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Sorry to hear it’s getting complicated. The legal situation on sale will be clear, the conveyancing solicitor will split the proceeds 50/50.
It doesn’t sound like her father is challenging the legal position, just making a practical suggestion, so I don’t think involving solicitors will help and could easily end up costing a lot more than half an estate agent’s fee.
You paying the interest in the mortgage while you still live there seems a very fair suggestion, but by continuing to pay the capital off you’re effectively gifting her a larger share of the property.
I’d stick strictly to a 50/50 arrangement, any wavering from that could end up spiralling and, as you say, if it doesn’t sell for months the amount of capital you pay off could be significant.
It doesn’t sound a very friendly way of doing it but it sounds like you understand that the potential for this to go wrong is huge.
Keep it simple and fair, stick to the arrangement you made when you moved in, and try not to spend a fortune on lawyers.
As for her father not wanting to accept a reasonable offer, I think you’ll just have to worry about that if it happens. Both he and your ex will want to move on emotionally and, so long as you’re not paying off the capital part of the mortgage, there’s no benefit to them hanging on other than to punish you, which it thankfully doesn’t sound like they want to do.
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James, I've gone through almost exactly the same situation as you this year, although I took the property on.
You will need to draft up an agreement/ equity share between you and ex. Although she has asked her father to handle this she will need to sign it.
In this letter you can easily break down the costs of selling and the equity share.
I agree that I don't think it's fair you foot all the bills in order to sell the house, but this is something you'd need to decide on between yourselves.
Sorry to hear about your situation but you must look at this with as little emotion as possible. What's happened has happened.
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I bought my flat with my now ex gf, 2 years ago all 50:50 split.
Is there an express (i.e. written) declaration of trust saying that you own it in equal shares? Might be important.
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On a more serious note, if you bought the property contributing equally to the deposit and mortgage repayments and you bought it on the basis that you own it jointly then I'd endorse what everyone else has said and would suggest that you stick to that. I'd make it clear, politely and firmly to GF's father that you're not going to pay the costs of sale from your share. You bought it 50/50 for better or worse, and if you start trying to vary that by allocating blame for the break-up then that's a sure-fire way of ending up paying lawyers money - which of course despite my flippant remarks above is not a good thing, as I continually try to remind my clients.
As for delaying the sale until spring, and you staying in the flat and paying the mortgage, if you're happy with that and she's happy with that then, provided you get everything in writing, preferably signed by her, then why not go with that? OK, if you're paying the mortgage then your payments will reduce the capital balance outstanding, and she'll benefit from half of that. Then again, if you only bought the place 2 years ago, the vast majority of what you're paying is likely to be interest and the capital element of the repayments is likely to be modest, so although there will be some benefit to her I doubt it'll be that much.
If you do agree to stay and service the mortgage (and you can't get it switched to an interest-only mortgage) then I would however suggest that you make it clear, and agree with the GF, that this arrangement will only last for a fixed period of time, after which you revert back to contributing towards the mortgage 50/50. It's one thing agreeing to a temporarily expedient short-term measure while you sell the flat. It's another thing taking on an open-ended commitment to pay the mortgage which you're both liable for.
I agree with @Hefty that's it's probably not necessary or prudent to get lawyered up yet. Keep it simple, but keep it all in writing so there's no scope of arguments later. Hope it all works out in the end.
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Hefty
spenceey
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@velovelovelo
Morning all, just wanted a quick recommendation on solicitor or any opinions if possible... I bought my flat with my now ex gf, 2 years ago all 50:50 split. We have recently sadly separated (nothing bad from either party, but I was the one to do it) and will be wanting to sell on the flat. Nether of us keen to stay there in the long term now, I'm happy to stay until spring to hopefully have a slightly better time than now to sell. Of course given the market and the state of the general post Brexit economic situation, that in itself is debatable but it still seems the best plan right now.
i am planning on staying there over winter and was willing to take on the responsibility of the mortgage until it is sold on spring, and then claim back the extra equity during that time at sale. It won't be large, I think the payments currrntly are around 50% interest and that will increase when the fixed period finished in December. My ex has given responsibility of sale to her dad as she doesn't feel she can cope with it currently, and he has emailed me explaining the options he can see for sale, which include the fact that he feels I should be responsible for the fees of sale ( estate agents / solicitors) as the causative party. I'm yet to respond as whilst I could easily list a multitude of reasons as to why this won't happen, and the fact that it is fully inappropriate for one party to begin to try to dictate what needs to be looked at as business transaction on emotive terms of fairness and debts, but I'm thinking perhaps it would be worth getting some legal advice before going onwards. He's a good guy, but a bit unpredictable. We've always got on well, and the initial emails exchanged are (currently at least) well intentioned and sympathetic to the situation.
Obviously given the potential for relationships and proceedings to detoriste and complicate matters, I think a professional opinion would be wise. In fact since his request, I'm reconsidering whether it's sensible for me to even offer to cover the mortgage over winter as it would be diverging from the 50:50 agreement everything has been thus far. I guess my main concern would be if the flat failed to sell next spring either due to market issues or perhaps even his refusal to accept an offer, which could be more likely if I was covering the mortgage and there was no risk or cost to him of holding it longer.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? Any ideas of how best to approach things? Is a normal conveyancing solicitor the correct person to approach for this, if there is someone particularly suitable (I know there are few mentioned here previously which I will search through) I would quite like to book an appointment to chat this through with them too, just to know where I stand exactly.