Struggling to buy mum out of house

[Tryandtryagain02]

Hello, I'm really struggling with a solution here, any ideas would be welcome! My mum and I inherited my Grandparents house 50/50 in 2021. I agreed to buy my mum out of her half, however, I haven't got very good credit. The mortgage broker tried multiple lenders who dealt with bad credit and unfortunately I was refused. Subsequently, my mum had a contract written with a solicitor that suggested I pay her rent (£550 a month) as this is the equivalent to half of what the rent would be and so we agreed. The rent is to be paid for 2 years and if I don't buy her out within this time then it has to be sold. It has caused endless arguments and ruined our relationship. I've sought advice from a solicitor who said that it would be enforced and my partner and our 3 children would have to sell. Every couple of weeks she gets angry and insists I sell the house as I won't get a mortgage. I've searched for other properties to buy and nothing is within my price range, renting is slim to none in my area and I'm running out of ideas of what I can do. The mortgage broker told us to go back in 6 months as they declined due to a loan I had taken out - which is now paid off. But I worry every day that when we do reapply we will be declined and I have no idea where we will end up. Does anyone have any other ideas please?

Thanks

Seriously, this isn't me saying it, this is how this works. If, say, you hadn't moved in, and if your granddad didn't have enough money to pay for his care home fees, then someone would have had to sell the house, or rent it out, or allow the Council to place a charge against it. Someone allowed you to move in, rent free, and they should be able to quantify their decision making accordingly.

Do you understand that you are taking your mother's inheritance? You can't do that.

You moved into the house, settled yourself in nicely, and seems to have forgotten that it is not your house. You have lots of reasons for everything but...the fact that your mother owns two properties does not mean you can just take her inheritance.

If you can't get a mortgage on half a house you'd have to use the value of your half to cover virtually all the cost of a new one.
No guarantee you'd get a mortgage even with a big deposit.

That is not how it works though, someone should have been making the best decisions for him. Not charging rent was not in his best interests. Although I can see it benefitted you enormously.

Your grandparents left HALF the house to you and HALF to your mum. That is what they wanted, they did not want you to have the whole property as otherwise they would have left it all to you. You are completely selfish and clearly awful with money.

OP are you and/or your partner in full time employment?

Is that the issue?

I only ask as with x3 years without paying rent/mortgage you should have fairly substantial savings?

What was you doing with your earnings?

Or is it the case that you earn very little hence the mortgage issues? How much is the house worth?

How much debt do you have? But you also have a deposit for house. Would it not be better to pay debt off?
And use the 50% equity in the house as your deposit?
Your DM might be asset rich but cash poor.

You have inherited half a house and seem to think that your mum should give you her half, too. I'm amazed you didn't fall out sooner.

There is a lot to unpack in this thread.

Whether the house should have been sold to cover care is irrelevant, clearly it wasn't, for all we know grandad may have been on CHC and therefore the NHS picked up the bill.

Your mum cannot easily force you to leave the house, you are living there and a part owner, the only way she can get you out is with an order for sale. Whilst these are pretty simple in some cases, they are more tricky in others.

When you own property jointly a trust is automatically established in law, and a judge ruling on the order has to consider if the purpose of the trust still exists - if he was satisfied the grandfather left the house as a home, rather than something to sell, and with the grand daughter and family in residence, and the mother not, he may quite well not issue the order for sale.

In that case there then enters the value of your mothers share, which is not 50% if you are unwilling to sell your share (and are not being obliged to) - an RICS surveyor / valuer would then have to value your mothers share as to be sold with a co-owner who will not sell - generally it is acknowledged that in such circumstances half a house is valued at £0.

Of course you will fall out with your mother if you tread this path.

It was a mistake to start paying rent, up til then you had 50% legal ownership and 100% beneficial interest, which would be a stronger position.

While "Whether the house should have been sold to cover care is irrelevant" is correct in the sense that it has no bearing on the OP being able to buy her mother out, it is the lack of understanding by the OP that she was able to make us of the home rent-free for as long as she did that is contributing to what she says "has caused endless arguments and ruined our relationship".

While I can appreciate that the original post was a request on how to proceed in terms of borrowing money to buy the mother out, it has become clear that the OP really needs to take a step back and look at the situation much more objectively.

It is quite common for houses of those in care, that are not being sold to fund this, to be lived in temporarily by a relative, rent free, the argument would be that the property is less likely to fall into disrepair / gain squatters / be un-insurable without a resident.

If the person in care is not in need of money (ie has other assets paying the bill or on CHC funding for end of life) then an attorney has no duty to make money on the assets such as the house.

I would suggest posters read OPs other threads. The house in Ireland was also left 50% to the OP. She's also made some poor decisions re partners which the mother is frustrated by. The back story to this is bigger than the OP is saying. @propertymanager I wouldn't give her any advice on how to shaft her poor mother.

Interesting, if that is correct about the Ireland property, perhaps a good solution would be for the shares to be exchanged so to speak, so mum ends up with one property outright and the OP the other (of course they doubtless have different values)

My Grandparents would have wanted nothing more than for me to live in their home, that was the way our family worked.

Well it's the way it works for you - you get the rent-free house then low rent house but still manage to run up debts while stopping your mum getting any inheritance. Where's the bit where your part of the family does anything good for someone else? Or do you mean your family is just there to make life easier for you.

Sell the house. You can't buy it, it's not yours. Take your half and use it wisely.

If you lived rent free for 1-2 years before paying reduced rent how on earth are you in debt? You should have accrued a reasonable stash of savings in the last 4 years. Your mum has been reasonable and given you time. That appears to have now passed and 6 months down the line ( based on the 2 yrs starting jan 2022) the house still isn't on the market. You're being very unreasonable.

I quite agree, however, my point remains the same, that someone, somewhere, must have been responsible for the the interests of the granddad, and therefore allowed the OP to move in. That person must have thought it was a good idea to allow this, and my point is that it should all have been agreed from the outset as to what the objectives were, and what would be expected from the OP in the long-term, i.e. to save the rent to clear debts, or save for a deposit, or whatever, as opposed to just allowing her to move in "because".

They could sell the Ireland house and op uses her bit towards buying her mum out of the house she is currently living in. The question you have to ask is why the OP is choosing not to make or even mention in this thread such a logical solution.

If you are paying half the market rent at the moment and even then have needed to take out extra loans rather than paying off debt and saving, it's very hard to see how you would pass any affordability tests for a mortgage. I think you need to accept that getting a mortgage to buy your mum out isn't going to happen and you need to find an alternative way forward.

I'm not sure whether any legal action taken by your mum to force you to pay what you owe her would show on your credit record - a CCJ certainly would. But you are in danger of things getting much worse for you rather than better if you go down the path of forcing her to take legal steps. If you sell willingly and start building your credit score, then there is a hope that you can use your half as a deposit on a house and get a mortgage eventually. If you end up with CCJs, bankruptcy or other serious black marks on your credit file then you are definitely going to end up just handing your inheritance over in rent payments - if there's anything at all left after your legal fees.

It's a shame that this has already destroyed your relationship with your mum. It sounds as though she has already been generous and given you far more time than you originally agreed. Legal action is really the worst course of action for both of you, but you are leaving her no option. The sensible thing for you is to get out of this situation with as much of your inheritance as you can get - and that will be by agreeing to sell and move out.

Just sell the house. Drama over and you’ll have a much bigger deposit. You might even be able to salvage your relationship with your mother.

Who’s paying the council tax and insurance in the property? Are you splitting those bills with your Mum?

I think your Mum has given you a good amount of time to sort this out and as you can't get a mortgage, to her it just seems ongoing with no hope of sorting soon. Half of the value is hers and she either wants to enjoy it, know it's in her bank for security and also from the emotional side of things wants to draw a line under her parents estate.

Moving forward, are you and DP likely to stay together. If so, maybe think discuss and think long-term about buying a property with them. You'll have a sizeable deposit and I guess paid any debts off out of inheritance and they will probably already have some savings/can save.

The house in Ireland is worth a lot less, even so, my mum won't sell the house in Ireland as she said she wants that for her retirement eventually. I've asked her to sell so I can take my 50% out of the house in Ireland which she is outright refusing to do. It has been difficult to save with 3 children and with the cost of living increasing. There is probably a lot more context needed here but it would take all day and the purpose of this post was the ask for any other ideas - some of which have been very helpful.

So you own 50pc of the Ireland house and she owns 50pc of this house?

Surely you can come to an arrangement where you buy her out on a monthly basis?

I've tried so hard to compromise with her and she will not budge on selling the house in Ireland. I've asked her to take full ownership of the house in Ireland she says no, she won't sell it as she wants it for her inheritance. All lenders approved that the house was affordable but didn't like the loan I had taken out.

Just like you’re outright refusing to sell the house you’re living in to give her her 50%?