Transfer of equity - challenge

[davverb]

Good evening, hopefully straightforward for you guys but apologies if I miss details.

I share a house with my partner - never married and only children are mine from previous relationship who stay weekends.

Having relationship issues and during the heated arguments we have said to split and I'll leave the house, basically taking what I put in. This was never agreed nor sat and documented as ultimately I don't think either of us wanted to split or go through. Although since things have become a little worse and it turns out that they have filed papers for transfer of equity and completed a mortgage application which has been accepted in their sole name.

The problem I have is that I don't actually want to sell ( although if one has to go, I will because I couldn't afford the house alone) and if I was to go the payout she is offering to me is substantially less than half of the difference what the local estate agents value the property at and what is owed. We came into it even and have payed evens since. So it seems fair that any profit on what is owed is split.

Can ex force the transfer through on there mediocre valuation or would the court or solicitors force the valuations to be used - carried out by reputable local companies.

[Sam101]

You have not said who owns the property on the Deeds. Is it owned by one of you, jointly or as tenants in common and do you have a mortgage at present?

[davverb]

Apologies. So joint ownership, joint mortgage, equal deposit, equal input monthly payment. No agreements in place against it, we both just went into it as equals on every level.

[Sam101]

When the property was purchased originally, did you both put in a similar amount of money - 50/50 plus the mortgage? If not, what amounts did you both contribute?

[davverb]

Yes 10% deposit split 50/50. The only thing not even was the builder gave us an extra 10k of extras against the hous (not on the mortgage) based on the part exchange of my sole owned property but I have no doubt I couldn't prove that value and it's wrote off in the package.

[Sam101]

Thank you for confirming the details that you purchased with the same equity 50/50. What you need to bear in mind when considering the value, is would the property actually fetch what an estate agent estimates it would. Could it actually be less and bearing in mind that estate agents fees and solicitors fees would reduce that figure, is the split actually reasonable. You would both get less if you were to force an actual sale to split the final amount.

As presumably you agreed on what you would receive before the other party applied for mortgage, if you now want a larger share, then it may or may not be agreed. In any event it would possibly require another mortgage application. It would be up to the lenders surveyor to establish if the value of the property represented sufficient value and you may finish up with more costs before this is settled.

[davverb]

Thankyou for replying Sam, so the valuation used for ex decision was the purchase price 18 months ago so undoubtly wrong. The estate agent baulked at that figure during the valuation and even with a very conservative valuation was considerably higher than the offer( a further two more may give a good indication). They are a respected agency and can demonstrate from other sales that they would be confident of obtaining a much higher sale but would remain conservative in the valuation. The difference is around 3-40k so significantly above the agents and solicitors fees.
they would need to pay stamp duty but I don't think that is factored in as that isnt avoidable on their side.

In terms of the original figure being agreed, it never was.. it's a figure that was thrown in during heated arguments and at no point discussed or agreed. Although their argument is I pushed the situation to this I would argue that wasn't the case and I would never have asked to sell the house.

A second point is possibly that yes I havnt applied for a mortgage to buy them out (because I'm clearly not as prepared as they are) and they wouldn't sell it to me but I don't feel I should be forced to accept an offer on my home that I don't wish to leave and certainly not until I can be sure I have a place to go with my children just because they are further on in the process than me.

[Sam101]

OK, that's fair enough, All you need do is let the others know you do not agree and will not agree to the sale. They cannot force the issue if you are joint owners. See if you can reach another agreement based on the additional valuations. Let us know how you get on.