JlolSenior Contributor
How is this fair?
6 months ago I left an emotionally abusive relationship, on the urging of my therapist.
Since then I have been "homeless" - sleeping at an aunts place and on a few occasions in the car. The reason being is that my partner and I have a mortgage and I am still contractually obligated to pay my share. I do not have enough money left over to also pay rent. When interest rates went up and up and up this did not help either.
I am lucky in that I do own a small unit that I paid off a long time ago, myself. This is currently rented out and it would not be fair to ask the tenants to leave before their lease expires.
I would like to sell the home my expartner and I have a mortgage in, so that I can afford someone to live. I have made my expartner a generous offer in which she will gain money and I will lose it, however she has rejected it.
I was speaking to a lawyer today who said my expartner would also be able to claim my unit. This blew my mind.
* My expartner has never contributed anything towards paying for my unit. Her name was never on the deed or home loan. The home loan was paid off before we moved in together.
* When we lived at my unit briefly I never asked her to pay any rent or board (she was able to save a lot of money).
* When we moved into and lived in the home we bought together I paid about 55% of the mortgage repayments to her 45%.
* When I rented out my apartment, almost 100% of the rental income from that unit went into our joint mortgage, raising my contributions above 55%.
* Despite me no longer living at our home for 6 months I have continued to pay my share of the mortgage. She has, infact, decreased her contributions. I am now paying 40% more towards the mortgage than she is, or 63% of the monthly repayments to her 37%.
* Despite not living there I have continued to pay 50% of the water, gas, internet and electric bills.
* We have no children, are not married, and for most of our relationship she has earned slightly more money than me.
I made an offer where we would sell and split the home 50/50 (after paying off the remainder of the mortgage, of course). I thought, technically, I could ask for a 45/55 split (plus the extra amounts I've put in from the rent generated by my unit), but I wanted to keep it simple and give as few reasons for friction and arguments as possible. My plan was to use the amount from selling the home to find somewhere to rent until my unit becomes available.
Instead, what I am being told by the lawyer is not only is she entitled to 50% of the home we both owned but also 50% of my unit.
How is this fair? She has had nothing to do with the ownership or payment towards this unit. All those years I worked hard to pay off the mortgage myself. She has only directly benefited from it by living there for free and having the rental income contribute to our joint mortgage. And yet, I have to sell it and she gets half of it?
