Deed of trust

efes_shareholder

I am not sure if this is better suited to this forum or the family and relationships but here goes.

This is regarding my ex home , which is currently occupied by my ex partner and three children , all over the age of 18.

We bought the property in 1995 , at the time as full time homemaker my name was not entered on to the mortgage , this followed in around 2001 once i returned to work
In 2010 , it was mutually agreed that my name would be taken off of the mortgage to enable me to make an investment in an additional property between my sister and I ( this property has since been sold and no equity was used from the family home)

I left the house and the relationship in 2011.
The then school aged children divided their time between both their home and my rental property ( cost me in excess of 1k a month in rent) I recieved no financial assistance from their father and I no longer contributed to the cost of the family home.

It was always agreed that the house would be kept until the kids were older , however this was verbally. I realised that the verbal agreement was incredibly shakey and had a declaration of trust put in place saying that upon sale i was entitled to 50% of the equity.

Prior to the declaration in 2012 , my ex partner increased the mortgage on the property by 35K , This was used to purchase a buy to let property and although I did not need to "ok" the increase , it was in my full knowledge and I was present when the new mortgage was agreed etc.
It was again agreed verbally that the money taken from the equity would be repaid against the mortgage when the buy to let was sold.

To cut a story short , the buy to let has not done what it was expected to and the property has now been sold - the sale has broken down several times however it appears to be proceeding this time
My ex partner has not mentioned the fact that he is going down the sale route which leads me to suspect that he has no intention of repaying the 35k and will instead try and pocket the money to put him ahead on the declaration .

i intend to ask him for a conversation and broach this subject but since i insisted on the declaration , we have barely conversed

My solicitor has advised that although the buy to let is not mentioned in the deed , it is relevent as it relates to monies taken from the equity and i should ask him for 50% of the 35k now ( which would enable me to clear some debts and hopefully be in a position to invest when the house sale eventually goes through)

This would be much preferable to me as selling the house right now is not great for either of us , 7 years of house renting and supporting myself and the kids has taken its toll and i have some historic debts which I would love to clear

I can't see the benefit of him paying it off the mortgage other then for him to reduce his payment on his interest only mortgage.

My concern is that he will choose neither of the above and try and keep the 35k when in fact 17.5 is mine.

I would then feel i had no choice other then to enforce the deed of trust and push the sale of the house - hopefully reclaiming the 17.5 at the same time

Does anyone have any advice on this - how to broach it , pits fulls etc ?