Question on Occupancy rights

vodkashot

I presume you live in England & Wales - given that you are married, your wife will certainly be able to make a financial claim in relation to the matrimonial pot. It does not matter that your purchased the house before you married. That would be one factor that would be taken into account by the court. The fact that you have children together is however another factor as the court's primary concern will be the children.

In terms of the bills, you can inform the suppliers that you no longer reside there so that legally you are not responsible for them. Your obligation will then become to continue to pay the mortgage and maintenance.

Given that you own the house, you can move back in there but obviously that would have an effect on the children so you need to consider that carefully.

Technically your wife's boyfriend is trespassing. You would need to serve him a notice to leave as he is a licensee and then you would have to take steps to remove him. He could be considered a lodger, my housing knowledge is not so good so you really should take advice about this. Whatever you do however you need to consider the effect it will have on your children and how your wife will react. It might make her dig her heels in.

Given that it's been sometime, perhaps a solicitors letter saying that it's been X amount of time and you will need to move back into the property and intend to so say after 14 days. It might prompt her to be proactive.

You do however need to be really careful in case your wife makes allegations of violence/harassment against you as she might then apply for an occupation order to try and keep you out of the property, at which point (if you haven't already) you will want to start divorce proceedings in order to try and get the finances settled too.

malkyh

vodkashot wrote: »

I presume you live in England & Wales - given that you are married, your wife will certainly be able to make a financial claim in relation to the matrimonial pot. It does not matter that your purchased the house before you married. That would be one factor that would be taken into account by the court. The fact that you have children together is however another factor as the court's primary concern will be the children.

In terms of the bills, you can inform the suppliers that you no longer reside there so that legally you are not responsible for them. Your obligation will then become to continue to pay the mortgage and maintenance.

Given that you own the house, you can move back in there but obviously that would have an effect on the children so you need to consider that carefully.

Technically your wife's boyfriend is trespassing. You would need to serve him a notice to leave as he is a licensee and then you would have to take steps to remove him. He could be considered a lodger, my housing knowledge is not so good so you really should take advice about this. Whatever you do however you need to consider the effect it will have on your children and how your wife will react. It might make her dig her heels in.

Given that it's been sometime, perhaps a solicitors letter saying that it's been X amount of time and you will need to move back into the property and intend to so say after 14 days. It might prompt her to be proactive.

You do however need to be really careful in case your wife makes allegations of violence/harassment against you as she might then apply for an occupation order to try and keep you out of the property, at which point (if you haven't already) you will want to start divorce proceedings in order to try and get the finances settled too.

Hi, I live in Scotland

BigAunty

It seems to me the main issues are the expense involved while your ex drags her feet moving out, presumably getting comfy there as she's subsidised.

So I recommend that you instruct your solictor to serve notice on her to leave in order to ensure you get back possession of your house before the end of the year and that you remove yourself from the household bills.

Your solicitor will be able to notify you of any risks involved in these two actions.

And ask the housing forum members about your rights and options, making it clear you are in Scotland as it has different housing law.

I think his presence is an irrelevance - yes, it's rubbing salt in the wounds and he's effectively pimping off you but the key thing is to find out how you can legally return to live in the property. While you are not living there, I don't think you can't hope to influence his presence there - he's her guest, she's your unwanted guest.

BigAunty

I ran a quick tenancy checker on the Shelter Scotland website to try and ascertain your ex's status. It's possible that she is a non-tenant occupier with few rights.

Don't take my word for it, ask your solicitor. You should be instructing him to serve notice and notify her of her lack of tenure there, according to housing law. She may then query this with her own solicitor who may then confirm that she has no security there and this might prompt her to speed up her own onward move or apply to the local council as homeless.

http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/advice_topics/renting_rights/about_your_tenancy_rights/non-tenant_occupiers

http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/advice_topics/renting_rights/about_your_tenancy_rights/what_kind_of_tenancy_do_i_have

Come back here and tell us what your solictor says and how it eventually got resolved.