Question about selling my house.

[Deimos]

I posted about my issues with a co owner of this house, back in June 2011.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...father-at-risk

 

To cut a long story short

 

I co own a house, with my father and uncle

 

The house has a tenants in common house deed, it was purchased for £180,000

My father put down a £40,000 deposit, making the mortgage some £700 a month, for £140,000. (£20,000 was also spent by my father and I, on updating the house)

The mortgage was supposed to be paid by myself and my uncle.

The uncle stopped paying his share back in October 2010, we didn't find out till April 2011, as he'd been intercepting the mail and phone calls, we only got wind of the problem when he happened to be out one day and WE got the mail about the arrears (Some £4500ish)

 

The uncle moved out in May 2011 and we've been paying off the arrears and mortgage, by renting out two rooms in our home.

 

Here's the problem.

 

We have no trust deeds setup on the property/equity, which I believe we should've got when we purchased it.

 

We obviously weren't expecting things to go pear shaped, but I want to sell the house, because we barely scrape by each month and we can't remortgage to get the uncle removed from the deeds, because my dad is now to old to get a mortgage in his name AND because all our credit has been ruined by him keeping the arrears hidden from us for half a year.

 

But, if we sell and have no trust deeds, does that mean each of us gets an equal share? Or would my father get back his £40,000? and the £20,000 spent on updating?

 

My uncle never put anything into the house, money wise, so I'm wondering if there's a way to sell, without him getting anything, given how much of a mess he's left us in

[assisted blonde]

Do you have any documentation showing the initial paymemt made by your Father? If so you may find that this could help in him getting the deposit back before the rest of the sale revenue is distributed.

Normalyl in a tennancy in common in the absence of a trust each person owns an equal share, with a trust dead then it would show who owns what percentage of the property and if there are any deposits etc to be repaid from the sale proceeds.

Are you in contact with your uncle, if so in return for you not pursuing him for his share of the mortgage payments he may sign his share over to you,

You really need to see a Solicitor to deal with this.

[Deimos]

Hmm, sadly no, I can't seem to find anything in the mortgage stuff about a deposit.

 

If he could get a hold of his bank statement for 2005, do you think that would suffice? And/or contacting the mortgage company perhaps, they might have records of the original deposit?

 

Thanks for your help so far

[assisted blonde]

The mortgage company would have details of what was paid but it wouldnt say whose money it actually was as it would have been a joint application. I really think get what evidence you can from the mortgage co, bank etc and go to a solicitor. Trying to sell property and deal with financial issues surroundinga property when it is anything less than strightforward is fraught with problems.

I still say try and approach your uncle and get him to agree to forego his share if he hasnt paid anything,( if he agrees get it drawn up legally right away), but please see a solicitor even if its just a quick free 1/2 hour as you need some advice in the absence of an official trust document.

The only other thing I can think of is was the deposit a loan by your father to you and your uncle and if so was there any paperwork drawn up at the time either formally or informally, also I am not sure but you may be able to put a charge against your uncles share if you can get a court order to show he owes you money, although thats a bit of a long shot, but if you could then you would be a prefferential creditor after the mortgage has been paid off, so you or your father would get the 40k back, but the remainder would still be split 3 ways.

[Deimos]

Well the good thing is, the house was originally in my name, my fathers and my brothers

 

My brother moved out and the uncle took over my brothers share of the mortgage.

 

The problem is, we can't get him off the house deeds or mortgage, without re mortgaging, which we can't do, so I don't think we could get him to agree to hand over his share? Not sure

[Deimos]

I seem to be getting conflicting information from different sources

 

Others have said the money would be split three ways evenly, because the money was used to purchase the house, it wasn't added AFTER the purchase (e.g. for an extension, conservatory etc)

 

Also, if one of the parties refuses to sell, can the sale be forced?