Removing ex partner from mortgage - going to court

maxamilllion

Hi All,
I'm a long time lurker and the site has offered lots of info so thought I would share my current experience for others who may be in a simular situation.

I'm off to county court tomorrow to try and remove my ex partner from our mortgage. I'd prefrably like to stay in the propety but if the order goes to sale the so be it.

The story so far goes....

Bought property with ex in Aug 2004. I put 5% deposit down but did not protect.
Over the length of the relationship there were times when I paid more to the mortgage and upkeep and times when he did depending on job circustances etc, but basically works out 50/50

We split (sort of amicable) Nov 2008
ex originally stayed in the property taking over the payments but after 6 months decided he no longer he wanted to stay (he works away alot) so I moved back in and took on the payments.

Oct 2009 ex had met new partner and a new baby was on the way so he wanted to start proceedings to come off the mortgage so he could but a new property. This was not a problem for me. My wages allowed for me to take on the mortgage on my own ad the bank gave me a provisional yes.

3 valuations came in with 2 (local agents) at the break even point and one (national agent) alot higher giving us more potential profit. Ex was shown all 3 valuations and obviously liked the higher one! In my and other agents opiionion this valuation was very overpriced but hey ho.
Communication became quite heated with ex at this point as we could not agree. I had consulation with solicitor at this point and got another valuation which matched the 2 lower previous valuations.
As advised by the solicitor I offered a "sweetner" above anyhing we would get from a sale and ignoring the fact that I paid the deposit just to hopefully end the situation quickly. Ex was also offered to take the property on himself if he thought that it was worth the amount he beleived. Bother offer were not refused, just ignored, which all communication has been ever since until the point the court papers were issued.
He's made no submission to court ergarding the case and I'm not quite sure he will even turn up.
He's also been notified that the property has been re-evaluated by the original aganets and we have dropped further so is now in negative equity. If I thought he would pay up his half of the loss I'd be more happy with a sale but with the amount of debt collection letters I receive for him incl VAT man I doubt he would have the resource

Anyway if you've got to the end of that well done and thanks for reading. I'll upodate with the results tomorrow, if there are any!
I'd love to hear from anybody who's been through it

Yours nervous, north west

paint

No input, but wanted to wish you good luck for tomorrow!

martindow

Good luck with this.

However it turns out, I hope it will be better to get it resolved and end the uncertainty hanging over your life.

maxamilllion

Thanks all,
2 hours and counting. I really would like it to be resolved today but I have my doubts

ALIBOBSY

what a pain hun, can be a hard situation. I basically walked away from my first marriage and signed the house over to him just to avoid the hassle. in the current climate he and his new partner would surely be better off just getting things settled and move on. He's cheeky to expect anything out of it.
As he turned down your generous offer I hope the judge gives him nothing. Only issues may be if the judge bothers about him not responding, but in cc most cases can be judged in absence, or if the judge insists on a proper valuation by a surveyer rather than an agent.

Good luck
ali x

maxamilllion

Thanks All,
It was a long day yesterday espcially seeing how we were only in court for 15 min. Lots of waiting around.
As expected he didn't turn up. The judge wouldn't make a ruling as she could not be sure that he had received the court date.
He will be given notice again and given set time limits to make his statement etc then another date will be set. The good thing is that the judge has stated that the matter will be closed at the next hearing regardless of whether he turns up or not (fingers crossed we get the same judge!).
So another couple of months waiting but hopefully the end is in sight.
Thanks for the support and would still love to hear from anybody who's been through it

maxamilllion

An update and more questions.
I went back to court on Tuesday for another hearing. He didnt turn up again so the judge made an order for him to transfer the property and pay costs. He also had his residency right suspended during the transfer. All very good news!!!

Ive received a copy of the order in the post today and a letter from my solicitor so now a lot more questions are rattling round my head. The solicitor is preparing the order for the court which will then be sent to ex with transfer papers. He has until 13 JUne to comply/sign.
If he signs, brilliant. I have a peice of paper to show to the bank that shows he will transfer. The solicitor has suggested waving some of the fee's as an incetive to sign. I'm still undecided about that esp seeing how the court is till on my side.
If he doesnt sign tehn I presume I can go back to court and the judge can sign on his behalf? This will add another approx £1k to the costs!!
And what if he doesnt pay costs? I suppose I'll have to enforce it through attachment of earnings etc. Any advice from someone who's gone through this would be much appreciated. Or any words of wisdom from legally clued up people would also be appreciated. I thought I had it all staright in my head but it was such a long and emotional day that its all gone and I'll have to wait til Tuesday now before I can contact the solicitor.

Seanymph

Personally I'd leave costs awarded - you don't have to chase him for them, but he will owe them to you - and then he will have to pay for the repeated visits because he isn't doing what he should be and that is what is costing you repeat visits.

zzzLazyDaisy

If he is in work and you know the name and address of the employer*, then you can get an attachment of earnings order if he doesn't pay what he owes to you.

You would have to apply to the court, which would write to him instructing him to provide details of his earnings and expenses. There is a protected amount which he is deemed to need to live on and cannot be touched. If he doesn't return the form, the court has the power to make the order anyway - my experience is that they will probably make an order for installments. The employer must send the money to the court and they send it on to you. All of this costs more money, and although some costs will be added to the debt it is never enough to cover all solicitors costs. But it isn't difficult and there is no reason why you shouldn't represent yourself.

Of course if he loses or changes his job you are back to square one.

*in theory you can apply for an attachment of earnings order even if you don't know who the employer is, as he is required to provide this information but if he doesn't cooperate you are just going to incur further costs

maxamilllion

Hi All,

I know I keep dragging up this thread but there is alot of posts about transfer of equity so thought it might be useful to others (hopefully theres will go alot more smoothly!)

Ex has finally got a solicitor - Yay! Appropriate timing as the deadline for the court order to him to sign over was 13th June and the solicitors letter came on the 10th.
Apparently he has been in India working since January apart from some weekend visits. He did not read any mail then! He also apprently "recalls" getting the initial paperwork and filled it out but then had to go away working. His wife has been far too busy looking after 4 children and organising moving house to pass on any information that has been posted to him - Yeah Right! They've obviously just fgured out that burying your head in the sand will not work.

Anyway, his solictor has wrote that they are prepared to appeal the court order based on the fact that he has been away etc and that they dont agree the court had the authourity to order the transfer (i.e remove a trustee) under the certain section of the act. My solictor has said they are able to and the fact that the judge went away and thought about it for more than an hour will help.
But... Also said was that is in fact happy to sign over the property as long as costs order is not enforced. I bet he is! This amounts to £3200 approx. We've gone back with a counter offer of reducing the amount payable by him by £700 and I think we will continue to play this game for a while. I have a figure in mind which I am prepared to go to and this is the same as the figure I did offer him before any of the court process started. It seems so ridiculous that he could have walked away with cash in his hand 6 months ago and had a very nice Xmas on it.
My solictor has said we would have a 70% chance of defeating the appeal with the help of a barrister but should all go wrong this would cost me another £3k plus what has been racked up already.
It really is a game of poker. I'm pleased my solicitor has given a 70% chance if he does go through with the appeal but I'd prefer not to take the risk all together. To be quite honest if I had the spare cash to pay the costs and have him sign I'd do it. I've been saving frantically since it started and I've got approx £2k saved but this needs to cover the conveyancing fees as well.
Fingers crossed we will reach a settlment on the costs and he will sign.
Thanks to anyone who's posted here and I'll keep updating just in case anyone is still reading ;-)