Bought house with friend - want out!

CheekyC

My girlfriend bought a house with her friend during the boom in Cork. For the sake of this thread I will call her friend, Mary. They have been living together for 5 years. They have had a falling out, mainly speak through emails and maybe pass greetings in the house. This has been going on for months. It’s got to the stage where my girlfriend can’t take it any more and is thinking of moving to Dublin to me. My girlfriend won’t sell as she will be in negative equity. Its got to the stage where Mary has threatened her with emails of legal jargon, saying that she is breaking the contract if I stay over 5 nights a week, on a very rare occasion that I would visit for that long (in their contract that they drew up it stated that partners only allowed stay max of 4 nights) and that I have a key and on a rate occasion, let myself in! My girlfriend is afraid that Mary is going to sue her. They won’t sit down and talk about it as Mary avoids her and so, only communicates through emails. I have told my girlfriend to rent the room out as Mary is not going to move. Does she have to give much notice, if any, to Mary if she rents her room out? Has anyone been in this situation before and how did they manage to solve it? Should she be seeking legal advice? Has anyone been in this situation or know of someone who has experienced this too? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks C

Jemmy

It's a very messy situation I'd say the best thing to do is get legal advice, this 'Mary' woman sounds like trouble tbh.


Also strange to start into something with rules like 4 nights max a wk for partners, that just screams future problems imo.

Mr. Presentable

Four options

1 Kiss and make up
2 Mary sells your gf her half at a loss
3 Gf sells Mary her half at a loss
4 They sell the house and both take a loss

Not great options (:)), but I'd recommend 1 or 4.

CheekyC

At the time they bought the house my girlfriend was going out with someone else and Mary was single so didnt want him around too much. Also, I suppose if Mary ever had a boyfriend, my girlfriend wouldnt want him to be staying every night.

RedPlanet

CheekyC wrote: »

At the time they bought the house my girlfriend was going out with someone else and Mary was single so didnt want him around too much. Also, I suppose if Mary ever had a boyfriend, my girlfriend wouldnt want him to be staying every night.

Jeez, not exactly playing a long game are ye?
What did they imagine, that in 30 years time they'd both be single and still best friends?

Firetrap

I guess like most people who bought a house during the boom, that they thought they'd be able to sell it at a profit when the time came.

I'd say getting some legal advice might be the best way to solve this.

Sarn

If they have a contract done up surely they have a clause for what happens if one of them wants to sell?

Considering your gf owns half of the house surely she is entitled to do what she wants with her portion. What if one of them got married? Hubbie could only stay over 4 nights a week?

Senna

Was it a contract drawn up by a solicitor or just between the girls. Did the solicitor witness it.
The contract may mean nothing.

oflahero

One of the girls was always going to want out at some point. The trouble is that they thought they'd be quids-in when the break came - one of them would move the hubby-to-be into the gaff, and the other would leave with a tidy sum.

But the housing market hasn't worked out like that, and so it's the quite the opposite. The only way out of it is to discuss with the bank some way of flogging the gaff, and take the hit equally, move on with your lives, even if you have to pay off a monthly debt to nothing. (Of course, the bank may well refuse this.)

The other options are just too messy. Mary will resent your missus acting the landlord renting out a room. There'll be legal conniptions with unpredictable tenants, tax issues with renting, possible unpleasant tenants, having to cover more of the mortgage because of ever-dropping rents . A millstone. I'd rather a fixed bit of money leaving the account every month than having to deal with all that. Sadly though, you (or your missus, anyway) may have to deal with all that as the bank will probably refuse a sale until the mortgage is paid off.

iguana

If at all possible your gf should sign her share of the house over to Mary and walk away losing anything she has put into the house. This would require the mortgage company to allow Mary to be the sole mortgagee which depends on Mary's income. It would also require Mary to be amenable to this action and your gf may have to pay her to take on the full debt, the amount depending on how much NE is on the house. This money could bring the mortgage down to a point that the bank would accept Mary as the sole mortgagee.

The best action here is walking away, even if it costs your gf another €20k on top of what she has already put into the house. She isn't likely to see the house return to the price she paid for it for a very, very long time so trying to ride this out will take a lot longer than paying off a €20k cu loan.

This may seem like an awful option but it's the best outcome she can hope for and will probably be very tough to pull off. If she waits 6 months or a year and comes to the conclusion that the situation is unbearable and she needs to walk away at any cost it could be too late by then.