Enforcing a Sale

laurasavon

Can anyone give me some advise please. OH and I have split up and jointly own our house, the equity in the house would probably just cover the joint overdraft so in effect there is no equity.

When we first split OH said he was happy for me to take over the mortgage (and the overdraft) as he is not working so wouldn't be in a position to take on the mortgage. It was my intention to rent out the property and move somewhere smaller myself.

OH has signed the paperwork for the mortgage company but is now refusing to sign the transfer deed (and the mortgage can't be transferred over until this is signed).

I moved out about 6 weeks ago, expecting to stay with my parents for a few weeks until he had sorted somewhere to move to (his parents are happy for him to move there he is just refusing).

I gave him the option of renting the house from me if he didn't want to move, but he has so far failed to even check if he would qualify for housing benefit. I am still paying the mortgage and all of the bills (he gets £65 a week from the Job Centre which goes into the joint account).

Ideally I don't want to sell the property as with the solicitor fees / estate agent fees it would more than likely be a loss on the house - but is it my only option?

hoppo,p

You should not have moved out at all. You are now paying the mortgage & bills for a house that your ex is living in. Move back in & make life uncomfortable for him or he'll never move.
You will have to play hard ball with him as (forgive me) he sounds like a sponger that will take you for everything he can get from you.
Sounds to me like he has had "advice" from friends.
Good luck.

Caz3121

he won't qualify for housing benefit for renting a house he used to own so I think you can forget that option

Renting a former joint home from your ex-partner

You cannot get HB if you pay rent to your ex-partner if you have separated and you have remained in the former joint home. This applies whether you were a married or unmarried couple.

I made the mistake also of moving out and ending up paying mortgage etc and ended up starting court proceedings to force sale before he magically managed to get a mortgage (magically as he was claiming income support and had no job but managed to get a mortgage for nearly £200k)


Have you had a mortgage in your own name agreed, is it a residential or BTL mortgage?

laurasavon

Thank you both for your replies.

I did live there for a while but I couldn't take it any longer so I don't really want to go down that route.

I hadn't realised that clause of HB, thank you for that. I do have a mortgage agreement in my sole name yes.

RAS

Move back in even if you need to sleep elsewhere for a day of two a week.

Otherwise, go back, read the meters and put all the bills in his name. Tell him that he can start paying them if you are not living there.

Are you married, or not?

And did you make any provision for separateion when you bought the house?

Joint tenancy or tenants in common?

GDB2222

it looks like you will end up going to court over this, so the sooner you see a solicitor and set the ball rolling, the better. Your ex-partner has no incentive to do anything about this, and you are the one who will have to make the running.

BitterAndTwisted

As advised at present he has absolutely no incentive whatsoever to move anywhere soon or sign anything which he doesn't want to. Even if seems impossible you must take the bull by the horns. Move back in and if the property has more than two bedrooms, move a pal in with you. Any chance that you might be able to prevail on his parents to talk some sense into him?


That joint bank-account is a terrible worry. You need to find a way if preventing his access to it. If you haven't opened another bank account in your sole name, arranged for your salary to be paid into it and the mortgage from it, please do that asap!

Naturally, a joint bank-account can't be closed unless there's a zero balance or funds to clear the overdraft coming from elsewhere but please speak to the bank about how both signatures could be required for any transactions, cards cancelled etcetera

laurasavon

Thanks for th replies, I'll try and answer all of them.

Yes we are married.

The house is held as Tennants in Common with 60/40 shares in my favour (I put the initial deposit down on the previous property and the equity from that was then continued to the current property).

I have been to the bank today and they have given me the form to remove one party from the account - but requires both signatures so not sure how easy that will be :mad:

The bank said they can freeze the account but that will also freeze all DD's.

I applied for a new bank account yesterday in my sole name so once tht is set up I will get my salary transferred and the mortgage to avoid default then freeze the old account.

RAS

laurasavon wrote: »

Yes we are married.

The house is held as Tennants in Common with 60/40 shares in my favour (I put the initial deposit down on the previous property and the equity from that was then continued to the current property)..

Good - as that means it will be sorted by the divorce if nothing else.

laurasavon wrote: »

I have been to the bank today and they have given me the form to remove one party from the account - but requires both signatures so not sure how easy that will be :mad:

The bank said they can freeze the account but that will also freeze all DD's..

What they can do it to accept a letter from you advising that any further debits require both signatures. Take out everything you do not need to pay the DDs and then give them the letter. That stops him building an OD that you have to pay.

BitterAndTwisted

There's already a £7k overdraft on the joint-account. That's bad enough and I'm sure the OP doesn't want to be landed with joint responsibility for even more.




I can just imagine the conversation:

"Darling, I've just frozen the joint-bank account so I'm afraid your JSA is going to be soaked up by our massive overdraft. Oh, and by the way, I've changed all the utility bills and the Council Tax into your name as you're the only one living here"

"Holy effing !!!!! What a bloody b i t c h! How the hell am I supposed to feed myself?"

"Now, about those documents I asked you sign......."

laurasavon

The £7k overdraft it on a seperate joint account where no bills go out of, just put a bit in each month towards paying it off

The current account where my salary goes into has £5k available overdraft but isn't being used - hence why I dont want him to be able to withdraw it so want to freeze the account