Can someone make me sell my house?

GDB2222

Richard_Webster wrote: »

If you were going to pay them back gradually then why weren't you doing that? They probably think that if you have lost your jobs there is no realistic prospect of them being paid back.

If there is a deed of trust then I think they probably could eventually get a court order for sale.

You need to talk to them and ask what they really want. If they had some regular payments towards the amount they put in they might be satisfied. It will cost them a lot to go to court and their solicitor will tell them that, so they will probably be prepared to agree some compromise.

But, but, but ... he would reclaim (most of) his costs from the 2 living in the house. The claim would be bound to succeed, eventually.

The 3rd person is no longer (it seems) living in the house, so naturally he wants his money back. A court is bound to sympathise with that. It's not as if the OP is paying anything to live in the 1/3rd of the house he does not own.

Really, the OP has 2 choices: either take legal advice on the precise terms of the trust deed or agree to put the house on the market.

GDB2222

flogget06 wrote: »

Have found out that the original documents have been destroyed because it was so long ago. So what does that mean for her and us?

Nobody has the all-important trust deed? Not even a copy?

It could mean a particularly protracted and expensive court case, with the court hardly likely to conclude that this 3rd person cannot ever have her money back.

xylophone

The original documents? What were these exactly? You clearly have a copy of the Declaration of Trust and surely the mortgage company has copies of all legal documents?

See http://www.questbrook.co.uk/solename.htm - is your situation covered here?

flogget06

Yes sorry not explaining myself very well. please understand I am out of my depth here lol.
When we bought the house all the documents we all signed then have been destroyed the only thing we have is the deed of trust as this was done at a later date and by a different solicitor
The solicitors who helped us buy the house destroy everything after 6 years, the mortgage dont have anything i have asked. Does this matter?

BitterAndTwisted

Your partner's mother has had a change of circumstances or her long-term plans have changed. Like a new partner who she wants to make a home with, with her own money.

Take everything you have to a solicitor and ask them to advise you. Doing anything else is a waste of your time.

Morally, if she wants her investment back then you should do everything in your power to give it even if legally you may not be compelled to. I can't read your Deed of Trust from here but I would warn you that being involved in a dispute between mother and child could be catastrophic. In fact. it's almost guaranteed.

poppysarah

I think someone else said it though - if you are paying her back and she expects 1/3 of the house then something isn't as clear as it should be.

How much have you paid her back so far?

GDB2222

flogget06 wrote: »

Yes sorry not explaining myself very well. please understand I am out of my depth here lol.
When we bought the house all the documents we all signed then have been destroyed the only thing we have is the deed of trust as this was done at a later date and by a different solicitor
The solicitors who helped us buy the house destroy everything after 6 years, the mortgage dont have anything i have asked. Does this matter?

No, it doesn't matter. The Land Registry entry is what counts. That, and the trust deed.

Your OH needs to talk man-to-mum with his mother to find out what she wants and how to sort this out. However, if she needs her money back, the house will have to be sold. Where is she living now? At a pure guess, you or OH offended her in some way, which is why she moved out, and this is her way of making her point?

xylophone

Is the situation as follows?

When you met your partner he was living with his parents.

The parents split up and the family home was sold, leaving Mother with her share of the equity - this money was insufficient for her to buy another home outright and she was unable to obtain a mortgage as she had no job.

At this stage you made an informal verbal agreement that in return for her money, you and her son would allow her to live in a property that you would purchase with a mortgage, using her money for the deposit. She would not have to pay any of the bills for council tax, utilities, food, furnishings etc - this would be the sole responsibility of you and your partner and would represent a repayment of the money.
When the mortgage was obtained, as far as the mortgage provider was concerned, the money was simply your money - you made no mention of the source and therefore Mother did not have to give any undertaking to the mortgage provider that the money was a gift.

The property was registered in the sole names of you and your partner
-either as joint tenants or tenants in common - it is not clear which.

At some subsequent stage, Mother decided that she would no longer live in the property on a regular basis and a declaration of trust was drawn up. She did not place a legal charge on the property such that she could force a sale, but simply entered into an agreement with you and her son that in the event of a sale,
she was entitled to a third of the proceeds after the settlement of the outstanding mortgage.

To further protect her interest, a restriction was registered at the Land Registry (Form RX1) along the lines:
"No disposition of the registered estate is to be registered without a certificate signed by the applicant for registration or his conveyancer that written notice of the disposition was given to Mother at (Mother's current address)."

If the above is the case, then Mother cannot insist on sale or repayment of the money she originally provided but only on being advised if a sale is contemplated and on a third of the sale proceeds (after the settlement of the mortgage) when the house is sold?

However, everything would seem to depend on the precise terms of the Declaration of Trust and any other legal steps which Mother may have taken and you may no option but to obtain legal advice.

sonastin

1) How much do you owe?
2) How much of it could you pay back now?
3) How quickly could pay the rest back if you cut your spending to the bone and put all your spare money into paying this off?

You don't have to tell us the answers but you really need to think about your situation so you get an idea of the answers yourself. The solicitors letter is just a frightener at this stage. What it really means is "if we haven't heard from you in 3 weeks, we will consider starting whatever legal proceedings will be necessary to make you sell the house." These proceedings, if they start them, will take weeks if not months. And from what you have posted about the deed of trust, they will not necessarily result in the courts making you sell up.

So rather than panicking about losing your home, you should finding out why she has chosen to take this course of action and working out what you need to do to pay off the loan should the worst come to the worst.

In all honesty, if the deed really does just say that she is entitled to her 1/3 back on the sale of the house with no provisions for earlier repayment and she is not a registered owner of the house, I am not sure what legal grounds she would have for making you repay earlier than the time agreed in the deed of trust and as the house isn't up for sale it isn't going to be sold any time soon. As she isn't the owner she can't put it up for sale. Morally, you could be seen to be taking advantage of her not thinking about a scenario where you wouldn't sell up when she wanted but it does all depend on what the Deed says and what legal advice you all had when you entered into the agreement.

BJV

Oh My god - Just been reading the thread. Horrible. As you say if you can trust your own mother!

Must be horrible.
Good Luck