Surplus Money from a House Repossession Sale

Xannaoh

Hello! 

I wonder if anyone could help me with my query.

My ex-husband and I owned a house together and had a joint mortgage for about 10 years. Two years ago the house was voluntarily repossessed, sold and surplus funds from the sale are now held by Court Office.

I have had back and forth communication with the Chancery Miscellaneous Payments team for about 12 months. I have provided all the documents they asked for to prove the property ownership but they are not releasing the funds because they’re struggling to get in touch with my ex. They asked me if I had any contact details for him but he broke all contact with me several years ago, and I have absolutely no clue about his current whereabouts.

I understand that he’s entitled to 50% of the sale proceeds and I’m perfectly happy for him to get his share but I’m so tired of waiting (the house was sold in October 2021 so it has been going on for more than two years).

Could anyone advise me what will happen if he does not come forward to claim his share of the sale proceeds? Will they never release the funds? Is there anything I could do to speed the things up? Thank you!

theartfullodger

A solicitor can advise 

user1977

I suspect the issue may be that the bank doesn't know the money necessarily is to be split 50:50, so you both need to agree that it is (or that it's split in another way).

Do you know what steps the bank have taken to try to trace him? e.g. have they employed tracing agents?

Sometimes the trouble is that borrowers go to ground (and e.g. bin letters from the bank) because they assume it's about debt, and don't realise the bank is trying to give them money!

Xannaoh

user1977 said:

I suspect the issue may be that the bank doesn't know the money necessarily is to be split 50:50, so you both need to agree that it is (or that it's split in another way).

Do you know what steps the bank have taken to try to trace him? e.g. have they employed tracing agents?

They're not very forthcoming with the information! They asked me if I employed tracing agents which I had not since my ex and I had agreed to cease all communication after the separation. 

Hoenir

Have you formally divorced and had a financial consent order drafted? 

Xannaoh

Hoenir said:

Have you formally divorced and had a financial consent order drafted? 

Yes, we've got decree absolute, but no financial consent order was drawn at the time of divorce. 

user1977

Xannaoh said:

user1977 said:

I suspect the issue may be that the bank doesn't know the money necessarily is to be split 50:50, so you both need to agree that it is (or that it's split in another way).

Do you know what steps the bank have taken to try to trace him? e.g. have they employed tracing agents?

They're not very forthcoming with the information! They asked me if I employed tracing agents which I had not since my ex and I had agreed to cease all communication after the separation. 

Hmm. Employing a tracing agent doesn't necessarily mean communicating with him, just finding new contact details.

GDB2222

Xannaoh said:

Hoenir said:

Have you formally divorced and had a financial consent order drafted? 

Yes, we've got decree absolute, but no financial consent order was drawn at the time of divorce. 

So, you have no court order to say how the money is to be split between you. You have no written agreement between you. 

By far the quickest and cheapest course is for you to trace your ex- and get him to agree to a split in writing. If you don't want to talk to him, use an intermediary. Nobody else is going to do this for you. The bank don't care. The court won't try to find your ex-. Literally nobody but you cares what happens to this money. Your ex- would, but he doesn't know about it. 

GDB2222

Xannaoh said:

user1977 said:

I suspect the issue may be that the bank doesn't know the money necessarily is to be split 50:50, so you both need to agree that it is (or that it's split in another way).

Do you know what steps the bank have taken to try to trace him? e.g. have they employed tracing agents?

They're not very forthcoming with the information! They asked me if I employed tracing agents which I had not since my ex and I had agreed to cease all communication after the separation. 

Perhaps they are not forthcoming because they have not done anything to trace your ex- ?  They have handed the money over to the court, so that's the end of it as far as the bank is concerned. 

km1500

one thing to do would be to try and find out his contact details and then send him a postcard not a letter with just a few words on ot asking to contact you regarding house sale money

GDB2222

km1500 said:

one thing to do would be to try and find out his contact details and then send him a postcard not a letter with just a few words on ot asking to contact you regarding house sale money

I think the OP said that the court office is happy to write to the ex-husband, but they need his address.