Emptied house after seperation

steeeb

Guest101 wrote: »

Of course it's not official. It wont be until He, the council and
your MIL all sign.


So everyone accepts it's his property?

Everyone, including the MIL does.

Do you accept his has damaged the property, though?

Guest101

steeeb wrote: »

Everyone, including the MIL does.

Do you accept his has damaged the property, though?

Uhm... Yes ? I mean it's irrelevant what I think about any damage he might cause.


It's his property, he's a legal tenant and he has the opportunity to rectify it.

Pixie5740

Something similar happened to a friend of mine. His ex left him, moved out of their home and one day he got home from work to discover everything was gone, even the built-in appliances. He couldn't change the locks because they jointly owned the property and he is fairly certain she was entering the house whilst he was at work to steal his post. In the end he let the bank repossess the property as she wouldn't contribute towards the mortgage and was being awkward about selling the property. Having a property repossessed is extreme but he reckons it was worth it to be shot of her.

So the MIL needs to focus on ending the joint tenancy and and getting a tenancy for the property in her sole name (see Shelter link provided earlier) or ending the tenancy and finding somewhere else to live. Otherwise she will end up living in a property that her ex has an absolute legal right to enter even if he is behaving as he is.

Pixie5740

The property was already damaged when the hooky loft conversion was put in (I can't believe anyone would allow someone to sleep in a hooky loft conversion much less their own child) and as joint tenants they are both (rightly or wrongly) jointly and severally liability for any damage.

Given that he has behaved in a similar way to his ex-wife your MIL just needs to be rid of him even if it seems not fair that he has taken these items from the home.

Savvy_Sue

steeeb wrote: »

Shelter couldn't help either.

But as another poster has said, I'm sure they gave advice. What was their advice?

steeeb wrote: »

He's been constantly texting the MIL at 4am in the morning says he loves her etc.

I have never understood why people keep their phones switched on and next to their beds all night if they're getting unwanted attention as a result. With mine, the only people who can disturb me between midnight and 7 am are the 'favourites' in my contact list: family and very very close friends who might have an emergency. If I didn't have that facility it wouldn't be left switched on, and those who needed me could phone the landline.

If MIL can't do that on her phone but feels she needs to have a phone switched on all night, a cheap payg for people she actually cares about would do the trick.

steeeb wrote: »

A few days ago he said he's took everything now and will be out on Saturday and he'll sign the tenancy over.

My priority would be ensuring the tenancy was secure in MIL's name. I doubt if he can do that without her involvement, or that she can do it without his involvement. What progress has she made on getting the tenancy into her sole name? Note that I don't think she has an automatic entitlement to that ...

Snakey

steeeb wrote: »

...he'd boasted about doing the same to his ex-wife and he even went bankrupt on purpose so she got nothing...

I know this is an awful situation for your MIL to be dealing with and that it's too late to turn back the clock, but this was a massive red flag to have ignored. People tend to revert to type when ending a relationship, and it's naive to think that they would make an exception for you.

It seems to me that he knows his legal rights perfectly and if any of you do anything to try to stop him, you'll be the ones in the wrong. Her best bet is to sit it out and then deal with the aftermath at her leisure once he's off the tenancy and the locks have been changed. The furniture can be replaced fairly easily, he doesn't seem to be stealing or wrecking anything of hers but just taking his own stuff, and I can't imagine he has the time to rip out the windows if this is all supposed to be done and dusted by the end of today. (I am not a lawyer but if he does remove them and doesn't make good then surely he would be personally liable for the repair bill - just because you are a tenant in a property doesn't give you the right to smash holes in the roof and leave the interior open to the elements. You might want to get evidence of him doing it).