Urgent Advice Needed “ Ex-Partner Refusing to Engage in Property Sale

Z128589

Hi everyone,

Im in a really tough situation and could use some advice from anyone who has been through something similar or has legal knowledge about property disputes.

I jointly own a property with my ex-partner, which we originally purchased for £320,000 using a 20% Help to Buy loan. We have a joint tenancy mortgage. My ex voluntarily moved out 33 months ago, and since then, I have been solely paying the mortgage.

Recently, we listed the property for sale and accepted an offer of £265,000. This means theres a £10,000 shortfall, but my ex has now stopped engaging with the conveyancer and now the conveyancer has even disinstructed herself due to a conflict of interest. Despite still being named on the mortgage, my ex is refusing to contribute to the payments and is also blocking the sale by refusing to engage.

I can no longer afford to cover the mortgage on my own, and im worried that Ill default, lose the buyer, and end up in an even worse financial situation. I need urgent advice on what steps I can take legally to move this forward.

How do I apply for an emergency court hearing to force the sale?

What legal options do I have to compel her to contribute to the mortgage or at least cooperate with the sale?

 Has anyone successfully navigated a similar situation?

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Im happy to answer any questions if more details are needed.

Thanks in advance

Section62

Find a good family law (/divorce) lawyer who has experience with "TOLATA".

You may need to go in all guns blazing... although the courts will usually want you to settle disputes through negotiation and/or mediation, you don't want to end up in a position where the ex agrees to something and then pulls the plug again at the last minute.

A good lawyer will develop a strategy with you that hopefully results in the least costs and loss to you.

Mark_d

It's not as simple as getting your ex to pay the mortgage or accept the sale. Why should she pay the mortgage since she's not benefiting from the property?  Why should she agree to selling the property at a loss.

You need a professional divorce lawyer who will work out how the assets should be split and how the loans should be repaid.  These processes aren't quick but a good lawyer should be able to advise you on your options and move things along as smoothly as possible.

theartfullodger

Married, civil partner, just living together??

See this to shed some light on this tricky situation...from the experts on these matter.. 

https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/legal/relationship_breakdown

Good luck, hope things improve

AskAsk

are you married?

having gone through the divorce process recently, which is still ongoing, i have learnt that divorce lawyers are expensive and i haven't even instructed one to know that!

so my advice is not to get the divorce lawyers involved unless it is absolutely necessary.

the way to do is to instruct a family solicitor to force a sale but that takes time and if you are married, then forget it as it would need to be settled through the divorce process.

you need to come to an agreement with her so maybe ask her what she wants to sell the house.  maybe give her more of a share to get her to agree to the sale as that money would otherwise be given to the lawyers so you might as well give it to your ex!

elsien

Mark_d said:

It's not as simple as getting your ex to pay the mortgage or accept the sale. Why should she pay the mortgage since she's not benefiting from the property?  Why should she agree to selling the property at a loss.

You need a professional divorce lawyer who will work out how the assets should be split and how the loans should be repaid.  These processes aren't quick but a good lawyer should be able to advise you on your options and move things along as smoothly as possible.

As the OP hasn’t said if they were married or not how things work in a divorce is different to how things would work for unmarried partners. 

Section62

AskAsk said:

are you married?

having gone through the divorce process recently, which is still ongoing, i have learnt that divorce lawyers are expensive and i haven't even instructed one to know that!

so my advice is not to get the divorce lawyers involved unless it is absolutely necessary.

the way to do is to instruct a family solicitor to force a sale but that takes time and if you are married, then forget it as it would need to be settled through the divorce process.

Not always expensive, it depends who you choose and how difficult both parties want to be.

If the OP isn't married to the ex then they won't be divorcing and things will hopefully be somewhat less involved.  But having children together would also potentially complicate things.

A family solicitor/divorce lawyer are effectively the same thing, albeit perhaps specialising in different areas and perhaps favouring different strategies. If the OP isn't married then TOLATA expertise is the key thing.

If you think divorce is expensive try being in the middle of a collapsing house sale on a property you can't afford to pay the mortgage on. Not pretty.

AskAsk said:

you need to come to an agreement with her so maybe ask her what she wants to sell the house.  maybe give her more of a share to get her to agree to the sale as that money would otherwise be given to the lawyers so you might as well give it to your ex!

Offering more money is risky without having a legally binding agreement in place, for which lawyers will need to be paid anyway.  Otherwise the ex can agree to a bigger share, then 'blackmail' the OP for even more later in the process.

One of the other advantages to using solicitors is taking some of the personal issues out of it - the solicitors don't get emotional about the process, they'll just see it as a business transaction.  It also means the OP can avoid direct contact with the ex, just in case the next tactic by the ex is to start complaining about pressure/harassment or similar - which is a logical progression from the refusal to engage.

Herzlos

AskAsk said:
you need to come to an agreement with her so maybe ask her what she wants to sell the house.  maybe give her more of a share to get her to agree to the sale as that money would otherwise be given to the lawyers so you might as well give it to your ex!

As long as you ensure that no money is handed over until the sale has gone through.

I agree with your point here though; maybe there's some reason the ex doesn't want to co-operate, and I suspect that it's related to the £10k hole after the sale. Maybe they'll agree to the sale in exchange if OP agrees to take the loss and ex walks away without any money changing hands.

The only other option really is to threaten to stop paying the mortgage, get it reposessed and trash both of your credit ratings.

AskAsk

Herzlos said:

AskAsk said:
you need to come to an agreement with her so maybe ask her what she wants to sell the house.  maybe give her more of a share to get her to agree to the sale as that money would otherwise be given to the lawyers so you might as well give it to your ex!

As long as you ensure that no money is handed over until the sale has gone through.

I agree with your point here though; maybe there's some reason the ex doesn't want to co-operate, and I suspect that it's related to the £10k hole after the sale. Maybe they'll agree to the sale in exchange if OP agrees to take the loss and ex walks away without any money changing hands.

The only other option really is to threaten to stop paying the mortgage, get it reposessed and trash both of your credit ratings.

when it comes to splitting up assets, whether you are married or not and whether you use solicitors or not, you need to come to an agreement between yourselves if possible as you do not want the solictors to be arguing for you as they charge per hour and they can argue for a long time as they know they are being paid to do this!

the OP should try to understand what is stopping his ex agreeing to the sale and as he is desperate to get rid of it, more so than her, he needs to make it attractive for her to agree to the sale as things stand it isn't attractive to her.

GDB2222

Section62 said:

Find a good family law (/divorce) lawyer who has experience with "TOLATA".

You may need to go in all guns blazing... although the courts will usually want you to settle disputes through negotiation and/or mediation, you don't want to end up in a position where the ex agrees to something and then pulls the plug again at the last minute.

A good lawyer will develop a strategy with you that hopefully results in the least costs and loss to you.

Obviously, the cost of legal action against the ex- could be high. In fact, I 'd be very surprised if it is under £10k, and it could be much more. 

The OP said "I can no longer afford to cover the mortgage on my own, and im worried that Ill default, lose the buyer, and end up in an even worse financial situation. "

Maybe the OP should consider that as a plausible strategy? If there's a default, the lenders will take possession and sell the property. They don't have to battle with the OP's ex-. And, they have had a lot of practice selling repossessed properties. They may get a better price. There will be some costs involved, but that could be a lot less than the cost of suing the OP's ex-.  

Maybe, worth thinking about? 

The OP doesn't mention the ex's reasons for acting up. The cheapest course of all might be just to do whatever the ex- wants.