Refusing to sell after divorce

kate199164

swingaloo2 said:

Looking back you have a previous thread regarding this situation in 2016.
At that point your partner and his ex were not divorced so how come the house was not sorted as part of the divorce which has happened since.

You also mention that he had only paid the solocitor £750 so its highly unlikely that is going to cover sorting this out.

I can only say what he was told by his solicitor. If its not the case then so be it.  

I can't answer that. The assets division was ruled 50/50 as she refused to engage and he got his absolute in 2016. It wasn't sorted because she refused to engage, which didn't stop the divorce being finalised. 

swingaloo2

6 years of trying to force a sale to get his equity? I would be more concerned about why your partner is letting this happen. he is still on a mortgage with his ex which stops you moving forward.

He needs decent solicitor and to start pushing. How much equity is in the property? Is it going to be eaten up by solicitors bills in the end. The amount of time it will take to get tenants out will not help either. 

trevormax

I would imagine as he owns 50% of the house, he is entitled to half of all profit from the rental income for the entire time there have been tenants. This may counter any claim she makes to reduce his share of the equity as a result of him not contributing to the mortgage. 

Thrugelmir

swingaloo2 said:

He needs decent solicitor and to start pushing.

Solicitors work on the instruction of their clients. Not their remit to tell them what to do. 

Jude57

Others here are far more knowledgeable than I, but I wonder whether the ex wife has obtained permission to let from the mortgage lender? If not, could this be used in some way as leverage to get her to engage? 

Also, would the OP's husband not be jointly and severally liable for tax on rental income, plus any landlord responsibilities that may not have been fulfilled like deposit protection?

TBagpuss

kate199164 said:

Hi, looking for some insight please.

My partner's divorce from his ex wife was filed 6 years ago and finalised 5 years ago after their marriage ended more than 7 years ago now. She was incensed by his being the one to apply and has been extraordinarily difficult ever since.  Contact since he filed for divorce has been through his solicitor only, which she ignores. She has  no solicitor. They have no children and the only asset is their jointly owned property. It should have been  very straightforward. 

During divorce proceedings she moved the mortgage payments from their joint account to her personal account without his knowledge, stopped taking his half that he was putting into the joint account for the mortgage and let out the property on a 6 tenancy against his clear and specific wishes I August 2015. The mortgage is paid from the let and she pockets the excess. My partner issued a section 21 notice as she refused to do so at the end of 2015 to the tenants,  giving them 60 days notice up to the end of their lease so as for the property to become vacant for sale, as directed in the divorce papers, and not to be leased again. Ex wife instructed them to ignore it and has been renewing their lease on a rolling basis ever since. The tenants are still in the property to this day and he cannot gain access as she listed herself as sole landlord. This suits her down to the ground as somebody else is paying her mortgage whilst the equity grows.  She just so happens to be a letting agent, incase that's relevant.

She ignored the divorce - the deemed service person said she put the papers in the bin as soon as they were handed over. It went ahead and he was awarded  a 50/50 split of everything as a result, with the house to be sold and proceeds divided. She ignored it. Mediation was put forward to proceed towards getting rid of the house, she ignored it. She ignored the instruction from the solicitor to either buy him out or sell the property. Since then...nothing. 

He has kept an eye on things over time to ensure she hasn't tried to put in new tenants, put it on the market etc. His solicitor retired from the firm just before covid hit and his case was handed to a new solicitor, but nothing seems to be going anywhere.

With almost 10 years of mortgage payments now having gone into it and increased house prices, there is now significantly more equity in the property and he wants it gone ASAP as he has had enough - we have two young children together and his equity shouldn't still be tied up after all this time because of her. Our question is, what do we do about this? 

He will need to apply back to the court to enforce the financial order, with as much evidence as possible as to what has been happening.

The courts have a range of papers, including being bale to arrange for him to have sole conduct of the sale, so he can sell the property without reference to her (possibly looking at selling with the tenants in place, if not he'll need to arrange for them to be given notice - it would likely be possible for a court to make an order expressly forbidding her from issuing any new tenancy or extending the current one, nd giving permission to disclose that order to the tenants . I am not sure what order would be needed to ensure that any permission or extension she gave was not valid , but it could probably be done. 

 As she is in breach of the original order he should also be able to claim his costs in full from her, and *might* be able to claim 50% of any rental profit made since he was a joint owner the whole time. 

it is complex situation, it's more common for it to be a spouse who is living in the property themselves and refusing to sell, but if he speaks to a solicitor they will be able to advice him and if necessary get additional advice to marry up the divorce and landlord and tenant sides of the situation. 

Ultimately, a court has powers both to impose costs orders on her if she doesn't cooperate, to allow another person (a Judge, or the conveyancing solicitor) to sign papers on her behalf, and to commit her to prison of she continues to breach court orders. But they don't do any of it automatically, he will need to apply, so he'll need to be willing to pay significant costs in order to get it done, and then get his money back out of the sale proceeds. 

user1977

Jude57 said:

Others here are far more knowledgeable than I, but I wonder whether the ex wife has obtained permission to let from the mortgage lender? If not, could this be used in some way as leverage to get her to engage? 

Also, would the OP's husband not be jointly and severally liable for tax on rental income, plus any landlord responsibilities that may not have been fulfilled like deposit protection?

If there's been a breach of the mortgage conditions in letting, then the husband is going to be jointly responsible for sorting that too though.

Jude57

user1977 said:

Jude57 said:

Others here are far more knowledgeable than I, but I wonder whether the ex wife has obtained permission to let from the mortgage lender? If not, could this be used in some way as leverage to get her to engage? 

Also, would the OP's husband not be jointly and severally liable for tax on rental income, plus any landlord responsibilities that may not have been fulfilled like deposit protection?

If there's been a breach of the mortgage conditions in letting, then the husband is going to be jointly responsible for sorting that too though.

Thanks, yes that struck me the second after I posted!  I hadn't thought it through, just stream of consciousness really 😀