splitting up,and selling or not selling up ?

bigjluk

i have split from my fiancee and her 2 kids since february now,they still live in our house which has a mortgage on it,which i still pay approx 20% ,and also some of the bills.i am considering selling it,although she most definitely dont want to sell,what legal rights do i have,and can i force her to sell.

lynnexxxo

assuming its a joint mortgage then no I don't believe you can force her to sell.

bigjluk

yeah its a joint mortgage

bigjluk

so if i have my outgoings tied up in the mortgage ,i still cant do nothing to force a sale,what about moving back against her wishes

Cat695

she has to get a mortgage on her own (the hard bit) and pay you whatever you agree

you can't just leave the mortgage, she needs to pay you off basically

not a simple thing i'm afraid

bigjluk

what if she refuses to go ahead,then what,am i stuffed

lynnexxxo

As you own half the house, yes I suppose you could move back in. However, lets face it, thats not going to be much fun for anyone. As I see it your options are:
1. stop paying anything, so either she will pay the full mortgage or if she can't afford to the house will eventually be repossessed. If you think there is any equity in the property then this is not the way to go as by the time the mortgage company charges you, there will be nothing , plus the fact you will be screwed for future credit. Even if you don't have equity the mortgage company will chase you for charges, which add up to thousands and thousands of pounds.

2. Continue paying the 20% your paying and find a place to rent in the mean time. Reading between the lines sounds like you have had a bad break up. Once the dust settles (or your fixed rate runs out) the mortgage will shoot up, she might find that she is unable to remortgage on her own, at which point she may see that selling it is the only option.

bigjluk

if i decide to stop paying any of the mortgage ,where do i stand.

lynnexxxo

bigjluk wrote: »

if i decide to stop paying any of the mortgage ,where do i stand.

Depends on whether she can and is able to make the payments on her own. If the mortgage payments are not met, eventually the house will be repossessed, the bank will sell it at whatever price they can and you and your ex will have to make up any shortfall.

poppy10_2

You really need to get your own solicitor ASAP.

It's not ideal to just stop making payments on the mortgage, because if she cannot make the full payments, the mortgage will fall into arrears, which will affect both your credit records. Equally, though, you can't just force her to sell or to take over the mortgage on her own. You need to get a lawyer to scare some sense into her.

happybroker

you can go to court to try and force the sale of the house but this is horrendously expensive. A client of mine has just been through this, it went on for nearly 3 years, his ex wife (who forced the sale) was awarded a percentage of the value of the home from when she started proceedings and even with my client getting the rest (after a large increase in value as the property is in the North) there wasn't sufficient money to cover his legal costs (around £40k!!)

The other issue with this is that she will presumably be showing people around and if she doesn't want to move out it would be pretty easy to make the place unsaleable...telling the viewers about the drug dealer living next door, the frequent burned out cars in the street, that she wants to move due to high crime rates etc etc

Not wanting to sound too pessimistic but if she doesn't budge once you contact a solicitor be prepared for a long and nasty battle I'm afraid