can sell legally.

In which case, I would get a builder’s quote to get the place put back properly to what it was , then counter sue for the cost to get the house back to the way it was and the value lost as a result of the work he wanted and insisted you had. Plus the unpaid rent and half of bills for the entire time he was there - and hopefully he will end up owing you lots instead..,

Do you have legal insurance on your house insurance? If you do, they may be able to provide cheap/free easy legal advice.

My understanding of both married couple going back to what they had before marriage is accurate for what is considered a 'short' marriage,

Nope. It isn't, it hasn't been for years.

Feel free to go qualify as a lawyer of some kind, practice famiky law for a couple of decades, and then come back and tell me I am wrong.

In the mean time, do stop trying to pretend you know what you're talking about. Some poor sod might listen to you.

Do you perform surgery when your mates are stuck in a waiting list? No? Why is that?

Mrs Bert you are probably used to applying this patronising tone of voice in court but this not court. I did mention that it wasx MY UNDERSTANDING not the law and I'm actually very pleased to be told otherwise by a legally trained.

Saying that divorced lawyers do get it wrong otherwise they wouldn'tpar cases.

However since you are keen to point out what is posted wrongly and indeed thank you for that maybe you could also point out what the law says thst is black and white.

Oh god swingofthings just apologise to -MrsB and move on - you're embarrassing yourself

As it goes, swing, you asserted that "My understanding.....is accurate" so you're still talking nonsense.

Glad you're pleased to stand corrected.

The law says very little that is black and white, because the judge in a financial remedies case has enormous discretion to enable what s/he perceives to be a fair outcome, in all the circumstances.

My understanding.....is accurate" so you're still talking nonsense
mmmm, the standard selecting text and replacing by ... to modify the meaning of what was said, very lawyer like.

But thank you for your intervention, honestly. It prompted me to look it up and found reading about rossi v rossi after the miller v miller case very interesting indeed, especially in relation to family vs non family assets.

Not that any of it is relevant to OP!

Thanks everyone for your input. My ex (fortunately we never married) has gone quiet and I've heard nothing at all for over a week.....though knowing him he's just plotting his next move.

bunbunny as far as I've found out, the work done has had little or no impact on the value of the property, and house prices have fallen in my area over the last 18 months. Thanks for the tip about legal cover in my house insurance, I'll check to see if I'm covered.

Well, he's going for it big time!! I have agreed to a mediation appointment (on the understanding he picks up the cost) on the advice of a solicitor. I have been advised by an estate agent that the work he carried out adds nothing to the value of the house. Think he's just trying his luck......I am not giving him a penny!!

Wow. Well it's his lookout I guess if he's paying.

thank goodness you didnt marry him!

I wouldn't even entertain going to mediation. He has no claim in the house so it's pointless.

He's only going to ask you for cash surely there is nothing to mediate?

The cheek of him! Living rent free then this. Stay strong at mediation, although going to it is probably unnecessary.

Hope you've got a nice long list of all the monies he owes you to discuss at the mediation too... And that it works out to be a much bigger sum than the one he is hoping to claim from you.

Would the estate agent put their advice that the work he did has not added to the value of the house in writing - even better if they could say it has decreased the value of the house, particularly (assuming you preferred it the way it was originally) if you have to now pay money to put the house back to a sensible living arrangement!

I think you're sensible to agree to mediation because if it does get to go further, it shows that you are being reasonable, whereas to turn it down would mark your card as being unreasonable (even if it is completely crazy of him to demand a share of your home!). So, as you're going to have to do it, make it work to your advantage... Good luck!

Can you put it in writing that you are willing to attend the mediation (at his expense) purely as a goodwill gesture and your agreement to attend must not in any way be construed as any kind of acknowledgement that you owe him anything? I would just be slightly worried that attending mediation might in some way be understood as a willingness to "meet half way" ie give him half what he originally asked for rather than the big fat zero he deserves.

Dear god how controling is he trying this on now.

Hope you manage to get rid of him OP, what a hassle!

Just as a side note, you may be interested in researching a bit about proprietary estoppel and common intention constructive trusts - from what you've said I guess he will be trying to imply one of those. From what you've said though, it sounds unlikely he would succeed under either of those. (I'm not a professional however - have just studied those areas for my degree so your post reminded me of them).

Well I attended the first mediation appointment, and unsurprisingly the mediator said that his story differs considerably to mine. Apparently, he made the changes to my property so that MY son could move in!!! He actually moved in 18 months before, so I will have to find some proof of this. The mediator also said that if it goes to court the court can insist that I sell my property in order to give him money if that's what's agreed!!! The fact that he lived with me for only 34 months is neither here nor there apparently! The fact that he only paid keep for less than a year is also irrelevant! I am shocked beyond belief. He told her that when he began to pay £600 per month it was agreed that he was paying the mortgage!! I just saw it as him paying his way at last!! I said that if he was paying the mortgage, then who did he think was paying everything else?? ALL the bills, food, holidays - everything other than beer and takeaways!!

He even brought up the fact that when he replaced my kitchen (long before he moved in, and I paid for everything, and paid him mates rates for labour) he said that he also changed electrics and plumbing, strange as he's not a plumber nor an electrician!! Surely that's irrelevant??

Anyway, rant over. I must admit I'm now very scared. And will NEVER let a man share my home again. Be warned ladies

Gandalf thanks for the advice, I've read up on your suggestions but admittedly I don't really understand what it means, but will try again before I have the joint meeting with HIM eeguh! Not looking forward to it one bit.