Tenants in common - help and advice

DeludedDreamer

Long (painful, orrible and unjust) story short my siblings and I inherited a house 15 plus years ago. I want to enforce a sale but have been told by a solicitor last year that without the agreement of at least one of the other two I won't be able to do so.

I want to buy a house as I am currently renting in London (the jointly owned house is elsewhere in the England) but this Jointly owned property means I am frequently not eligible. Does anybody think the advice I was given by the solicitor was wrong?

Also I am considering getting a secured loan/remortgage (there currently is no mortgage) against the property (if the other two will agree) so that I can hopefully at least get a cheaper rate than by trying to get a mortgage whilst buying. Is this a good idea? Does anyone know a better way?

thanks in advance

D

TBagpuss

What is the position regarding the house? Does one of your siblings live there? If not, who lives there ,and do they pay rent? What did the will under which you inherited say?

Normally it is possible to force a sale where a property is jointly owned, but it can be an expensive and time-consuming process. Is it possible that the will imposed specific terms?

Have you spoken to your siblings about them buying you out, if they don't want to sell.

I think you would struggle to get a mortgage over the existing property as your siblings would have to agree and would be jointly liable - it would not be in their interests to agree.

Why do your siblings not want the house to be sold?
It might be worth your while to see a different solicitor for a second opinion. I'd suggest that you look for a litigator with experience of ToLATA cases and if they/their firm is also familiar with contentious probate that may be helpful, if the issue s to do with the wording of the original will.

G_M

I know that in certain cases a joint owner can go to court to get a court order for the sale of the property.

However your solicitor may be right that it would be hard (impossible?) to persuade a judge if 2 out of 3 joint owners do not want to sell.

And in any case, court action would be expensive even if possible.

A far better solution would be to sell your share at current market value to one or both of the other joint owners - assuming they agree to buy and have the funds to do so.

da_rule

Selling your share to the other owners may be a good option. You mention there is no mortgage on the property, maybe they would be willing to secure one over it in order to buy you out?

Also, depending on the value (if your share is worth more than £40k), you would be liable for the higher rate of stamp duty, so getting rid of your share might be in your best interest.

As has been said, getting a court order to enforce the sale could be extremely difficult (if not impossible), as well as very costly.

AnotherJoe

G_M wrote: »

I know that in certain cases a joint owner can go to court to get a court order for the sale of the property.

However your solicitor may be right that it would be hard (impossible?) to persuade a judge if 2 out of 3 joint owners do not want to sell.

And in any case, court action would be expensive even if possible.

A far better solution would be to sell your share at current market value to one or both of the other joint owners - assuming they agree to buy and have the funds to do so.

Why would they bother to do that if the OP is stuck with his/her worthless share since they cannot force the others to sell?

Keep_pedalling

I think I would get a second legal opinion. I cant see why it mattered that you don't have the support of one of the other owners.

xylophone

I don't see why you can't seek an "order for sale" from the court?

http://www.howellslegal.co.uk/news/post/Applying-to-Court-for-an-Order-for-Sale.aspx