Can she get half?

What is the name of your state? CT

Hello. Last August I bought a home with my girlfriend. We now have a joint mortgage. We did not make any agreements prior to the purchase. I put down 90% of the down payment.

She now wants out of the relationship, so we need to sell the house. She is saying that since there was no agreement, and since she is just as liable for the house financially and physically as I am, that she should be entitled to half of the monies that come out of the sale. I think that I should get 90% of the money, since I put 90% down. We got the joint mortgage because my credit was not sufficient to get the loan, and she had great credit. Please advise.

[HomeGuru]

Originally posted by selling
What is the name of your state? CT

Hello. Last August I bought a home with my girlfriend. We now have a joint mortgage. We did not make any agreements prior to the purchase. I put down 90% of the down payment.

She now wants out of the relationship, so we need to sell the house. She is saying that since there was no agreement, and since she is just as liable for the house financially and physically as I am, that she should be entitled to half of the monies that come out of the sale. I think that I should get 90% of the money, since I put 90% down. We got the joint mortgage because my credit was not sufficient to get the loan, and she had great credit. Please advise.

**A: look at your deed and tell us what it states regarding both names and tenancy and percentage of interest. Do not give us your real names.

Thank you for the fast reply. We are joint tenants. I have put a call into the lawyer we used to close on the house to find out about the percentage of interest. How will that sway it? Thank you.

Hello again. I have the answers. The interest is 6.625% and we are Joint Tenants. Am I out of luck here?

[HomeGuru]

Originally posted by selling
Hello again. I have the answers. The interest is 6.625% and we are Joint Tenants. Am I out of luck here?

**A: are you looking at your deed and then your mortgage note? The 6.625% interest is the interest on your mortgage loan correct? On your deed stating joint tenants, is there any % of interest stated? If not then it is 50/50.

[JETX]

Here is the solution to your problem....

From the proceeds of the sale, set aside the amount of deposit. You get 90% of that 'set aside' and she gets the remaining 10%. The remainder of any money over the 'set aside' is split 50-50.

Case closed.

Signed....
King Solomon

Thank you. I would be willing to do that, but what if she is not willing to set it aside? Does she have any legal way of getting 50% of the proceeds, not accounting for the down payment? I mean, as an example, if the house was sold for 200k and I put down 45k and she put down 5k. If it now sells for 200k could she get 25k?

HomeGuru, I do not have the deed in front of me, but I believe that there is no mention of the percent of interest.

[HomeGuru]

Originally posted by selling
Thank you. I would be willing to do that, but what if she is not willing to set it aside? Does she have any legal way of getting 50% of the proceeds, not accounting for the down payment? I mean, as an example, if the house was sold for 200k and I put down 45k and she put down 5k. If it now sells for 200k could she get 25k?

HomeGuru, I do not have the deed in front of me, but I believe that there is no mention of the percent of interest.

**A: ok, then I guess you were just guessing and not telling us the real facts.

I sincerely apologise for 'not using real facts'. I just got off the phone with the lawyer who did the closing. He had the deed in front of him. There is no mention of the percent of interest. I asked him if that meant it was 50/50 and he said that we would have to work out what the percent was, and that he was not saying it was 50/50. It is definitely joint tenants with rights of ownership. Please, is this information sufficient?

[JETX]

"Does she have any legal way of getting 50% of the proceeds,"
*** Of course she does. For $20K difference, she may very well get an attorney to pursue her claim, justified or not. The question then would become... how much are you willing to spend to challenge her claim??

The fact is.... you put yourself into this situation and you are now going to have to manage a way to extract yourself..... with as little damage as possible. You need her signature (assuming it is on the title), so you are going to have to resolve this.

[Souix]

Originally posted by selling
I sincerely apologise for 'not using real facts'. I just got off the phone with the lawyer who did the closing. He had the deed in front of him. There is no mention of the percent of interest. I asked him if that meant it was 50/50 and he said that we would have to work out what the percent was, and that he was not saying it was 50/50. It is definitely joint tenants with rights of ownership. Please, is this information sufficient?

***Are you sure its not "joint tenants with rights of survivorship?"

Her signature is on the title, but I put in 90% of the down payment! Aren't I entitled to get that back upon the sale of the home?

I really appreciate your responses. This board is a life-saver. Do you know how this would work? I have already told her that I want my 90% back when the house sells. She won't tell me what she wants, so I'm not even sure if she's going for 50. But assuming that she does, wouldn't she have to tell me? Or could she just get a lawyer and get him to tell me? Would this go to court? I have so many questions and thanks again. I figured it was pretty cut-and-dry; we're not married and I put all the money in. So how does she get my money out of this?

What is the name of your state? ct

***Are you sure its not "joint tenants with rights of survivorship?"

We must have crossed. Yes you're right! Rights of survivorship, not ownership. Sorry for the confusion. I'm a little flustered, as it is upsetting to think I may loose all this money.

[Souix]

Originally posted by selling
What is the name of your state? ct



We must have crossed. Yes you're right! Rights of survivorship, not ownership. Sorry for the confusion. I'm a little flustered, as it is upsetting to think I may loose all this money.

***Whatever is agreed to make sure its a WIN/WIN agreement. I think JETX's advice on the split is reasonable. You get your 90%, she gets her 5% and then whatever is left over is split 50/50. If you ever enter into buying a house with someone else again, make sure you get this part of it straitened out first.***

I agree that it would be better to do it that way. But, I don't think she'll agree to it. She needs to buy another house after this one sells, since she has pets and can't rent. If she went along with that she would end up with almost no money, only the 5k she put down. So I'm wondering what she would be able to do to get half of everything. The house has been ours for less than a year, so I don't think we're going to make much extra money on this. We're not married, so that's why I thought it would turn out like you said, with each of us getting our down payment back and splitting the rest. But she may want to split everything and I wonder if that 's possible. Thanks.