Help! Mortgage

[Anne36012]

I’ve never posted on here before so not even sure if anyone can help me but I thought I’d ask if anyone is an expert in this region and I don’t have to pay more solicitors bills.
In 2013 my partner (not married) walked out on me and my son ( was having an affair with co worker) I continued to live in our house which is in joint names and have been paying the mortgage solely ever since. He has since shacked up with the girl he left me for and they have a child together. He now wants to sell the house as he has been renting. This I completely understand and have no intention of trying to make things awkward but at the same time I want to be able to provide a nice home for my son now 8 (& myself)
We bought the house in 2007 for £205000 when he left in 2013 the house was valued at around £175-180k.
Today it’s worth around £220-225k.
I am now in the process of trying to buy him out but because he will not help me with child care I am really limited as to jobs because I can’t work shifts etc. So my earnings are minimum.
Now I’m trying to get him to settle on a figure for a buy out. Would any profits made since he left and I continued to pay the mortgage be mine?
So if I sold on today’s value at say 220 minus the mortgage amount then split 50/50 (even though I’ve kept up payments on my own) we would both walk away with roughly 75k each. But if this was calculate on the value of house when he left his 50% would only be roughly 53k and I could continue to live in the house. I am aware that I would then in theory get more out of it but without sounding bitter because he doesn’t have to worry about childcare he has had free reign to peruse his career and earns my annual salary in about 6weeks so that £50k plus his salary would allow him to get a bloody nice house where as I am not quite in the same position.
So essentially when working out the division would I base this on the house value when he left or today’s value? (Legally speaking this is not morally)
Sorry for waffling but I really am eager to get sorted.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated x

I don't know legally sorry but it sounds fair that it should be at the point of when he left .... I know you say your not married but you have a child together.... I was told by my solicitor that had we not been in debt we could have gone for a 60/40 split or as far as a 70/30 as we have a child and I am looking after her so it may be the case that even if legally the split should be based on the value of the house now ..that you maybe able to get a higher split ...hope I'm making sense there so instead of a 50/50 based on the value of the house now you could have a 60/40 split based on your child being with you and the fact you have paid for the house since he left. Hope that helps x

I think you can start with what you think is reasonable and hopefully he will go with it.
He may accept the 2013 valuation. Is your relationship amicable?

Were deposits equal? Are you joint tenants?

If this went to court then I think its difficult to say what would happen, potentially you could get the value of capital paid off since 2013 but since there was no agreement for this and if its joint ownership a split as of today could be possible.

You look at the value it was when he left. He's not paid anything towards it since, so any increase in value is not down to him.

He's an absolute bastard for not taking care of your child or paying towards childcare. I wouldn't be doing him any favours whatsoever now.

You need proper legal advice OP but it might be worth reposting in Legal Matters (under 'Other Stuff' in the main Talk menu) for some initial advice.

If your not married, it is mainly down to the legal ownership of the house. How is it owned?

As you’re not married I don’t think you can get a better than 50:50 split. I’m not a solicitor, but I’m pretty sure it’s just treated as a joint investment between two parties, exactly as if you’d bought (for instance) a business together.

I’m also not sure that you’d get anywhere with the valuation piece / dates either but it’s worth proposing it. Or I think it would be fair to take the payments and interest (you’ve made since he left) off the capital amount if you use the current valuation. So 75k less those 5 years of payments.

Again, not sure if you could make that “stick” legally, but it’s worth negotiating from that position. You’d both lose money by going through court, and it would take time, so he may prefer to come to a deal. Have you tried speaking to CAB about this? Their advice is free.

Thanks for replies, ownership of house is ‘tenants in common’ as when we moved in he had some inheritence which he used as deposit, he put £50k in I put £10k and we signed a declaration of trust to stipulate this, my understanding of this is that upon sale of the house he would at least get his initial investment back? Which I am proposing he does.
To clarify he does have our son regularly, every Sunday afternoon to be precise but he will not deviate from this arrangement.
I think maybe I’ll pop down CAB before I go see solicitors and see what they say.
He is very eager for the sale to happen ASAP so I don’t really have time on my side, I was made redundant a few months ago so recently started a new job and I’m on a lower salary because I’ve had to start at the bottom again, essentially I’m not earning enough to get the mortgage to buy him out, however I’ve spoken to a mortgage advisor and if I can get another part time job to bump up my salary I can secure the extra borrowing, this is manageable when son is back at school in sept but without his help not until then. He says he wants it sorted before then and his solicitor told him to apply for a court order and to get that done he has to get a CCJ against me first?
I work in a bank and cannot have any bad debts against me, plus it’ll make it almost impossible to get a mortgage if he does go through with it.
Can you actually get a CCJ against someone for a mortgage or do you think it’s scare tactics?
Sorry to keep rambling x

I think you need some legal advice.

Don't let him push you into a bad deal. Forcing a sale is expensive and slow so you definitely have the upper hand.

Not that relevant..but he sounds like a prick. Sunday afternoon visits with his child? That's it? It might be regular but its still shit.

Thanks I think I’ll do that, and hope for best 🙂

I totally agree about the whole visit situation but it won’t ever change so I’ve learbt to accept it, son doesn’t really know any different. He is super close to my brother and I honestly think he looks at him as more of a father figure

Just been reading the stuff about possible CCJs, shit i had no idea that was a thing. Though it does seems like a)that's not definate b) it trashes a few months at least.

Definitely legal advice.

You mention he's a high earner? Does he pay the minimum child maintenance? If not get that sorted with CMS.

Good luck!

*takes a few months, though trashes sort of works

This whole CCJ thing only came about in last couple of days so haven’t had time to get proper advice but from googling it, it does seem pretty serious stuff.
Im Not getting what I should from him in CM, but I’ve let it slide because I manage and on the few occasions I mebioned it he then threatens me with the house and quite frankly my home is more important than a few extra hundred quid a month .... although rest assured once the house is sorted and he has nothing else to dangle above my head I fully intend on going for the full amount!

You need a solicitor. He's not paid anything for his ds. Surely that needs tho be taken into account even though it sounds like he is entitled to his 50% as well as his bigger deposit.

Check your Declaration of Trust. The £50k your partner put in may be represented as a percentage of the value of the property back then. I had a Declaration of Trust too and my deposit was represented as a percentage. My partner put in £0. We have split up now, and the value of my deposit has risen, which has affected his equity amount.

He does pay me every month but no where near what I’m entitled do, my friends ex husband is on a very similar salary to his and they go through CSA and she gets £700 every month 😳
I get £160 ..I said I’ll go for full amount in previous post but actually I’m not really interested in rinsing him and would be happy with a lot less than £700 but I just don’t think it’s fair how these men just walk away and everything is easy and the women are left behind struggling, I guess that’s life tho.
I’m going to go to CAB as my first point of contact then get a solicitor I suppose

He does realise that in order to sell he actually has to get a buyer? In this market its not a sellers market.
He sounds so selfish, Leaving and not paying towards the mortgage then expecting you to sell when it suits him, He has a buyer in you ready and waiting and his son gets to stay in his home with his mother, not having to pay solicitors fees and the prospect of finding a buyer and them pulling out, the whole process takes months anyway!
Get yourself a decent solicitor, I hope you manage to sort it OP.

I’ve checked it Lexjo and it’s is as an amount not a percentage, it stipulates that we will both get our deposits back and any other equity in the house will be split 50/50 but this is sale not be buying him.

My point exactly, to give me a bit of time to get myself up straight and buy him out is going to be a lot quicker and avoid all court fees but I’m sure he’s just doing this to be bloody spiteful.

OP that's a huge amount he's avoided paying! Over five years it's more than 30k you and more importantly your child have been short changed.

If he's going to force the sale anyway i really don't see the point in waiting to get maintenance increased.

I don't think your proposal is fair to him, no, sorry.

Bastard though he is, he does have the right to own and benefit from his property.

On the day he left the house, he owned an amount of house of a value equal to his initial deposit plus a 50% share of whatever equity had been paid off at that point. Let's call this amount £Y.

Your proposal is to give him £Y - but in the intervening years firstly £Y worth of house has increased in value from market fluctuations and he has every right to the benefit of that increase.

Secondly, you have been enjoying the benefit of that asset of his at no cost.

For a completely fair division - what is £Y as a percentage of the value of the house the day he left - call that X%. As a starting point he should get X% of the actual sale price of the house, less any legal fees.

However - an adjustments.

He owned X% of the house so technically could have charged you X% of market rent to live there. Add that X% to the pitiful CM he has been giving you for a revised slightly-less-pitiful CM value.

Calculate what his CM should have been (15%) and how much arrears of CM he owes you, and deduct that from the total you give him.