House sale during a divorce

Marvellousmrsmaisel

Hi. We are at the beginning of starting our divorce/separation proceedings and I’ve instructed a solicitor. She has asked for all the copies of our assets as in bank statements,valuations for house etc,basically every assets value for financial disclosure. For those of you that have been through this process and have decided to sell the family home rather than 1 of you stay in it,can you put the house on the market straight away? My husband and I are so far being completely amicable and have agreed we want to do this as trouble/stress free as possible both for our sanity and for the sake of our teenage daughter. We are talking about everything. Thanks in advance.

sassyblue

Of course you can if you agree. I guess one of you doesn’t want to buy the other out and stay in the house?

Marvellousmrsmaisel

Thanks again Sassyblue for answering another of my posts. No we currently have a 3 bed detached which is far bigger and more costly for what each of us will need with our daughter. For the area we want here where we are near to her school it will most likely be a 2/3 bed terrace house as that’s what a lot of them are and a lot cheaper that what our current house is. For what we could get for this house would nearly both buy us 2x 2 bed terrace. 

With the house sale I meant do you have to wait because obviously solicitors will be involved and I didn’t know if we could just put it on the market whenever or if we had to wait until a certain stage in the process before the solicitors said “ right you can put it up for sale now”. At the moment we are right at the beginning and they have asked for everything valued and bank accounts statements etc for financial disclosure. Also how much would divorcing slow the process of buying and selling a house. Does the divorce have to have gone through before the house sale or can a move still be arranged whilst going through all that? Thanks ☺️

I currently have arranged for 3 estate agents to come and value it at the weekend for the valuations we will need for the solicitors.

TBagpuss

Yes, you can. You can even sell it before you have an order if you want to.

The issues usually come up if you get an buyer and haven't yet agreed on how the sale proceeds should be divided up, as at that point you may either have to agree that they are held by the solicitors pending agreement (which is safe, but means you can't either of you buy straightaway) or you distribute them (which lets you buy, but is risky)  or you agree you each take a fixed amount (e.g. enough for a rental deposit) or you don't finalize the sale (in which case you risk losing the buyer)

It can be useful in helping work out the realistic value of the house, and of course if things are amicable and you are both cooperating to provide your disclosure then there's no reason you shouldn't be able to negotiate an agreement by the time you are ready to complete

Marvellousmrsmaisel

Thanks TBagpuss. I have my 3 valuations booked over the weekend and also 2 of them will be taking pictures to put it on the market. I have no clue how long agreeing on things take if both parties have said they want it to be as hassle free as possible and also not line the solicitors pockets with too much of the money. We shall see I guess. Thanks again.