separation

[nikita29]

me and my partner brought our house just over 2years ago(joint mortgage) our relationship is now breaking down, he will not leave the house. we both want the property. what should i do? he pays the mortgage but i pay out everything else. i do not know where i stand

[Gok Wan]

Could you afford the mortgage on your own, would you satisfy the lenders income criteria? Would your partner?

If you both could afford to get a mortgage in your sole names, you may have no other option but to sell if neither of you is willing to budge.

[vehelpfulguy]

As it is a joint mortgage you do not need to worry "where you stand" as you own half the house and he cannot do anything about that (even though he is paying the mortgage, you are still contributing by paying for everything else).

You will almost certainly find the value of your house is less than it was when you bought it 2 years ago, it is also a very bad time to sell.

I guess you have 4 choices:

1) Stay in the house together, but not as a partnership, almost as two "friends" sharing the same house, until the housing market picks up. This may be difficult bearing in mind you were in a relationship.

2) He tries to raise the money to buy you out

3) You try to raise the money to buy him out

4) If neither of you can afford to buy the other one out then sell the house and split whatever is left after paying off the mortgage.

whatever you do, dont just move out and give up your half. You are entitled to half the house (assuming there is anything left after you pay off the mortgage).

[Fay Mousse]

You both have equal rights over the house and if you don't agree between you it will get very expensive involving courts and solicitors.

Firstly - can either of you afford it alone? If not, there is no issue - you have to sell.

If one of you can afford it, that person should give a reasonable amount to the other to account for any equity in the house. But be realistic.

If both can afford it - one of you will have to give way,

It is irrelevant who has paid what - you are joint owners.

[vehelpfulguy]

One other thing. You do not say how much money you put down on the house before getting the mortgage, but if it was not much you may find you now have negative equity.

So suppose you put down �20,000 and got a mortgage of �130,000 and paid �150,000 for the house.

But the house may have dropped in price so now it could only be sold for say �125,000.

This means that the house is actualy worth less than the mortgage, so you are in negative equity.

Under this circumstance there is nothing to actually do do "buy out" your partner.

What you have to do is try to convert the joint mortgage to a single person mortgage (in either his name or yours - depending who can afford it) and the other move out.

But if neither of you can afford to take on the whole mortage then you have little choice but to sell.