What am I entitled to

Hi every one,
I have just moved out of my home, that I have been living in for the past 7 years and I was living with my ex for 18 years and I am at this moment in time renting, but there is about £85,000 equity in the house............My kids are living there, but I don’t want to rent for the rest of my life..........Is it possible for me to make her, by law, give me some of the equity that’s in the house to put down on my own house as a deposit, if she can’t afford to do that can I make her sell it, so that I can get my money out......and what percentage of the houses equity am I entitled to..........If this is not possible, at what stage can I get my money out,eg if someone else moves in or she moves house.

Hi there

Partner or wife?

If partner:
Is the house in joint names?
Where did the deposit come from?
Who paid the mortgage?

If wife, you would need to post your:
Ages
Length of marriage and any period of cohab before
No of and ages of children
Assets
Liabilities
Incomes
Needs

Amanda

Hi there

Partner or wife...............I am the partner (male) we wasn’t married but we were together for 18years

If partner:
Is the house in joint names.....................The house is in joint names at the minute I have left my name on it, as at the moment ,it was remortgaged as if my name wasn’t on it she would get a mortgage, this fixed rate is for 2 years.

Where did the deposit did come from....................The deposit of £9,000 came from my first home which was left to me when my parents died.
Who paid the mortgage................The mortgage has always been in joint names but I have always been on twice as much income as her.

If wife, you would need to post your:
Ages..................................me 38.................her 35

Length of marriage and any period of cohab before.............................18years together,living toghether,17 years
No of and ages of children.......................2 boys age 6 and 9
Assets.................................2 cars 1 worth £14,000 she put 16,000 on the mortgage to pay that loan off,thats hers, I have one worth £6000

Liabilities...........not sure what you mean

Incomes................................me £40,000,her £20,000

Needs ..................................food/clothing/socializing/petrol..............me £450.her...£600

Thankyou

just a quick question can i ask how your wife houses , feeds, clothes, ferry's about, gives pocket money to, pays for school trips,holidays,saves for uni and a car each,hobbies and entertainment for two kids on 600 a month and could she help me with my finances ...many thanks

LOL pyrategal,

The lady in question should not just help YOU with your finances - she has a much higher calling !

I say she should be Chancellor of the Exchequer : with her at the helm, the credit crunch wouldn't get a look in.....

Red XX

Hi there

Thanks. For all the other wiki peeps who will read this - this is a co-hab case, and has nothing to do with divorce and AR, so please do not try to apply it to your own cases.

As the property is in joint names the starting division is 50:50. The only way you can shift the presumption of 50:50 is by either showing that you did a declaration of beneficial interests that set out the shares in a different way (which you would remember doing - v formal legal doc) or you had a joint intention to hold the shares differently.

Unless she agrees to either buy you out or sell, you need to apply to the court for an order for sale. This does not mean the house will be sold, as she would be given the opportunity to buy you out - that is simply the name of the application.

The "bonus" in these cases, if it can be called that, is that costs follow the event - which means that if she forces you to take her to court, she will end up paying your costs out of her share. The reason this is a bonus (aside from the obvious) is that it means that people not only take legal advice, but they take it seriously and few of these cases end up in court because of the real costs risks involved.

If she will not talk sensibly go see a lawyer, and have the lawyer write to her. This will then prompt her to take legal advice and the case should settle quickly.

BTW - she may raise Schedule 1 Children Act and claim that this will entitle her to live in the house until your child is 18 - it wont - a house is only awarded in big money cases where the non resident parent can afford to have a house held in trust while maintaining another - in everyday cases such as yours, the court knows it is unfair and will not do it.

And finally, just in case you did not know, as you are not married, she has no claim for maintenance for herself, nor a claim against any pension etc you may have. Your only other liability to her will be child maintenence. However, if there are other assets in joint names, these need to be divided along the lines of who put what in.

Amanda

Thanks Amanda...............very interesting and thanks for taking time out to reply.............

Regarding maintenance for the kids,plus,we have a couple of loans outstanding, that are in her name and 2 increases on the mortgages that bumped the payments up, should i be paying half for the increases in the mortgages.........
I am currently paying her £520 a month, I did a calculation from the site and for the kids it came out at £420 and taking the loan into account and mortgage increase it’s not far off.......
Would anyone care to reply to that, I got few laughs earlier but this is serious business.........
I keep getting from her your giving me this amount so your kids can have a certain standard of living, but the way she goes out all the time I think it’s for her and not me..

Also do I still have to pay half the mortgage to be entitled to it,I have my own rent to pay now and she is getting the maintance and extra for the kids and loan but nothing towards the mortgage as I cant afford to give her anything else,does this mean she will get a bigger cut of the equity as I am only giving her child maintanence