New partner taking on mortgage

[Magicstars]

Hi I’m looking for advice on a complex situation please!

My ex moved out, has bought a new house with a mortgage & stopped paying towards our shared mortgage some months ago. His choice to stop paying, after I asked him to leave.

My new partner would like to come on the mortgage with me, this is in keeping with ex’s wishes too. At the time of ex stopping paying our mortgage, I got the house valued by three agents, at his request. He was not happy with the estimates given (too low in his opinion).

Ex & I both have sums invested in the house. He wants me to agree to pay him a sum that grows & reflects the value of the house when sold in the future. Ignoring the valuations given at the time when he stopped paying the mortgage.

Should I stand my ground & say no to him benefitting from the potential increase of the house’s value over the years?

For context I ended the relationship due to his behaviour. He has a new property with new partner & despite us being married (can’t agree on financial settlement for divorce) & I don’t intend to make any claim on his new purchase.
We have two young children together, who mainly live with me. My reason for wishing to keep this house is to maintain the childrens’ community, emotional security, school etc. I would not be able to afford a suitable alternative in this area. New partner has no savings to invest, but is eligible to come on mortgage with ex’s capital in the house.

What’s the most fair way forward please? Thank you for reading.

I'm going to revise my initial opinion. If you had imminent plans to sell or buy him out then I agree he shouldn't benefit from any increase in value from the sedate he stopped paying the mortgage.

However if you plan to stay in the house and just expect him to leave his capital tied up in the house then he deserves a return for his money.

You can’t ‘come on to a mortgage’. You will need to notify the mortgage company and potentially remortgage the property.

Why are you going this new partner half your house? Is that wise? What happens if you split?

Defiantly get legal advice before you do anything,

Whatever you do , do NOT put new partner on to the mortgage.
I’m bewildered as to why you would even consider this .
You need this security for your children .

Please get this post moved to legal
OP.

A mortgage company will not take your ex husband off the mortgage and add you partner on unless your husband relinquishes his ownership to your partner which seems unlikely, or alternatively that you and your partner agreed to re mortgage together and buy your husband out.
The solution is to seek advice from a divorce solicitor ASAP to help you reach a fair financial settlement with your ex that takes account of your and the children’s housing needs.

You assume equity in the house must be divided 50/50 in line with legal ownership but this is not necessary so in divorce, where the needs of the children to be housed are paramount and the court had the power to transfer property rights between former spouses to achieve this. What I am saying is that you might be entitled to more than 50% equity but only a solicitor can confirm this.

A solicitor is your friend here.

@HidingFromDD

He should be entitled to a percentage which reflects his share of the current equity. Eg if the mortgaged value represents 70% of the house value, he should be entitled to 15% of the final sale value. This reflects the fact that he can’t use the money on anything else (new property purchase etc). However, get legal advice as you may well be entitled to a greater than 50% of the joint assets.

He was also very silly to purchase with a new partner unless the new property is solely in partners name as that could be included as part of the joint assets.

Totally agree with this!