Possible Sale Order from ex

Solstice_Twilight

I'm going to phone my solicitors in the morning, but I'm stressing myself sick at the moment and could do with some peace of mind

Keeping a very long story as short as possible, my ex and I bought our house in May 2005. For 12 months between late 2005 and 2006, he was unemployed (deliberately quit his job without consulting me) so I struggled to cover the bills and mortgage on my own. He walked out on me in February 2007, leaving me with the mortgage and about £10,000 in joint debts. Since February 2007, I've never asked for (or recieved) a penny from him towards these joint debts or the joint mortgage, although I did have to go through my solicitors to stop him using our joint bank account, which was £900 overdrawn at the time (money he withdrew when we split) and he was taking out the money I was paying in every month towards the debt :wall:

We were legally divorced in October 2008, and made an agreement in principal over the property (I made him an offer based on the value of the house at the time he left, taking into consideration the fact that I had paid the mortgage alone for a full year while we were together). The money I offered him has been sitting with my solicitor since 2009.

The problem we're having is that the debt he left me with has ruined my credit rating (am on a debt management plan with CCCS) and I've been turned down for remortgaging, and have even recently been turned down to simply carry out a change of parties with my current lender to put my now-OH on the mortgage in my ex's place. My solicitors have made the offer of giving him the money so long as he agrees to transfer the property to me on the agreement that I release him from the mortgage as soon as I'm able to (frankly, it's not really benefitting me by keeping him on it) and I have also offered to sign something to state that I won't ever chase him for money towards the mortgage, so there's no risk to him of me coming after him later.

My solicitors have written to me today to tell me that his solictors have refused this and are now seeking a court order to make us sell the house. Because of the housing market being what it is, there's not much in the way of equity (will barely scratch the surface of what's left of the debts once the mortgage is paid off), so I'm terrified that if they get this order we're going to be forced to try and find a rented property and incur all the costs of moving (first month's rent and deposit, moving expenses, solicitors fees to sell the house, etc). I'm also doubtful that we're going to find anywhere rented that will accept two dogs, a cat, an elderly house rabbit and an owl who will require an aviary.

I'm making myself absolutely sick worrying about it (because, of course, I got the letter when I got home this evening, far too late to call my solicitors). I know if we lose this house, we'll probably never get back on the property ladder and I've gotten myself all wound up about the possibility of losing my animals and ending up in even more debt at the end of it.

How long is it likely to take for my ex's solicitors to obtain the court order? And given that I'm currently paying off all our joint debts, how likely is it that they'll get it?