Mediation/Forced Sale

shortbread

Hiya.....had a few posts on this already...and still no further.


Currently living with my partner in his house that he has a shared mortgage with his ex. After 2 years of trying to get her to agree to sign the house over to him with him taking on her 5k of a joint 10k loan she signed the contract a while back....just after my partner lost his job....


He is now about to start work and wants the contract put back into place again...however she has requested through her solicitors that they attend mediation.


Ok, so she is entitled to whatever she is entitled to....all is fair etc...but she has delayed any action for 28 months and has now demanded that the house is put up for sale. She is going to go to court for this.

My query is why would she get her solicitor to request mediation?? The mediation guy said its simply due to fact that she cant go to court unless mediation has been tried as of new legislation on 6th April.

However my partners solicitor has said that because mediation was requested before 6th April these rules don't apply to her ....but what I dont understand is why his ex would think my partner would want to do this when she sent him an email this week saying she wants house sold end of....no ifs or buts.... so Im thinking that there must be an official reason for her to do this as there is no way she would bother because for the last 2 years she wouldn't even answer her own solicitors letter or phone calls....and now all of a sudden she is uber interested in doing this....I mean if after 28 months her solicitor cant solve it what can mediation do??

It will cost my partner and myself £120 each session he needs to attend and it has already cost him around 3k in solicitors fees to amount to nothing really.

Does anyone know about court fees. Its estimated it would cost around 3-5 k who would have to pay this?? His ex gets legal aid and has done since it all began. If house was sold, would she have to pay costs from any monies made from the house....even though there is only about 15k equity and they owe 10k to a loan company. ???

Would really appreciate some sound legal advice here as well as advice from anyone in similar situation regarding mediation and court...

Thank you x:(

peachyprice

I don't know anything about the mediation, sorry.

But as for her legal aid and equity in the house, yes I believe she will have to pay it back out of her share.

However, you say there's £15k equity but £10k is owed to the bank. is this a secured loan agains the house? If so there isn't £15k equity, there's only £5. If it isn't a secured loan it doesn't effect the equity.

HTH

pigpen

If it is not compulsory for you to attend mediation (applied before 6th April) OH is within his rights to refuse..

I wen to mediation with Kh and it was a complete waste of time (apart from the bit where he threw a tantrum and stomped out like a child) it sets nothing in practice just gives both parties a forum to discuss and see if they can reach a compromise.. but as soon as you walk out the door here is nothing to force you to keeping to what was agreed. It is a farce IME and a complete waste of time unless both parties are sensible and rational.. which is unlikely!

shortbread

Thank you both...

The loan is not secured against the house.

I agree that the mediation is senseless as nothing will be set in stone and my partner does not agree in having to sign a contract which states he is there to be fair and honest in reasons for mediation when his ex will sign it and be blatantly lying.



All advice and information gratefully received x

babyb06

Costs isn't as simple as each paying their own - in a case such as this the loser often pays the winners costs - in a simpler case, if she were to say you owe me £5k and you say no, £2k and she only receives £2k at court, she will have to pay your costs as well as her own (although you will have to ask yourself whether she will have the money to pay your costs.......you can't get blood from a stone!).

She is probably asking for the house to be sold as she doesn't want her name on the mortgage anymore and unless your partner can get a mortgage for the whole amount in his own name, the court is likely to order the house to be sold. If he can get the mortgage for the whole amount, he can buy her out for the amount the court deems appropriate - it may not be as simple as her getting 50% of the equity - she may get less for example if she hasn't been contributing to the mortgage for the last few years

shortbread

How can that be right...if he loses he needs to pay her costs when she is the one who started it.....its not about how much she gets its about him holding onto the house and her being free of the mortgage and the loan which she could have been 2 years ago when he first asked her....She hasn't paid a penny in 28 months to either the loan or the mortgage....Hopefully things will get better soon


Again....any advice or experiences greatly received x

pigpen

He could put forward the argument he has paid both the mortgage and loan for the last 2+ years and the house could be signed over solely to him and she gets nothing.. It is different for me as I have the children and have just had the house deeds transferred to me so legally though his name is on the mortgage he has no right of access to the property as it belongs to me. Though this has cost me around £10K in child maintenance (2 years worth) whch the judge 'backdated' to April last year so it is just under a year rather than the 2 years it states.. he hasn't paid anything so neither here nor there.

I was advised if I could PROVE he had paid nothing towards the house for 6 months he was eligible for half any equity based on the market value of the house the day he left minus expenses etc.. which worked out about £4k.. for him... house worth £120k.. mortgage £90k secured loan £15k

Has he tried to get the mortgage transferred into just his name? It ma also make more sense to add the loan to the mortgage if there is sufficient equity in the house to reduce monthly outgoings.

shortbread

Thanks Pigpen...

Do you think the judge would look at it that way....he got a contract set up back in 2009 as the mortgage company had agreed to his finances being okay to take on the £114 outstanding....but she delayed and delayed for over a year until the week after he was made redundant. His solicitor has proof of her dilly dallying....

Not sure how the mortgage will work now as hes been out of work.... I'm hoping the mortgage company will not delay giving him it because he wont have been in new job a while....??? he may be able to get extra as there is around 12k equity in house....

pigpen

I found it all comes down to the judge who looks at it.. as I said in my case I have the children and am in the house so it is different.. worth asking though!

shortbread

Just wondering if anyone who has a gander is aware of the procedures of not going to mediation???

How long does it take to get to court?

Anyone have similar experience??

**curlywurly**

OP, take a look at this http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/courts-and-tribunals/courts/procedure-rules/family/practice_directions/pd_part_03a.htm. On first glance it is full of legal gobbledygook, but scroll down a bit and hopefully it makes more sense. You will see in Annex C there is a list of circumstances where mediation is not obligatory.

What your OH needs to know from his solicitor is whether he can present a good reason for not mediating. I know the solicitor has said that it isn't obligatory for him, because the mediation was requested before 6 April. That doesn't make sense to me. I would have thought it would be down to the date the order was applied for. As for costs, someone above has suggested that the ex may have to pay costs if she loses. Please be aware that it is extremely difficult, in fact virtually impossible to get costs against someone who is legally aided.

Your OH will get a much fairer (for want of a better word) hearing from the judge if he jumps through all the hoops (which may mean attending a mediation, however hopeless that seems) and to appear as reasonable as possible. Unfortunately, many mediators give you the impression they are on your side. They give exactly the same impression to the other person. Their sole aim in life is to settle as many cases as possible because their "success" statistics are very important to them. This means that the outcome for the parties is often not particularly satisfactory.

As for how long it will take to get to court, it varies from area to area - again, this is something your OH will need to ask his solicitor.