Couple splitting up

I am just wondering if anyone has been in this position or knows of anyone perhaps that has been through.....

My daughter had been with her Partner since 2000 Unmarried
In October 2010 they jointly bought a House
In September 2011 he started a relationship with someone else
In December 2011 my daughter moved out & into a rented House alone
In July 2012 my daughter had to move again as she was unable to rent alone & moved into a House Share(rented)

August 2012 daughters ex Partner contacts her to say Solicitors fee to transfer Joint Mortgage to his name only etc £800 of which he expects her to pay half - she has asked him for a copy of the Solicitors invoice!
Also no mention of any possible monies to her in relation to her contributions to House Deposit & House Redec & Renovations

I have told her to get Independant advice & a seperate solicitor to work for her....

What else can she do? Does she have rights to Monies mentioned?

Eeek

The Moneysavingexpert forums are great for this - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com
She doesn't have to be married to him to earn her share in the house - especially if she has a clear papertrail of money going towards the mortgage and it's in both their names. There have even been instances where partners who've moved in to a house not in their name at all have managed to claim a share in it at a later date simply for contributing (not even necessarily financially, but with free labour etc) to the renovations/decorating of it.

However, getting money out of the house will either require the ex to buy her out, or them to sell up so she may want to look into whether there is actually any equity in it - if the house prices are looking dismall then she may be better off cutting her losses. But some more knowledgable people on the MSE forums should help give some more thorough advice.

I think she not only has rights but liabilities too. If they bought the house on a joint mortgage she would still be liable to pay the mortgage if he stopped paying for any reason whether she lives there or not.
How big was the deposit if it's fairly small I'd tell him to take the fee out of that and send me the rest. Unless the deposit was substantial I'd tell him to sort it himself, I'd sign the documents and pay for nothing.
I had a joint mortgage with someone a friend about 40 years ago and when I moved out he stayed and maintained the mortgage etc. It only became a problem when he wanted to sell the house as I had to sign the documents too, but we were still good friends and I had moved on and bought another property so didn't want anything out of his sale. Buying had been cheaper than renting and although we split the payments 50/50 the deposit was all his. We had spent a fair bit on improvements but I took the view I had benefited from those while living there and saw no reason for recompense. Obviously not the same situation as we were still on very good terms and as we were only friends rather than lovers it's easier to be sensible.

Would the paperwork he wants her to pay half towards not hand him the entire house in his name only???????????? Sounds like he is backhandedly trying to cut her out of the loop without 'buying her out' but by in fact making her pay to give him her share????

NOW I know nothing of the legal side of the matter at all but I wouldn't sign over to him, He should have to buy her out, it sounds fishy to me and lets face it we already have established that he's untrustworthy, tell her to seek advise straight away x

Leaving aside the he/she aspect - if it was bought jointly both parties are responsible for paying the mortgage whether they live in it or not - i.e. their responsibility to pay half the mortgage does not stop when they move out.

It was only being bought for one year and could probably be claimed that house prices have fallen since then (thereby making it difficult to claim that there will be positive equity in the future (some ex wives have claimed a 'future' benefit and had trust set up).

Either side claiming they put 'capital investment' into it or more deposit than the other would be required to provide evidence of this.

I successfully claimed sole right to the house I lived in with my ex after being married to him for 20 yrs (he thought he'd be entitled to half - he was in fact ordered to pay some money (but never did). But I'd had a house when he met me - and tho we'd bought and sold a few times since then, he had never made any capital investments and could not show that he had, nor bought any major furniture or appliances, paid for improvements etc. He had in fact profited from the sale of the various houses along the way and, I think quite importantly, I was able to show I was the major wage earner for most of the marriage.

Your daughter needs to see a solicitor experienced in this sort of case and be guided by them. The co mortgagee no doubt has done so - you say he has started the process of transferring to his sole name so presumably your daughter agreed to this? And her 'ex' would have had to show he could afford to take the mortgage on in his sole name so presumably he can afford to do so (which is very lucky for your daughter in the circumstances). Could have been far worse if he'd left leaving her with a mortgage that he's stopped paying half of and she had no means to pay it all.

I know of one case where an ex wife demanded the house be sold so she could get some money from it (she was a joint mortgagee tho' never paid the mortgage). Her ex sold it to PROVE there was no equity and she ended up with a huge liability - house prices had fallen and the mortgage was only a few years old and it ended up being sold for about £20K less than was still owed on the outstanding mortgage - I don't know of any houses that would realise more money when sold just a year after being purchased on mortgage than they cost when bought. One or two year's mortgage repayments would hardly dent the debt.

My personal view is that I would consider the sum being asked for to be a small price to pay to release me from what was obviously a bad experience and a mistake and something I 'wanted out' of.

I believe the deposit paid was £15000 of which he paid £9000 & she paid £6000.

Understand re Libilities too.

Copies of receipts etc in House....think she still has key so able to obtain.

Yes she has agreed that He take over the Mortgage as she is not able to finacially.....but wondered if she had to pay half cost without seein docs relating to this & fact that this wouldn't be happening but for him - sorry slightly upset by all

Have told her before now about Legal Advice etc but only now can she see that she has to sort this out with someone on her side so to speak

Thanks all x

In that case I would say he needs to buy her out of the deposit and she would sign the documents at that point with a solicitor and half the fee for signing it over should come out of what she gets back. I certainly wouldn't sign it over into his name without documentation agreeing how much she was to be reimbursed. So he needs to get himself a loan. If the house has depreciated in value then he could argue that she has to bear half the cost of the depreciation which could lose her the deposit. First step is 3 valuations I think and take it from there.

I absolutely agree that this should be the first thing to be done.

Yes but she should see a solicitor before agreeing to anything - but if she has not honoured her half of the mortgage payments for a year or so, this (along with any depreciation in value and other expenses) will be taken into account too when any assessment of what she might be 'entitled' to is made.

as long as she hasnt recieved a letter from the firm herself he just trying it on if she hasnt signed anything then she cant be hold responsable as long as you have lived together for more than six months and you can prove you paided some bills then you are now counted as common law husband and wife so get the same legal rights most solicitors will contact you throught letter not throught third party and the first hour at most firms is free so ask some questions yourself