Forcing a house sale queries.

TheParAndEagle

Hi,

in a dilemma at the moment and currently going through solicitor’s regarding selling a property jointly owned by myself and my ex partner, and wondered if anyone had ever been in a similar situation and the best advice for a resolution. 

A long story short, we purchased a house, myself being a tradesman carried out all the work to do the property up to how we wanted it, and me myself never moved in, my ex when we decided to call it a day decided she wanted to move in and purchase the property from me. I kept paying the mortgage for the first 6-8 months after on a promise she would either buy me out or sell the property failing that, as she was refusing to sell the property to myself when offered. 10 months down the line and she’s now refusing to do anything apart from buy me out for a well below par offer with a view on that i either accept or force her out at my expense as she’s refusing to do any other. I’ve been advised that we would both be liable for costs if this did happen from my solicitor and my solicitor has now told them I will no longer be paying for the mortgage and she must set up her own direct debit with the mortgage company which she’s agreed to through the solicitors with there thought being it will speed her up into a decision now she’s solely paying. She’s again offered a well below par and equity offer through a solicitor and I’ve now gone back to offer again officially half the equity which is highly expect will be rejected.

has anyone been in this situation before? And offer any advice on next step’s or best solutions? I’m happy to either sell to her for an amount I’m happy with, buy from her if possible or just sell it on the market and split the remaining funds after early repayment fee’s etc.

thank’s for your time

Rory

propertyrental

Are you married /in a civil partnership? This should be sorted as part of the overall divorce settlement.

If not, ideally reach an amicable agreement, but as a starting point get her to agree to allow 3 (independent) estate agents in to value the property and then take the mean, median, or mode as the property value on which to price the buy-out.

TheParAndEagle

Hi, 

sorry should of stated this, no not married or any children etc, purely a clean breakup in that sense.

this has already been done, and we’re working off the middle valuation, she’s effectively refusing to sell me the house for any figure I offer, but also refusing to sell the house on the market in hope I have to be forced into selling the house to her for a price she wishes to pay. 

Tiglet2

Are you both named on the title deeds and the mortgage?

I would do as propertyrental suggests and split the buy out 50/50 between you. 

If your ex won't accept that, say that you'll move back in since you are still own the property and have every right to be living there.  

TheParAndEagle

Yes, both own the property 50/50 mate this is the problem. 

I have zero interest in moving in with her and purely want to separate from the situation and be able to move on with my life. I’ve tried to be reasonable and help support cost’s of the house despite her living in it on her own all the time paying my share of the mortgage etc but hasn’t got me anywhere and still can’t get to a solution. 

I’ve offered her amount’s to sell the property to me which she’s stated she wouldn’t sell for any figure, I’ve gave her the other option’s of paying me out for I’d be happy with or selling on the market and again she’s not interested unless she can buy me out for the figure she wishes to pay which as you can imagine isn’t reasonable in anyway. 

Looking like the only option will be to get the legal ball rolling in term’s of court etc but wasn’t sure if anyone had any idea on what court bases there decision’s on to get to a specific outcome? I’m obviously happy to buy her out, be bought out for reasonable, or just sell on the market, research on the internet seem’s to point towards just being granted to sell the property with it being a 50/50 ownership which although isn’t ideal with current house prices I’d be happy with to get away from the situation. 

doodling

Hi,

You need to talk to your solicitor about the factors the court will take into account.

The starting point will be 50/50 unless there is a Deed of Trust saying something else.  Other factors which may then be considered include the extent to which each party contributed to the costs of the house.

With respect to the court case costs, again, check with your solicitor but my understanding is that in general the losing party pays.  That means that if the court awards you a greater share than your ex is offering you then your ex will pay the costs.  Judges do however have fairly wide discretion with respect to costs (and not all the money you spend on solicitors may be considered as costs to be paid by your ex) so there are no guarantees.  You may want to compare the likely costs of the court case with the difference between what you believe you are due and what the ex is offering - if that difference more than covers the costs, and your solicitor believes you have a strong case, then it may be worth proceeding with legal action.

housebuyer143

I have seen posts on here about people getting a court order requiring the other person to make reasonable efforts to sell it and they still don't, either because they put off all the buyers or they refuse to accept any offer. This might well happen to you. 

How long is the mortgage fixed for? You might have to explain that you will not be remortgaging and they means unless she buys you out she will have a very expensive mortgage to pay. The issue is while you are linked if she decides she doesn't care about her credit record and stops paying the mortgage, yours will be destroyed in the process. 

gwynlas

With you both being single with no children there should not be a problem with the court advising that the property be sold. Whether she can afford to buy you out and afford the mortgage on her own is another question. Is she in the position that a family member will either give her a lump sum in order to buy you out or guarantee the mortgage to facilitate same? Either way  you should not suffer financially just because of relationship breakdown.

GDB2222

You certainly can get a court order to sell the house, but do get an estimate of legal fees involved - I'd guess £10k+ on each side. And, then, even with a court order, there's no guarantee that your ex- won't do her best to scupper the sale.

If you win the court case, you can get awarded part (typically 70%) of your legal fees to be paid by your ex-, but that of course assumes your ex- has some money and/or there's enough equity to cover it. But, because you only get 70%,  you could easily be out of pocket by say £5k, even though you win.

You say you have had 3 valuations, but do bear in mind that prices have fallen quite a bit over the last year. Plus, if you sell the house on the open market, you'll have estate agency fees to pay, etc. 

Were the valuations from surveyors, or were these estate agency 'asking price' figures, which in the current market are generally above the expected sale price?

My point in all this is to suggest that you carefully re-evaluate the figure you are prepared to sell your half of the house to your ex- for. Otherwise, there's plenty of scope to spend loads of money on legal fees, only to find yourself worse off at the end. 


Oh, and the idea of your moving back to the house is not because you want to, or need the accommodation, but in order to make your ex- less comfortable. 

turnitround

A mate of ours was in this situation and everyone was advising him to move back in but it was the last thing he wanted to do.

He did move back in along with his best mate and his mates dog. He took 2 weeks holiday from work and they stayed up watching tv and listening to music half the night. She was not impressed as she had to get up for work every day.
He did the 'lad' thing and ordered pizza and left the boxes on the floor etc. 

He only ever was going to stay for a short time but told her it was a permanent move until he could afford a different place.  It took her 6 days to agree his terms. He then moved out and they put the house up for sale but he told her that if they did not have a buyer within 12 weeks he was moving back in.
Not suggesting it would work for everyone but for him it worked a treat. 

housebuyer143

turnitround said:

A mate of ours was in this situation and everyone was advising him to move back in but it was the last thing he wanted to do.

He did move back in along with his best mate and his mates dog. He took 2 weeks holiday from work and they stayed up watching tv and listening to music half the night. She was not impressed as she had to get up for work every day.
He did the 'lad' thing and ordered pizza and left the boxes on the floor etc. 

He only ever was going to stay for a short time but told her it was a permanent move until he could afford a different place.  It took her 6 days to agree his terms. He then moved out and they put the house up for sale but he told her that if they did not have a buyer within 12 weeks he was moving back in.
Not suggesting it would work for everyone but for him it worked a treat. 

Your mate is a legend!