Forced house sale help!

ashleigh198765

My ex partner is forcing me to sell the house we jointly own outright.  He owns 35 I own 35 and his parents own 30. We have 2 kids together one is severely disabled and has had alot of adaptations to the current property. My son is not biological hisX My ex had an affair left me out of the blue refuses to see the kids. Ive took a pay cut and costing me more in childcare so i can work, he had disappeared and cms cant find him either. He has instructed a solicitor for a forced house sale and expects me to pay his legal fees. I can not go private tenant as its not secure and it need adaptations to it. The council list is years long for an adaptations property to become available in the area of the kids school and my daughter’s special needs carer. He refuses to acknowledge the kids and my daughter’s needs and is demanding me to leave the property with no where safe to go with my children, I need a safe space for my daughters additional needs.  He has stopped working and making false allegations against me such as social services and to my job all because he wants to sell this house! What can i do to stay here while the council try and meet my kids needs? I do have a solicitor in place just after advice if anyone has been in this situation before 

Keep_pedalling

You say partner, are you married or in a civil partnership?

What is your relationship like with his parents?

Baldytyke88

Can you remortgage?

ashleigh198765

Parents hate me, its bought out right this house no mortgage, ex partner not married 

ian1246

He's entitled to his share, as are the parents - i m assuming ownership is via tenants in common with deeds of trust setting out the shares? If so, he's likely to have a strong legal argument.

This might sound harsh - but the child which isn't his isn't his responsibility from a legal point of view. I m assuming the daughter is his?

Perhaps speak to CMS about what powers, if any, they have to seize capital for any outstanding CMS payments? The reason why is if the house sale is forced through, on the day of the sales completion you'll know for a fact he'll have that capital to pay back any outstanding CMS!

I imagine a house sale being forced through will mean your homeless & with your daughters special needs will be given priority for rehoming? 

As for childcare costs - you get 22.2hours a week free over 51 weeks a year, if your on a low income have you submitted a universal credit claimant? They should cover a significant chunk of the remaining childcare costs (up to 85%).

If your incomes too high for Universal Credit that would imply you should be able to remortgage to cover the 65% owed to ex & parents.

Regardless - with 30% equity in a mortgage free house and an income of your own, you probably stand a good chance of being able to pay for a shared ownership property - with universal credit covering the rented share. That would be what I'd be doing in your shoes!....

..... and it's also what his solicitor will no doubt argue, or something similar, to counter any argument you attempt to make with regards to why the house sale can't proceed and why him and his parents should be left unable to claim or utilise their share of the equity (another good argument they ll be able to use would also be his parents being elderly & needed the equity to cover increased medical costs & future care home costs).

I think your best bet is to speak to a mortgage adviser and find out what mortgage you can get on current income - both a conventional mortgage and shared ownership one.

Then arrange for 3 estate agents to view the property, agree a marketing price & get on and sell the house - avoiding the 10's of £1000's of legal costs you may very well become liable for by refusing to sell the property and being forced.

Whilst the house is being marketed and sold, it gives you time to find somewhere of your own.

A possible counter bargaining chip you could have is to explain you'll agree to a house sale in exchange for the conveyancing solicitor to keep a retained amount (£5000? £10,000? How mucg would adaptions cost?) of the capital from your & the ex's share, to cover the cost of the required housing adaptions for wherever you end up living - once those adaptions are done, anything left of the retained amount gets split 50/50 between you - this way your daughters needs are met as well.

At least then you won't be carrying the cost of adaptions for the daughter on your own.

Again, it's something his solicitor could easily suggest as a way of counter any argument you try and make in court on why your house sale can't happen and why ex & his parents loose access to their 65% share of the house.

It's also something which if you formerly proposed it and he then refused, if the house does end up having to go to court to be sold, the judge may factor in on the equity split when it comes to his ruling & any variance from the existing deed of trust, not to mention the judge's decision on allocating responsibility for legal fee's ("i was willing to sell the house and merely asked that the cost to adapt my future home for OUR daughters complex needs be included in the settlement, since she lives solely with me. Unfortunately he then refused to accept this which is why we're here in court your honour" - suddenly you've flipped the reason for it going to court from you being responsible to him. You then ask for YOUR legal fees be paid by him).

Either way, I think any argument you try to make against a house sale can be easily countered in court by a competent solicitor.

ashleigh198765

Thanks we are all entitled to our share and i want to sell once i am re housed with my kids. Legally he has no claim over my son but his daughter is his. He refuses to see her unless i sell i wont sell unless i have an adaptation to a council property, I physically can not sell or move without her needs being met. 

ashleigh198765

No deed of trust just land registry his parents just want the money and me and there disabled grandchild out of the house. 

teaselMay

A council property with adaptions will likely be many years away. I think you're likely to need to accept a non ideal situation probably in private rental in the mean time

ashleigh198765

teaselMay said:

A council property with adaptions will likely be many years away. I think you're likely to need to accept a non ideal situation probably in private rental in the mean time

I can’t because its not safe for her the adaptations cost over £10000 alone so i am not paying for thay in a private rental property and pay over £120 per month rent i physically dont have that type of cash so it looks like am going to serve him an order for me to stay in the property until i am re housed with his disabled child, who he wont see or pay for. 

ian1246

ashleigh198765 said:

Thanks we are all entitled to our share and i want to sell once i am re housed with my kids. Legally he has no claim over my son but his daughter is his. He refuses to see her unless i sell i wont sell unless i have an adaptation to a council property, I physically can not sell or move without her needs being met. 

The obvious counter (if a competent solicitor) by your ex will be: "The jointly owned house is valued at £250,000, Ashleigh's 35% share of this property is £87,500. Here's a list of shared ownership properties in the local area currently on the market for sale - as an example, the minimum share purchase for this 3 bed semi starts at 25% for £62,500.... etc.. etc...

Oh, and we'll pay 50% of the costs of adapting the property to suit daughters needs".

Vary the figures as needed. You won't even need a mortgage if you buy an equivilant % of an equivilant shared ownership property - your 35% equity would be enough to outright buy the share % on offer (i.e 25% or 30% etc..) and then you'd pay a reduced rent on the non-owned amount (which can be paid for via universal credit).

Your entire argument then falls flat on its face and you run the risk of his legal fee's being awarded against you if its gone to court.

A court could well view waiting for a council property as being unreasonable and deliberately obstructive when your 35% share of the equity will amount to a significant sum of money which equates to options being open to you.

A court will expect you to have explored all realistic options available to you before they would rule against the ex. Particularly since by the time your daughters an adult (if a young child) there is every possibility one or both of the other claimants - his parents- will be dead, meaning such a ruling would essentially be depriving them of their assets/interests for the rest or majority of their remaining lives...

I appreciate this probably isn't what you want to hear but it's the sort of thing which your ex / his solicitor absolutely can & will raise in court.

Remember - the burden will rest on you to prove why stopping the house sale is reasonable and proportionate - thereby prohibiting ex & parents from exercising their legal rights. On the flip-side,  all the ex / parents want to do is access what is legally theirs - the burden of proof in such a scenario will rest on the one proposing to limit the rights of the other.

Hence why i think your going to be fighting an up-hill battle with the very real possibility of having any capital from your equity eaten up by ex's legal fees if a court rules against you.

thegreenone

Assuming they are legally bound to pass letters on, he may well have shot himself in the foot, as CMS now have his solicitor as an intermediary.  

Have you spoken to the Council about the situation?  I know the waiting lists are long but with your daughter's situation you may be assessed as being in urgent need.