Can you sell a house legally for much less than its worth?

akasynapse

Hello all!

Basically a house that is worth around 150,000 is being sold by a friend. And they are willing to sell it for me for 100,000!

Lucky me, I hear you say!

However....

The reason behind this is that recently she went through a nasty divorce, and eventually after about 2 years managed to get the house soley in her name and is now the legal owner. HOWEVER..... her husband has refused to move out and she is now having to go through the courts to get him evicted, which so far has taken many many months.... as well as lots of her well earned money to keep paying off the mortgage for him so he can sit tight and wait to be kicked out. happy days!

Anyways, once she has successfully got him evicted, she is going to sell the house as it has left here with too many bad memories

She has been entilted to a fixed sum of 70,000 should the house be sold, and after the mortgage has been paid off as well as court costs (25,000) she has been requested to give the rest to her ex estranged husband... which hopefully if poss will be, !!!!!! all!

Can she legally sell this house privately for an incredibly low price of 100,000, therefore making me a very happy man.

Granted the house is well in need of repair as the ex hauband has been rather lax and has allowed nature to take its course in places. So the current value could be much less, although certainly worth well over 100k

What do you think?

keith969

I don't get it. If the house is in her name and she is the legal owner, who is saying she's only entitled to £70000, and why?

akasynapse

It was a rule of the divorce, she got a part of his pension etc, ownership of the house. However she was only entitled to keep 70k from the sale of the house and he would get whatever was left

DVardysShadow

akasynapse wrote: »

It was a rule of the divorce, she got a part of his pension etc, ownership of the house. However she was only entitled to keep 70k from the sale of the house and he would get whatever was left

The owner of a house can sell it for whatever they want and can get. But in this case, for the friend to sell to you for £100,000 when it is worth £150,000 will harm your friend's ex to the tune of £50,000. It looks malicious and I would class anyhting less than best efforts to get max value as being fraud. [another thread refers]

mlz1413

Your friend has clearly got a legal representive they trust as they have gone through so much legal action.

So I would get your friend to ask her solicitor this question, if they say she can sell for what she wants then the buyer (friend or not) should be fine.

My worry would be buying a house for so little and knowing the couple, he is going to be very angry when he finds out - could this make a difference to your quality of life after purchase?

[Deleted User]

This is the sort of thing that the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act is for - regulating contracts where one person not party to the contract may be advantaged/disadvantaged.

Might want to have a look at that or get legal advice.

Troubled_Joe

I would be very surprised if the court order did not provide for the property to be sold at a price to be agreed between the parties or in default of agreement set by the court.

GDB2222

I am absolutely certain that this has been tried before. There is nothing new under the sun.

The husband would simply go back to court, which would rule that the wife has to compensate him out of her £70k. Although people seem to think that the legal system is an !!!, that isn't actually true.

Bermuda_John

i'll buy it for £100,000

its not illegal in any way

DVardysShadow

GDB2222 wrote: »

I am absolutely certain that this has been tried before. There is nothing new under the sun.

The husband would simply go back to court, which would rule that the wife has to compensate him out of her £70k. Although people seem to think that the legal system is an !!!, that isn't actually true.

To akasynapse: There you have it. There is no comeback for you, just don't discuss your friends financial relationship with her ex, so you maintain plausible deniability. Go ahead, buy the place,your friend stands to be the loser, not her ex. You should have no qualms about letting her take this loss - after all you had few qualms about letting her ex take the loss.

Errata

Troubled_Joe wrote: »

I would be very surprised if the court order did not provide for the property to be sold at a price to be agreed between the parties or in default of agreement set by the court.

Yup - that's the way it works. Usually a fair price is decided by way of independant valuation(s).
She could always set it on fire, with him in it, if she really wants to stuff up his life.