bullied by an ex boyfriend trying to make a financial claim on my home

[lulutherapies]

Dear Mumsnet, I have lived in my family home for over ten years with my two children ages 11 and 18. I am divorced and met a man who ended up after three years asking to live with me and my children wanting to put his own house on the market. We made an offer to by my husband out on the family home in 2006/7 and borrowed £90k to pay him off. Consent order was finalised accordingly by the court. I then discover my new partner having affair behind my back and telling the other woman he is selling his house to be with her. He was due to sell his house to pay off the £90k we borrowed and reduce the exisiting mortgage somewhat if we couldn't tie in the sale of his house at the same time as the consent order. Unfortunately he had no offers made on his house. We borrowed £340k together on a 3 year fixed term with Accord mortgages. He basically did a runner from paying anything but I was unable to get Accord to transfer the mortgage & deeds to my name only because I do not have sufficient credit. I have not done anything over the two and a half years apart from hope that he will not force us out of the house and now he has been in touch saying he is going to take us to court and he also wants about £20k which he says was his contribution during the time he lived here. He made no capital investment whatsoever into the home and I have been the mortgage payer throughout. I have not failed to meet any payments whatsoever. I fear I am going to lose my home. Can anyone advise. I will also contact my solicitor but I do not have much spare money for legal costs hence starting on mumsnet. Many thanks and good wishes to all.

you need to look at trusts of land act
see for example
www.edwardsduthie.com/case-plan-for-trust-of-land-act-(no-children).html

www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1996/ukpga_19960047_en_1

let him take you to court - read about teh act and preapre your case - you will proob need legal advice tho.

given this children involved you can also incite the childrens act to keep the hosue for them to lvie in with you - but complex if children are not his...

I'd suggest you talk to the Citizen's Advice Bureau for free advice as a first step. The main wrinkle is that his name is on the Accord mortgage and the deeds. If you could find someone to stand as guarantor to allow you to transfer everything into your name, that would be an advantage. However, having made no contributions for over two years and with you not being married either, I don't think fundamentally he has a leg to stand on in terms of his main claim.

OP, I think you really need to separate your emotional relationship with this man from the essentially business relationship you formed with him.

Google the name, "Leonard Kernott".

Too many ex-cohabitees assume that they will be treated like married people when they split up.

The judge in the "Kernott" case said that he had no way of knowing of the inter-personal relationship of the ex-couple and decided to go purely on what was declared in writing when the house was bought i.e. the house was bought jointly by the couple and, crucially, (even though they'd split up and the man had moved out over 15 years ago), as they had NOT made a declaration to say that they no longer wished it to be the case he (the judge) would have to assume that the house still belonged to the both of them.

This does not bode well for you.

I suggest that your ex has read about the Kernott case in the news and has had a "flashbulb" moment?

Thinking about what marantha says - did you have any disucssions with Accord about trnasferring the mortgage and deeds to your name only, or were you scared to do so? Is there anything from that time that shows in balck and white that you were no longer actively with this guy?

Hi, prettybird, I'm not a lawyer (just someone who reads the news)and my interpretation of the "Leonard Kernott" case (please, if you can- I don't know how to do it- put a link here for OP)is that the judge found it impossible to know the details of the couple's interpersonal relationship (reasonable, I think- how can he know? He's not psychic) and the only option available to him was to go with what was in black-and-white i.e. house bought jointly and NOTHING decalared since to alter this.

So if my basic interpretation is correct-I'd really appreciate being corrected if wrong- does it matter whether they were "together as a couple" or not?
Isn't it just a business arrangement?

I'm not a lawyer either - but I was using your logic to see if she had anything in black and white to say that she had tried to "make a declaration" - even if that was as simple as talking to Accord - so that there was a record of her "business relationship" having been "broken" back then.

Nothing to do with the quality of their relationship as a couple - purely whether there was any discussion of her finances as a single person.

The other thing I hve noticed about English Law (I am in Scotland) is that so much of it seems to be up to the individual intepretation of the judge and the particular circumstances.

I do agree with others that she does need proper legal advice.

But, prettybird surely BOTH parties have to make the declaration?

As a result of the Kernott case,
many lawyers have commented that IF a couple wish their actual emotional/interpersonal relationships to be taken into account in such cases they'd be better off marrying or forming civil partnerships.

The OP entered a business partnership with this guy- it doesn't matter if they're no longer a couple or if she is single or not.

IMO only, I don't think it's right to give away property on account of who is having sex with who (marriage is different, a couple in a marriage are held in law to be a couple and are treated as such in the event of a breakdown).

Anyway, this is purely a discussion on an internet forum. I dare say OP has sought real life legal advice on the matter.

Thank you all for your feedback which is very helpful. My x boyfriend only came onto the deeds by a transfer of equity from my former husband. The x boyfriend made no capital investment whatsoever at the time, never moved in because he did a runner from paying anything. I have paid every penny of the mortgage and new loan we took out and have evidence of all that in the form of receipts and bank statements. I did ask Accord if I could transfer to my name only but they said no. I have an appointment to see CAB and will then meet with my solicitor who did the original transfer of eq.

And yes, I have kept Accord informed all the time that my x has been making no contribution to the mortgage and they have noted it on file.

I think your situation is sufficiently different from the Kernott case to offer some hope. In the other case it was a couple who shared a home for 8 years, had children together and where the claimant had made contributions to the household (albeit small) and had also paid for & built an extension to the property.

The news items I've read don't say whether Kernott's ex partner could countersue him for his share of 17 years of missed mortgage payments. That would be interesting.

I don't think Kernotts ex can sue for the mortgage payments. My bil had the same sort of thing, because the other party had sole use of the property and he had no access it was seen as fair that the other party had paid the mortgage on their own.

OP really needs proper legal advice, all we can do is speculate and as others have said, in England the judgement can vary quite a lot between judges.