TOLATA - Advice

markohall

I will try to keep this short and simple as this case has been ongoing for years and next step for me I feel is a TOLATA claim but I don't want to waste my time or money if anyone has any experience or advice they can give me on my problem if they think a TOLATA is a waste of time in my case:

2005 - Purchased a house with an Ex partner (unmarried) 
2007 - Separated from Ex (I took over all mortgage payments from this point and there was no equity in the house)
2010 - Applied for change of parties with mortgage company who approved and my Ex agreed and signed all the relevant documents at the solicitors, transfer of ownership, deeds etc 
All documents were sent to mortgage company to complete transfer
Mortgage company refused to complete the transfer of ownership because my Ex had a charging order on the house for a loan she hadn't repaid 
I disputed the charging order over the years as a charging order can not be registered on a house if the couple are not married so they eventually changed the CO to a restriction in the form of K
2021 -  I now want to sell the house but my Ex is still on the deeds and mortgage and still owns 50% of the house even though she signed the house over to me in 2010 but was rejected by mortgage company (solicitor still has all the legal documents which she signed in 2010 to transfer the house)
2021 to 2023 - Now my Ex knows there is equity in the house (about 70 to 80K) from all the payments I have made from 2007 to 2023 which she never contributed to any of the payments, she now says that she owns half of the house so she will not allow the house to be sold unless she gets 50%. I have been so desperate to sell the house over the past 2 years I have offered her 10K through my solicitor from the sale of the house to settle things and she has refused

My next step is a TOLATA claim but does anyone have any experience and do you think I have a strong case? I'm in the process of changing solicitors so I'm also going to take their advice but it seems to be a gamble to take this all the way to court for the judge to rule it 50/50

Thanks in advance

GDB2222

How can she claim that she owns half the house if she "signed all the relevant documents at the solicitors, transfer of ownership, deeds etc"? Even if that was not registered at the LR, might there been a transfer of her equitable interest in the house? 

As you say, get advice from your solicitors. There are a handful of posters on this forum who may have the skills to answer your question, but they won't have sight of the documents, and you can't rely on advice from a forum.

Plus, there are loads of other posters who, like me, haven't much of a clue, and will happily guess at what they think the law might be or (worse!) what they think it ought to be.

markohall

She claims she owns half of the house because legally she still does because the transfer of ownership never went through and no change to the land registry because of this. 

I know legal advice is the best option put I just wanted to post this in case anyone had a similar case. 

GDB2222

There is a difference between legal ownership, ie the names on the LR, and beneficial ownership. Often, they are the same, but quite possibly not in this case. You need advice based on the correspondence and documents from 2010. As nobody here can see that stuff, I don’t think we can help you. 

I would say you are not wasting your money getting paid-for legal advice, as there is a very considerable amount of money involved, and you may well have a very good case.