Ex partner wants to force sale of house

jason.parker.86

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

When you're writing to her and showing her all three valuations you could put a note in there that you feel that if you can't come to a mutual and reasonable agreement should she need to press with taking this to court that you will consider that all the court and selling expenses should be borne from her share. That might give her pause and make her see sense.....

But will the court make her pay the fees or will they take her legal fees from money from sale of house

BitterAndTwisted

Then tell her to get two more independent valuations herself! There must be some reason why she thinks she's entitled to a greater share than you. On what basis might that be?

jason.parker.86

Next door neighbour is for sale for 5K more and they don't have the garage. estate agents who they are with was one of
The ones I got in and they said they have had no viewings dispite them
Being on Market for 4 months.

Annisele

Can you afford to take on the entire mortgage (plus whatever you think she's due as her 'half' of the equity) in your own name? Does your mortgage lender agree that you can afford to to take on the entire debt?

If the answer to either of those questions is "no", then you'll have to sell the house anyway.

Does she want to buy the house herself? If she does, would she be prepared to pay you half of whatever she thinks the equity is?

jason.parker.86

Annisele wrote: »

Can you afford to take on the entire mortgage (plus whatever you think she's due as her 'half' of the equity) in your own name? Does your mortgage lender agree that you can afford to to take on the entire debt?

If the answer to either of those questions is "no", then you'll have to sell the house anyway.

Does she want to buy the house herself? If she does, would she be prepared to pay you half of whatever she thinks the equity is?

I have already got mortgage transfer of equity in place with nationwide. Everything was all set to go but nationwide advised me to get home valued because my offered looked rather generous as they felt house wasn worth what I said it was. So when I got house valued I ammended offer and paid my solicitors the money to give to my ex when transfer wnt thru and now she isn't happy because she feels valuation is too low. She forgets we purchased in q1 2007 so property was at it's highest and can't get her head around to accepting property has fell since dispite us adding the garage

Byatt

I had legal aid but once the house was sold, I had to pay my solicitor from the equity.

GDB2222

jason.parker.86 wrote: »

But will the court make her pay the fees or will they take her legal fees from money from sale of house

This won't be a small track case, so whoever loses pays the other side's legal fees. If you don't take legal advice you are almost bound to lose, so yes you'll end up paying her fees - out of your share of the equity if there's anything left after you've finished wrangling.

getmore4less

If she thinks its worth more try selling it.

It is crazy to not bother trying and even think of litigation legal fees.

In the mean time she has to keep paying her 1/2 the mortgage.

when you get no offers she backs down if you get a better one she is right.


You could try an agreement where she says what its worth and has to pay you your share, if it sells less tough on her(should focus her valuations).

(there is a name for this but I forget what it is)

mark5

If she wants more than the current market value then let her put it on the market for the higher price, if its overpriced it wont sell and you avoid the risk of court costs.

If its still on the market in a few months with no serious interest then the ex might back down.

wannabe_sybil

Re costs - if it goes to court, try and make sure that you ask the judge for costs to be awarded in your favour, that is, that your ex pays the costs - showing all the attempts you have made to be reasonable. Use straightforward language and be upfront, clear and polite.

Costs are usually decided by the judge, inasmuch as who pays who. Some types of cases have limits but I don't think this would be one of them.

But you would have to ask the judge to make the order. Normally costs are paid by the person who loses. The judge may order sale if they think there is no chance of compromise.

Also, your ex will have to pay her solicitor and the court fees up front, out of her own pocket. The solicitors will be happily billing her for the hour or part thereof. Then it goes through all the stages and there may or may not be fees you have to pay, but normally fees for the court are paid upfront by the person who is bringing the action. If you file a defence/documents don't forget to ask for your ex to pay the costs and give written reasons why you think she should.

At the hearing the judge may decide that the Claimant gets costs, so that the Defendant would have to reimburse the Claimant for the fees paid up front plus the costs of the solicitors. If the Defendant gets costs then the Claimant should pay for the Defendant's solicitors costs of the hearing.

If you lose the hearing and the judge for some obscure reason doesn't give you costs please make sure (as much as anyone can with a judge) that the order includes a fixed amount for the costs so you are not dragged in to further niggling about how much the solicitor charges for a phone call etc.

It may be worth writing to the solicitor and stating that if your ex would like to take over the property and buy you out, you are happy to stand by your extant valuations, when can she move in and relieve you of the burden of the mortgage payments. Also include details of properties that you could afford to get if you went somewhere else, to focus her mind on the state of the market.

HTH and good luck