Verbal agreement

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lstein

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Last july I refinanced the house I had owned with my exhusband and got him off of the title. We made a verbal agreement that I would pay him $7000 for his share of the equity. I wrote up an agreement that said I would pay him $7000, but he refused to sign it so I threw it away. When the finance papers came through there was only $4200 of equity. He signed a quit claim on the property and was given a check for the $4200. I am not able to come up with the $2800 at this time.
Our divorce says that I will carry our children on my insurance through work and that we will each pay for half of the coverage. For the past year he has carried the children on his insurance because it was a better deal. Last month he told me he was cancelling the insurance, so they are now back on my policy. This amounts to $112/month and the first payment is due on 11/20.
He just told me that he will not pay the insurance until he's reclaimed the $2800 I owe him.
1st--do I owe him the $2800?
2nd--what can I do about the insurance?
 
I'm not sure what was done with regard to the refinancing. If he was taken off the title and released as an obligor, then he might have received the benefit of his bargain in signing the quitclaim deed. I'm not sure that the $2,800 was part of the deal that induced him to sign the quitclaim deed and receive his share of the equity, which came to $4,200. It seems that his desire not to sign would indicate that the $2,800 was not part of any deal so it would seem that you might not owe him the $2,800 and, with regard to the house, you have title irrespective of this issue.

If your divorce decree states that he will pay half of the insurance costs then I'm not sure if there is an issue since that obligation is separate.

You'll need to explain why your husband originally "refused" the $2,800 that he now claims you owe.
 
We verbally agreed that I would pay him $7000 for his share of the house if the equity came to that much. I asked him to sign a paper to agree to the $7000, but he refused because the appraisal had not come in and he thought he could get more than that amount. When the appraisal came in the equity only came to $4200, so that is what I paid him. The finance papers show that the $4200 went to him for pay off on the house. The house is now financed in my name only, so he is not responsible for it at all anymore. He is using the insurance as his way of getting me to pay the $2800.
 
If the deal was that you would pay him the amount of the equity, which it seems logical to be, then he has no claim against you. The agreement was for the amount of the expected equity, which he received, not for some arbitrary amount of money.

Additionally, I believe that the obligation to pay 50% insurance, if court ordered, is an obligation of his and he doesn't have a choice to abate it by this fictional debt. In his being released from being responsible for the debt, it doesn't make sense that you would just agree to pay an extra $2,800 in addition. If anything, he should have been happy to be released as a guarantor on the mortgage. There may be more to the story but that is the way it looks to me.
 
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