Initiate divorce proceedings or go for a court order to evict a partner?

Gastines2

Can anyone advise me with the following scenario please?
Husband and wife and children sharing council/housing association house with a joint tenancy have reached a point where the wife wishes to end the marriage due to unreasonable behaviour of the husband. She has been told to get a court order to get him off of the tenancy agreement whilst he is still living in the house, (by a council official.) She also wishes to start divorce proceedings and retain tenancy of the house for herself and her children. Which is the best way to resolve this situation if he will not leave the home please? If divorce papers are filed would he be required to vacate the home and if she takes a court order out to try and get him off the tenancy agreement, how does that work as it is surely not as simple as that otherwise tenancy agreements would be rendered useless? Urgent advise please, thankyou.

Dovah_diva

Does the husband not have a say in whether he is summarily evicted from his home?

Annisele

Filing divorce papers wouldn't automatically mean the husband had to leave. Similarly, if the husband filed divorce papers the wife wouldn't automatically have to leave.

Shelter has some information here (that applies to England only).

Delree

It's not easy to remove someone from a tenancy against their will. This will involve court if he doesn't cooperate. It will be tempting to blame the council or housing association but their hands are tied as it's the law.

fluffnutter

I guess a lot will depend on the nature of his 'unreasonable behaviour'. If he's threatening, violent or a danger in some way there her desire to evict will be seen as understandable and (hopefully) she'll be supported. Other than that, common sense should prevail and they should do what's in the children's best interests.

Gastines2

Thanks to Annisele for the ref to Shelter Site. At least I can start off with a bit more info. To the posters who think that it's only about the daughter getting the home,I would reply that if you had all the info regarding husband and children,you might understand the reasoning.

monty-doggy

Regardless of the reasoning (which I'm sure are awful) the only way to do it is a court order. This could be a very expensive route and so I'd try mediation as part of the divorce first and try to appeal to his better nature to find somewhere else to live. Evicting him if he has no where to go will make him dig his heels in more.

rpc

Gastines2 wrote: »

I would reply that if you had all the info regarding husband and children,you might understand the reasoning.

And you need to understand that if you only give a fraction of the story, you are going to get answers based on that. If you want "full" responses then you need to give the full story.

Until the tenancy ends or a court order is made, the husband has the same right to occupy as the wife. Bear in mind that legal aid is no longer available (unless, for example, there is documented DV) so she may need to pay a solicitor for this.

Gastines2

Having now discussed this at some length and detail with a Council Official who was helpful, I believe our daughter will have to engage a Solicitor to go for a Divorce,change of tenancy and injunction, all at the same court hearing to gain sole tenancy of the property,custody of the children and an injunction to prevent 'problems' from the husband. As the Social Services are aware of a catalogue of problems with the husband we can but hope that the court when made aware of the problems, will make an order in favour of our daughter.
Hopefully I will not have to ask for any more info but thank those for their advice and constructive criticism.

fluffnutter

Gastines2 wrote: »

Thanks to Annisele for the ref to Shelter Site. At least I can start off with a bit more info. To the posters who think that it's only about the daughter getting the home,I would reply that if you had all the info regarding husband and children,you might understand the reasoning.

This was post #6 which is pretty early on. Now either I'm missing something or you've misunderstood every comment. Who are all these 'posters who think that it's only about the daughter getting the home'? Only four had responded at that point and as far as I can see only one has come anyway near saying something like that (and hasn't actually, merely asking fairly neutrally and reasonably whether the husband gets a say). So unless posts have been removed I'm not really sure what you're banging on about.

Gastines2

Perhaps I shouldn't have expressed my thanks?