Remove ex from Title deeds

jannej79

Hi
To briefly explain:
Property purchased with ex partner using 100% mortgage
I paid £99 reservation fee (new build)
Partner left two months after buying the house. Never made any payments at all to the mortgage off bills
Mortgage is now finished all be it with a large shortfall due to poor endowment performance.
After using multiple solicitors over the years, I am receiving no response from her in relation to signing ownership to myself.
Can I raise a court action myself to force a transfer?
Thanks in advance

AskAsk

you may find that even though she didn't pay the mortgage, she may still be entitled to her share of the property!  you should consult a solicitor for advice.

here is some info on ownership for partners

https://scotland.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/families_and_households/living_together/your_rights_if_you_or_your_partner_own_your_home

jannej79

Thank you for your swift reply, I have sought advice over the years as I have never been able to even change my mortgage rate because of her failure to respond. Latest solicitor advises a court action to allow me to sell the property then for me to prove that she hasn’t paid anything and I can claim my expense from her portion of any equity. However this is likely to cost into the £1000’s and I don’t necessarily want to sell the house.
I just wondered if anybody had any advice if I could raise my own court action to change the deeds as she is non-respondent.
Thanks

AskAsk

jannej79 said:

Thank you for your swift reply, I have sought advice over the years as I have never been able to even change my mortgage rate because of her failure to respond. Latest solicitor advises a court action to allow me to sell the property then for me to prove that she hasn’t paid anything and I can claim my expense from her portion of any equity. However this is likely to cost into the £1000’s and I don’t necessarily want to sell the house.
I just wondered if anybody had any advice if I could raise my own court action to change the deeds as she is non-respondent.
Thanks

i doubt you would be able to change the title deeds as she is registered as co-owner and so you would need her consent to change the title deed.

gettingtheresometime

Maybe a stupid comment but so you have up to date contact details?

The other thing to bare in mind, certainly from her perspective, is has she bought another property over the intervening years? I only ask as she may have been liable for the extra stamp duty & perhaps she's genuinely forgotten about this property 

jannej79

Hi
Thanks for your reply
It appears she has a large family now and does live in a privately owned house, so I am not sure how this has worked. 

I don’t intend to upset a family if this is something that has not been disclosed.
I found an up to date address and my solicitors letters have been signed for by her but I have not had a response at all.
I just wanted to see if anybody any other ideas I could try as I’m not sure where to go next.
Thanks

TBagpuss

The application you will have to make is under the Trust of Land and Appointment fi Trustees Act (TOLATA) to first ask the court to declare what interest each of you has in the house, and then, having done so, to order it be sold (in which case you can buy it) or transferred. 
If, once the court has made their orders, she still does not cooperate than you can ask the court to make an aorder to allow the paperwork to be signed by a Judge in her place, but you will need to get the ownership issue determined first, as on the face of it, as the house is in joint names, she is entitled to 50%. 
In the specific circumstances I think that you have a good chance of being able to convince a court that the split should be uneven in your favour (although ti would have been better had to done something about it years ago, when there was little if any equity)

You would however be well advised to use a solicitor for any claim -the rules are strictly applied and it would be very easy to make mistakes which would scupper your case, or mean that you were unable to recover any costs. 

AskAsk

jannej79 said:

Hi
Thanks for your reply
It appears she has a large family now and does live in a privately owned house, so I am not sure how this has worked. 

I don’t intend to upset a family if this is something that has not been disclosed.
I found an up to date address and my solicitors letters have been signed for by her but I have not had a response at all.
I just wanted to see if anybody any other ideas I could try as I’m not sure where to go next.
Thanks

have you not contacted her yourself and discuss the situation?

gettingtheresometime

AskAsk said:

jannej79 said:

Hi
Thanks for your reply
It appears she has a large family now and does live in a privately owned house, so I am not sure how this has worked. 

I don’t intend to upset a family if this is something that has not been disclosed.
I found an up to date address and my solicitors letters have been signed for by her but I have not had a response at all.
I just wanted to see if anybody any other ideas I could try as I’m not sure where to go next.
Thanks

have you not contacted her yourself and discuss the situation?

I was going to suggest this - or at least ask the solicitor if it would be a good idea.
I'm just wondering if the solicitor's letters have spooked her because of the potential extra stamp duty implications and she's decided to stick her head in the sand, hoping it will all go away.
Just another thought, OP, how is your house held - tenants in common or joint tenants?

jannej79

Thank you Askask, gettingtheresometime and Tbagpuss for all of your messages.
I have tried to contact her and have had no reply, the solicitor suggested using social media, which I have and the messages have been ignored, as have the solicitors letters.
my solicitors have referred me to dispute resolution now and I am looking at another nearly £1000 of fees initially, although I have passed your advice on so hopefully they can cut out any unnecessary exploratory work
Name on the deeds is joint names with either or survivor inheriting
n.b we are in Scotland so would the stamp duty issue still apply on a second property.
thanks so much again

jannej79

TBagpuss said:

The application you will have to make is under the Trust of Land and Appointment fi Trustees Act (TOLATA) to first ask the court to declare what interest each of you has in the house, and then, having done so, to order it be sold (in which case you can buy it) or transferred. 
If, once the court has made their orders, she still does not cooperate than you can ask the court to make an aorder to allow the paperwork to be signed by a Judge in her place, but you will need to get the ownership issue determined first, as on the face of it, as the house is in joint names, she is entitled to 50%. 
In the specific circumstances I think that you have a good chance of being able to convince a court that the split should be uneven in your favour (although ti would have been better had to done something about it years ago, when there was little if any equity)

You would however be well advised to use a solicitor for any claim -the rules are strictly applied and it would be very easy to make mistakes which would scupper your case, or mean that you were unable to recover any costs. 

To follow up , I am aware that this should have been addressed earlier on when I had little equity, I did attempt numerous times but I always ran out of money for legal fees because I was being held to ransom on the banks standard variable rate mortgage which they have never changed for me because both parties could not sign. 

In hindsight, I should have just walked away from the property shortly after, as I had a mortgage indemnity to cover the mortgage shortfall.