Messy Divorce

BitterAndTwisted

In all honesty even if he's contributed naff-all to the mortgage and bills for the last X years, unless you can prove it he's entitled to half of the equity. And given his circumstances you should fully expect him to fight tooth-and-nail to get it.

Short of a court-order to force a sale he's in a very weak position to demand anything. My only advice to you is not to give him a penny without a written agreement legally drawn up. And get that £6k credit-card bill taken off whatever it is you agree on.

Could you remortgage to raise whatever sum he can be paid off with? With a bit of luck he'll spend it all on booze and be out of circulation for a decent amount of time. Maybe forever.

Padstow

As much of a B as he sounds, he was right not to sign the transfer of equity. He may be awarded half of the equity if not more in a court. Do you know for certain you can take on the mortgage alone?


You must get this into court by petitioning him for unreasonable behaviour. Get a divorce pack from your local court and do it. Total cost £500 with court fees, with a sol it's far more expensive. Once the court decide you keep the house, with the mortgage Co's permission, you will get a Consent Order and he'll never be able to ask for another penny from you.
At present, you are very vulnerable, not only by his demands for cash, but he could move back in if he so wished.

Padstow

mgdavid wrote: »

OP, solicitors may be expensive - but they are rarely as expensive as trying to agree and enforce a good outcome *without* them, especially if the other party has form already...

That may be true of accountants, not so divorce sols. Many ancillary relief cases have cost more than was gained.

LandyAndy

Gigglepig wrote: »

If you have been married for 11 years, I think he should get a fair share of the house even if he has paid less towards the mortgage than you. A few thousand on top of the 6k he already got from your credit card is still a lot less than 1/2 of 40k equity. Can you get some free legal advice from a family solicitor?

And if he consults a solicitor that will be the advice he gets.

sarahmtly

Thanks for all the great advice. This forum and its members have been a great help to me a few times. Just to update I took some of your advice and went to a solicitor. They have sent him a letter offering him £2000 in return for his share of house and the divorce papers signed. Just in case anyone else is in same position the Solicitor anticipates her charges to be around £500 if all goes according to plan plus £340 to file for the divorce which I did before getting the solicitor involved.
Its been a couple of weeks and I have heard nothing and to be honest I dont think I will. He knows I want this now and Im sure he is just gonna drag his heels as much as possible just to be spiteful.
If only I had a crystal ball before getting married :P
Anyway thanks again for all the advice

NAR

Thanks for update, I just hope it reaches a satisfactory solution. :beer: