My ex-boyfriend and I bought a home together and moved in, in October of 2004. We then broke up in June 2005 and he moved out. We split due to his drug issues and he was not working. After leaving he tried having me sign some typed document that stated that I was the only one responsible for the house and that all debt was mine but that if I tried to sell the house I would have to notify him. I never signed the letter as I knew it was invalid and told him that if he wanted his name off the house, we could do that when it was time to refinance. The refinance would not be until December 2006 because of a prepayment clause. He agreed.

I refinanced the house in December of 2006 and I put the mortgage in just my name and had him come down to the title office to take his name off the house. He signed the quit claim deed and never said anything else about it.

Today, 9-16-07 he came to my house to aplologize to me for everything he has done in the past and thanked me for taking care of our son and the house. I accepted his apology but also reminded him that he did not own the house. He then started to say I had tricked him and that he was getting a lawyer.

My question is, I know that he is just recently off the drugs but does he have any valid reasons to take me to court? I have never lied nor have I hidden anything. He willingly signed the form and now 9 months later is trying to tell me that I owe him money. I am completely confused and I do not want to waste money in court. Do you have any suggestions?

Diane2007

Can he take you to court, of course, I could sue you for money on your house, now I have no chance of winning, and he has little.
I will assume you had his signing notorised.

His only defense will be that he was "on drugs" and you knew it, and that he was not capable of making an informed choice because of the drug use.
Don't think he has a leg to stand on, but he can try.

Line up the person at the title company who processed the deed. If they will testify it was voluntary and he appeared sober, he has no case.

Yes I had the form notarized and I have the original copy that was also recorded with the county. At the time of signing he was not high and was in very good spirits. I just know how he is and he will lie to try to win. My point is, isn't a judge going to look at him and ask why he didn't just take his money when I refinanced if that is what he wanted? Why wait 9 months?

I think I missed something here. Was there an agreement that when you refinanced, he would get his share of the value of the house or what he paid into it?

That is just it, there was never any agreement. Well when we first split up I had told him that when I sell the house, he would get his share but that is when his name was still on it. But then when we split up and he had wanted me to sign some form that he came up with stating that I was solely responsible for the house, to me that told me he was trying to get out of everything and that he was trying to protect himself from me putting him into debt. How can one person be solely responsible when there are two on the loan? I never signed it. I then told him that if he did not want to be responsible for the house, he would have to take his name off it when I refinanced. So when I refinanced I called him, said hey I got the mortgage in just my name and that he needed to sign himself off the title. I let him know that the new mortgage had to match the new title meaning he could not just stay on the title. And that is what I was told by the new lender. There never was any discussion about what would happen later on etc. And we never talked about it since until yesterday.

In the end, I think we both just assumed what the other was wanting/thinking without ever discussing it. And now he is just assuming that he owns half of the house still. I was assuming that he had willingly given it up. After all, if I were taking my name off something, I would assume that I am no longer entitled to it. I am nowhere nears a real estate genius so even if I were to give him unintentional and wrong advice I would think that it would be his duty to safeguard his own interests. Him taking advice from me about anything would be like me listening to a truck driver give me advice on diseases. It would be my duty to double check and make sure what I am being told is accurate.

I am just confused as to how he can try to come back 9 months later and open all of this up. Wouldn't the normal person have said OK I will take my name off the house AFTER you buy me out? But that is him, he doesn't think or research anything. He just does it and then tries to correct it later.

Ok, absent any written agreement for you to buy him out, he will need to convince a judge that a verbal agreement was in place. And his waiting to collect on that agreement is not going to help him. On the flip side, if he can show that he put a significant amount of money into the house a judge may feel that logically he expected to get something out of it.