Representing Myself In Court Tolata Claim - Advice

Mysweet96

I'm looking at representing myself in court for a Tolata Claim.  I wondered if anyone else has done this?  I don't have the money to pay for a solicitor and I need to sort out an awful situation I am in with my house that I bought with my ex partner (unmarried), that I was forced to leave 3 years ago (due to him being abusive), taking our children with me. He is still living in it because he wouldn't move out and I've been renting for 3 years. To date, I have paid around £107k for the house (£101k deposit when we bought it in 2015 (46.5%) plus around £6k on home improvements) and he has paid £30k off the mortgage, that is all. He is now claiming he can't afford the mortgage @ £750 PCM (even though he earns at least £43k PA) and is trying to make me pay half of it, therefore trying to actually make me pay for more like ¾ of the house, for him to live in on his own!  I have already paid for half of the house, so the mortgage payments are now for his half. Plus he is living in my half rent free. I pay rent @ £950 PCM to house me and our 2 children (they hardly see him, their choice, because he is still awful to them), and even though I work full time, I am on universal credit to make ends meet. On top of this he is now threatening to deduct maintenance payments from me when our girls ask him for money for something. He really is trying to financially cripple me.  Can someone please give me some advice on how I take him to court myself?  This is such a nightmare for me and the kids, I urgently need to get us out of this I just want to be able to buy my own house again and make ours lives better, and be able to move on.

Devongardener

You have some good advice on your previous post a couple of weeks ago.  You need legal advice, many solicitors offer a free 30 minute consultation.

Mysweet96

Devongardener said:

You have some good advice on your previous post a couple of weeks ago.  You need legal advice, many solicitors offer a free 30 minute consultation.

Thank you for your reply.  I have contacted over 20 solicitors in the last week, even ones that have a legal aid contract (as I passed a GOV.UK CLA assessment), none of which will help me unless I'm a full paying customer, and I fear that's just because they want to make some money out if me. I can't afford the fees. I read you can take a case to court and represent yourself, so I just wondered if anyone here had done that.  I think it's my only option now.

RAS

Have you looked at wikivorce?

Also check out your local law school. Some of them have law clinics to train people. Not sure how those run since Covid but prior they were often face to face.

Mysweet96

RAS said:

Have you looked at wikivorce?

Also check out your local law school. Some of them have law clinics to train people. Not sure how those run since Covid but prior they were often face to face.

Hello RAS, thank you for your comment.  No I have never heard of wikivorce, I just had a little look and looks interesting, I will e-mail them and see if they can help me.  Thank you for that.  I have just now also searched and found a law clinic in my area. I'll send them an e-mail now and will call them tomorrow.  Looks like they do face to face meetings too   Thank you very much for that advice also, much appreciated.

breaking_free

Mysweet96.

As I commented in your other thread, he's unlikely to truly stop paying the mortgage as this would make him homeless. He's a manipulative person person and is still trying to yank your chain by deliberately upsetting you.

Honestly, in your shoes I would ignore what he's saying about how he can't afford it because, as you've pointed out, he earns more than enough to cover it. He's lying. He's not going to stop paying the mortgage and he cannot force you to do this for him. 

Take a deep breath, step back for a moment and think through what the ramifications are for him of stopping paying. Does it seem like this would benefit him? As Judge Judy often says "If it doesn't make sense it's not true". 

What do other people on here think?

Also, this is laughable: "On top of this he is now threatening to deduct maintenance payments from me when our girls ask him for money for something". He is their father and HAS to pay for his children - he cannot unilaterally withhold money from maintenance payments.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but you've got to stop believing him when he lies to you. Again, follow the Judge Judy wisdom "If it doesn't make sense it's not true". 

Stay strong. We are all rooting for you xx

VyEu

Slow down, what is the claim actually for?
If you are joint tenants or tenants in common in equal shares, he owns half the house. A TOLATA claim is usually for sale of said house. If you want to move one, sell the house and split the proceeds?
if you want to make a claim under sch 1 CA 1989, that is open to you and that is to provide for the children of the marriage. it's a specialist claim though, see a solicitor.
you're not married, there's no financial obligation to provide for an ex-partner, only for the children.

doodling

Hi,

VyEu said:

Slow down, what is the claim actually for?
If you are joint tenants or tenants in common in equal shares, he owns half the house. A TOLATA claim is usually for sale of said house. If you want to move one, sell the house and split the proceeds?
if you want to make a claim under sch 1 CA 1989, that is open to you and that is to provide for the children of the marriage. it's a specialist claim though, see a solicitor.
you're not married, there's no financial obligation to provide for an ex-partner, only for the children.

You need to read the OPs previous thread on this issue.  The OP wants to sell the house and move on, there is a disagreement about how the proceeds of the sale should be split which I'm pretty sure would fall under ToLATA.

At the first post above states, the OP was unmarried so your reference to marriage is not relevant and maintenance for the children is dealt with separately to the sharing of property 

TBagpuss

OP, you need to be extremely careful about trying to represent yourself in a ToLATA claim. ToLATA claims are not family proceedings, they are part of the 'normal' Civil Justice system - one of the things that means is that the courts have, and apply, much more stringent procedural rules, and that the courts will normally make costs orders . In practice, this means that you can fairly easily end up damaging your case if you don't fully understand and comply with the procedural requirements. 

It's possible that you might be able to access legal advice using a CFA (Conditional Fee Agreement) or deferred funding. A CFA is what is sometimes colloquially known as a 'no win, no fee' agreement - you would need to talk to a solicitor about exactly what it would mean for you but generally, the lawyers agree not to charge you as you go along in return for you paying them a percentage of what you get back as a result of the court proceedings. They may well be able to claim some of their costs back from your ex, but usually what they are able to claim will be less than the actual costs so you may have to pay the shortfall. It may also be possible for them to obtain After the Event insurance for you which would pay out if you lost the case were ordered to pay your ex's costs.

You may have to pay for an initial meeting so the solicitor can asses whether the case is suitable but it is worth making enquiries . You need to be contacting the Litigation department not the Family department, in most firms.

I haven't reviewed your previous thread but presumably you have some form of declaration of trust identifying your share of the property. If you haven't, then you are likely to only be entitled to 50% of the equity even of you paid more in the first instance.

Finally, a solicitor will be able to send out letters before action and while your ex is comfortable trying to bully you, he may be less willing to try the same tactics with a solicitor