Threat of force of house sale

Hbomb321

Hi, my friend divorced 10 years ago with no financial order in place. Ex wife left the matrimonial home and 1 child behind for him to care for. She has made no mortgage payment (non was expected) but is still on the mortgage and deeds. She has now requested the house be sold and she wants what little equity there is from the sale. It’s leasehold with less than 50 years remaining so I think any sale would be difficult without an extension to the leasehold? 1. Can she force the sale (I think she probably can); if so 2. Can my friend expect 50/50 costs of sale and costs if leasehold needs to be extended? and 3. Presumably my friend can offer to buy her out which would be half whatever little equity is in the property. Is that correct? Any advice gratefully received.
Thank you 😊 

tightauldgit

She can certainly apply to a court for a financial settlement which may involve selling the house (or buying her out of her share of the equity) as well as looking at a split of all other assets of both parties. 

If she's just trying to force a sale of the house then she might have a route to do that but the very best she could expect would be 50% of the equity after all costs. 

Hbomb321

Thank you.

Keep_pedalling

Your friend should offer to buy her out then extend the lease if he can afford to do that. 

thegreenone

How old is the child now?   I don't think a judge would look favourably if the child is still under 18.  Happy to be corrected.

theoretica

It is not just the issue of the money/equity. Getting her name off the mortgage and deeds may be important - to both of them!

TBagpuss

It's in your friends interests to get a finacial settlement sorted out anyway - this would not only deal with the hosue but also any other finacial assets such as pensions or savings. The starting point would be that he was entitled to 50% of the equity but what the actual settlement would be would depend on a range of other factors so impossible to predicaith so little information.

Your firned needs to talk to a solicitor. 

Brie

A solicitor should advise on this but I would be asking that the equity split be done at the time of the divorce not 10 years later when only one person has been paying for everything, including childcare.  And then I'd ask to be paid a portion of 10 years worth of the child's expenses.

TBagpuss

Brie said:

A solicitor should advise on this but I would be asking that the equity split be done at the time of the divorce not 10 years later when only one person has been paying for everything, including childcare.  And then I'd ask to be paid a portion of 10 years worth of the child's expenses.

The court looks at the assets as they are now, not as they were 10 years ago. all other considerations aside, if the wife had had her share of the equity 10 years ago, she would have had the opportunity to invest it in another property - in effect, what's happened is that her share has been left invested in the current proprety and she would be entitled to the return on that investment.

It *might* be possible to argue that there should be some allowance for any capital reduction in the mortgage, but equally, OPs friend has had the benefit of living in the property while his ex has, presumably, been renting , so agin, it's not a particualrly strong argument.

Child support is totally separate.

tightauldgit

TBagpuss said:

It's in your friends interests to get a finacial settlement sorted out anyway - this would not only deal with the hosue but also any other finacial assets such as pensions or savings. The starting point would be that he was entitled to 50% of the equity but what the actual settlement would be would depend on a range of other factors so impossible to predicaith so little information.

Your firned needs to talk to a solicitor. 

Completely agree, I honestly don't understand the plethora of threads we seem to see here saying 'we divorced X years ago but never got a financial settlement and now we are facing issues A B C and D.' 

If you are divorcing get a financial settlement and a clean break agreement ASAP! Nothing good comes of waiting. 

Twixty3

I agree with those who say it’s best to do the financial settlement now to avoid any comeback later for both of you.