Ex living in jointly owned home

Ames

If you take your name off the deeds the DWP will see that as deprivation of capital and treat you as still having the money.

xylophone

https://www.diemlegal.co.uk/court-order-force-sale-joint-property/

https://www.ft.com/content/2817cada-ce74-11e5-831d-09f7778e7377

marliepanda

Dubbledutch wrote: »

Thanks for reply. Yes we are divorced. He wants to continue to live there, I have no problem with that.I don't want anything from the house at all.Havent a clue how much the house is valued at or indeed what state of repair it is in. Approx £24000 left on morgage.

You must have a rough idea of the house value, even if you just look at a few locally sold ones.

With such a small mortgage left it would have to be a very small rundown house in a poor area for it not to be worth £56000 (which would bring your ‘asset’ to less than 16k.

You not wanting it doesn’t matter.
Him not being able to buy you out doesn’t matter.

You have an asset, and whilst you have it you can’t claim funds to support your income as you are choosing not to access your own money.

Dubbledutch

I will seek advice about him selling, before my son and i are homeless.
Thanks for all replys

Danday

Ames wrote: »

The house sale should have been dealt with as part of the divorce.

It doesn't matter what you want from the house - you own half of it and the DWP will treat you as having that amount in cash. You might be asked to pay back any income based benefits you've received since the split.

You really need to get your ex to either sell or buy you out. I don't know how you go about doing that, maybe you can get a free half hour with a solicitor.

Shame that they didn't opt for being tenants in common. Then try valuing the house or should say half a house?
I would say on that basis that her half is worth nothing until it is physically sold. He would be well within his rights to stay there in his half.

marliepanda

Danday wrote: »

Shame that they didn't opt for being tenants in common. Then try valuing the house or should say half a house?
I would say on that basis that her half is worth nothing until it is physically sold. He would be well within his rights to stay there in his half.

That’s really not how it works, and ownership types don’t make a difference here. She has money that can be released, the difficulty of that doesn’t matter. You cannot claim benefits with a large asset sitting there. You cannot claim help with housing costs when you have a house already.

You can’t say that half is worth nothing, nor does he have a right to stay because he is a joint owner, he is not a sole owner. She can force a sale.