Hi newstarter, Thanks for your advice. With regards to 'buying him out', what value could I put on that, bearing in mind that the property is in negative equity? The deposit I paid was 10% of the purchase price. Could I therefore buy him out for 5% of the purchase price? I also wonder if the mortgage company would allow this as I have a modest income and live outside of the UK. He has threatened court action but I don't think he can afford it as he is effectively living off his family and myself. Regards, Mary Fairly

I have a property with my ex partner which has been solely funded by me. The deposit was raised from equity released from my previous property and I have solely paid the interest-only mortgage for 3+ years now. The property cost 400K, and is now estimated to be worth 300K. He has been living in the property since we split, 6 months after buying it. I live in a different country with my parents and our young son. I have not received any child maintenance from my ex. I have not pursued this through the courts, as he has never worked and as I understand it, I’d only be entitled to 11% of his salary, so that’s 11% of nothing! I want to sell the property now to cut my losses as the property is in bad repair and deteriorating and interest rates can only go up. He claims not to want to live in it as there is no central heating and very little comfort, but he says he won’t let me sell unless he can make a profit on it, or I buy him out with the funds I made selling my previous property (our previous home to which he contributed nothing in bills or rent for the time I owned it). He claims that I should pay him for the renovation work he did to this previous property to increase its price. We both worked on the property and we never had any agreement they he was entitled to any of the profit should we separate. The reality is that the profit was only 10K after I had deducted my downpayment on the property. I can afford to take a hit on our jointly owned property using this downpayment, as I’m afraid of losing more in the long term. Alternatively he wants me to invest a large sum in the property so he can do it up to achieve a better sale price and walk away with half the profit. What he refuses to recognize, is that it would still be in negative equity in the current market (we have had it valued in its current state and finished by two local agents). I believe that I would also be entitled to deduct my deposit and his unpaid half of the mortgage payments from any profit before it was split. This he also disagrees with. Any advice please as how to force him to let me sell our property? And whether you think he is entitled to anything? Thank you, mary unfairly