Q About five years ago, my partner moved into my house with me. I had an outstanding mortgage of just under £40,000.
My partner wanted to own a 50% share of the property so we had the house appraised and used the middle of the three appraisals which was £240,000 so she gave me cash of £120,000. I decided to pay off the current mortgage using the money from his £120,000 in cash. I am now worried that my partner had to contribute towards the repayment of the existing mortgage as if I had decided to keep the mortgage she would have had to contribute towards the monthly amount of the mortgage. It was my partner’s suggestion to pay off the mortgage using the £120,000 money she had given me.
Have I been misled here? This really worries me, any advice you could give me would be appreciated. We had a lawyer put it in writing that she owned 50% of the property, but there were no details on how she was entitled to 50%.
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A No, you weren’t misled and I don’t understand why you think she should have helped pay off the mortgage. She wanted to buy half a share of the property and did so by paying you £120,000. If she had paid off half the mortgage on top of paying you £120,000 in cash, her share of the property should have increased to just over 58%, because she would have effectively paid you £140,000.
I also don’t understand why you think your partner should have contributed to the monthly mortgage payments if you hadn’t repaid the mortgage. It would only be a reasonable assumption if she had taken out half the mortgage – so £20,000 – and only paid you £100,000 in cash for her 50% share, making a total contribution of £120,000.
If anyone should be worried, it’s your partner. If I were her, I would want to know not only that a lawyer put it in writing, but that the same lawyer added her name to the land registry. She can check out by paying a small fee and clicking the “start now” button here.
