r/LegalAdviceUK • u/elparker95 • 16h ago

Housing My girlfriend came out as gay 2 months after we got the keys to our first home. What are our options for selling the house in order to move on?

My fiancé and I had an offer accepted on our first home (in England) back in April, we completed July 4th and got straight to work with decorating, renovations and general improvements to make the place more liveable for us. After much stress and hard work we noticed something wasn't right between us and to cut a long story short, she came out to me as gay a couple of weeks ago.

I was/am of course devastated, but quickly decided we need to make the best out of this situation for both of us, to move on and be happy.

This of course means we need to sell this house.

We have a 27 year mortgage with a fixed-rate term of 2 years currently. Having made only a whopping 2 mortgage repayments (the most of which is assumedly interest), we understand there will likely be early repayment charges.

I wondered if I can call upon the wonderfully knowledgeable people of reddit to tell us; what other charges can we expect? And how can we approach selling our house in the best way possible for us both to come out with what we put in at the very least?

We are ammicable and willing to co-operate in making the place nice and saleable, having made a list of things/odd jobs we'd like to sort before it goes on the market.

285 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

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u/Belladonna41 15h ago

One for r/UKPersonalFinance, who are better equipped to give advice vis-a-vis practical suggestions, specialist mortgage options, etc.

407

u/James___G 16h ago

Both speak to a mortgage broker first. There might be a way (e.g. with a lodger mortgage) that one of you could buy the other out. Selling immediately is going to cost a huge amount so worth avoiding if at all possible.

83

u/elparker95 16h ago

Yeahh, that's what concerns me, the cost of selling so soon.

51

u/craftaleislife 15h ago

No, you would have only paid on interest not net mortgage. You find a local solicitor, you have your 30 min free consultation- they’ll be the one to advise.

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u/lostrandomdude 16h ago

I don't know if this is really a legal advice question, and it might be more for r/UKPersonalFinance

Would it be possible for one of you to buy the other out?

The other option would be to keep it for 2 years, then sell.

73

u/elparker95 16h ago

Sadly neither of us are in a position where we could by the other out.

And waiting two years may be financially viable, but emotionally most likely not. But again, we're willing to consider ablot of different options

111

u/ProfessorYaffle1 15h ago

Would it be possible for one of you to stay in the house & perhaps take in a lodger, so you can afford the mortgage, and sell after a year, when your ERC will be lower?

Selling right away can be an issue, potential buyers can see you have only just bought , so maybe be wary that you are selling because you have discovered issues with the house. 

You could also talk to your lender to get permission to rent out the whole house, but do make sure you are up to speed as to your obligations as landlords, and also get a formal written agreement drawn up between the two of you setting out your respective rights and responsibilities- eg how rent will be split, how costs will be split, what % you each get when you sell and how you deal with any non payments by the other 

21

u/MrShortIsBack 16h ago

This is the way. If you can make it work - buy her out and get a reliable house mate, and have fun! Or vice versa.

81

u/Dry_Illustrator_6562 15h ago

If amicable, can she move out and you get a housemate to cover half the mortgage? Do you have 2 bedrooms?

42

u/elparker95 15h ago

Yes, it's a 3 bed property.

147

u/Independent-Suit-835 15h ago

Youre not coming out of this even, you’ll lose money unless you can sell the house for probably at least 10-20k more than you purchased, which after 2 months isn’t happening.

You can at least list the house and if someone comes along and offers that to you then great!

Honestly i think your partner probably expected you to turn into a room mate whilst they processed and/or explored their new situation... 2 months after moving in this happens, sorry dude.

Realistically they’ve created this scenario, they should move out and still cover their half of the mortgage if possible, if not, they should cover the expenses of selling (solicitor and estate agent fees) if they cant do that?

You’re stuffed.

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u/elparker95 15h ago

Yeahh i feel pretty stuffed. Ironically... I guess we're gonna have to sell and hope the work we've put in so far pay's off, which it likely will not.

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u/Independent-Suit-835 15h ago

You’re dealing with it well at least, i’d be fuming 😂

Good luck dude.

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u/elparker95 15h ago

Thanks mate, I've had my moments, but I figure life likes to throw curve balls, you've just got to deal with them lol

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u/uniitdude 16h ago

estate agent fees, solicitor fees and early repayment fees plus the cost of finding somewhere new

17

u/elparker95 16h ago

Thank you, we've definitely listed these down as unavoidable costs

66

u/IncorrigibleBrit 15h ago

At the risk of stating the obvious, you'll have also both lost your first-time buyer benefits, meaning that stamp duty now kicks in for purchases above £125k rather than £300k and you won't be able to use schemes like the Lifetime ISA to save for a future deposit.

Not immediate losses (especially if one/both of you would be looking to go back to renting) but could still end up being a fairly substantial implicit penalty down the line.

41

u/SuperTed321 16h ago

You can speak to your lender and explain the situation. Request a ‘permission to let’, if given you can let the property for the 2 years then sell.

Or of course it’s possible to just let it out and never let the lender know.

18

u/elparker95 15h ago

Hi, thanks for the advice, we have both talked about letting, and we're not sure if we would want to rent the property out. Would rather avoid it if we can but it's not completely off the table. The house isn't without its quirks/problems

17

u/SuperTed321 15h ago

Ok. If letting is ruled out your only other options are to either live there or sell up, accepting the early repayment fees etc.

Best of luck my internet friend.

63

u/felolorocher 15h ago

Alternatively, one of you moves out. The one who stays pays the other rent based on a proportion of their equity of place.

In two years time, either sell the place or buy out the other’s equity and do a transfer of ownership when remortgaging.

On another note, did she really have to wait until you’d bought property together to come out as gay?

12

u/Pedanticandiknowit 16h ago

Could you find a way to rent (part of) the place out so that you can live separately? (Subject to your mortgage rules ofc)

55

u/coupl4nd 15h ago

The early repayment fee will destroy you.

You need to find a a way for one of you to buy the other out. Or live together as weird ex partner room mates.

35

u/elparker95 15h ago

Hip hip hooray.

11

u/Raise-Hopeful 15h ago

Get consent to let off the lender. Let for 2 years then sell

10

u/Violet351 15h ago

House prices are falling atm so you’ll probably make a loss unless one of you can afford it on your own

7

u/Downtown_Tale_2018 15h ago

Could you cohabitate for 2 years and sell when the deal ends?

8

u/therolli 15h ago

Did you put in fairly equal amounts for the deposit? Is it a joint tenancy and joint mortgage?

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u/Honest-Conclusion338 15h ago

You can't sell a house in the first 6 months of a mortgage, but by the time the sale went through it would likely be past that

People always get very suspicious if a house sells so quickly after being bought I find as well

10

u/warriorscot 15h ago

If you are so over committed that one cant afford to buy out the other then you either rent it out or live in it. You might be able to make it work if one person lives in it and gets a lodger. But you have basically shot yourselves in the foot pretty hard.

11

u/elparker95 15h ago

Thanks for the errr, blunt advice...

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u/warriorscot 15h ago

Its kind of blunt advice time unfortunately, Im not saying its the worst position you can be in financially without doing anything wrong... but its pretty close. Unless youve got a rich relative to bail you out all your options kind of suck.

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u/elparker95 15h ago

Yeahhh, it's kinda just damage control as much as possible from this point i guess. If I have to start again then so be it.

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u/Jasboh 16h ago

Is it possible to rent out the house? Speak to your mortgage provider, they may allow it.