sell joint house-adviseRE court order/valuesplit

hi,
can anyone help.

My partner and i separated last november.
he now wants me to buy him out of the house at the highest current market value or sell the house on the market by him getting a court order. He says if he starts and follows the procss of getting coudr order the party not wanting to sell (i.e. me) ends up paying all those costs associated. Is this true? if he starts proceedings do i have to pay for it?

I'd also like to know if anyone can help advise if he can take half of the house value on sale legally, as we bought the house in joing names, but after renovaltion work and intial deposits i have approx 30K more equity put in the house - he agrees in the value but says its legally half his. Seems unfair so want to undertsand how court or legal system would view that.

Luckliy no kids involved, but think that makes the legal side different.

any and all help much appreciated.
thanks.

Hi,

Regardless of who put what into the FMH you still have a starting base of 50/50 where there are no children in the marriage.

In these type of scenarios the house is either transfered into one person name or sold. If you want the house but he is trying to request a high price then the matter can be refered to court. Are you going through divorce at present? The reason i ask is that matter such as this is handled through the process.
Hope you get this sorted out.
Regards
DA

This is useful background for cohabitants
www.marilynstowe.co.uk/2010/10/01/the-la...t-blogger-paul-read/