Plenty in employment law, not so much in family law :-(

I still have a couple of aces up my sleeve but I'd be a complete bastard if I used them. Having a sit down on Wednesday to see if we can sort something out.

Roll up your sleeves and play the aces - unless she prior agrees to be excluded from any and all proceeds from the sale of the flat due to not contributing for the time frame you mentioned. Get her to sign this agreement and have someone witness it. You can probably find something that fits somewhere on the 'net and make sure to include that the property was in negative equity when you split, that you paid to get out of that negative situation and have paid all monthly obligations since. Get her to sign that she did not contribute any monies from the time you split to present and that she agrees she is not now nor will ever be in the future entitled to any proceeds from your former union, in [real] property, possesions, finances or investments. Make sure it would be legally binding.

I am not a lawyer but I did litigate successfully a labor issue with helpful advice from a friend. I had no other representative with me but did well. The only difference between you and a lawyer is knowledge of the law. If you don't know it and are unwilling or unable to research yourself, get a lawyer. It is a vast undertaking but can be done.

Take it from someone who has been more than fair with another: they don't appreciate it and will turn on you in a heartbeat if they think they can profit. Do not convince yourself that "they will never do that", because they almost always do. I hate legal shit.

Hey, I told you I was good for it!

Talk is cheap!

Would you be willing to accept donut in exchange?

I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.

Soory, kos. We are hijacking your thread. Come to any conclusions on what to do?

We are, but only because I'm waiting to see if he wants me to come pick him up in the FREEDOM mobile!

That's it, gives him a dose of American excess.

Gah.

So I've had to agree to giver her 20% of the equity. Not very impressed, but it would cost me that minimum to fight it in court. Still at least I should have a nice chunk of change left over.

I guess it's better than 50%. Do you reckon that the 30% covers most of the value you added since she left?

I've added *all* the value since she left. When she left, there was an outstanding mortgage of £155k and an estimated value of the flat of £145k. Yay buying right before the credit crunch!

Remind me not to tell Ben that when we sold our house it was close to the peak and had doubled in value. That's our little secret, remember, DON'T TELL BENNY!

Also don't tell him that our house has apparently appreciated in price by almost 30%, we only had the offer accepted in November last year... we did spend close to 40% of the 30% increase on STUFF (renovations etc), just hope property prices don't collapse again. SHHHH!!!!

(I feel like that silly lady in the SecretEscapes ad)

that's essentially meaningless unless you're about to sell it though. Or maybe to remortgage. If Truffy was able to buy his next house on the other side of the peak when things are cheaper, then it's a win. If everything's going up, then your next house just went up as well so it makes no useful difference. Innit!

Stop it with your logic and witchcraft!

Killjoy... I'm well aware of all that, but at least I'm not being a fun-sponge!

it's your own fault, you mentioned that fucking advert. I barely see a TV ad nowadays and I'm still aware of that one - it's shit transcends, man.

I have never seen that ad.

And now I want to. :((

That's one of them.

You mean there's more? One wasn't enough?

Thanks for the education. I can now see what Mike's on about.