Forcing house sale after divorce, mental health

boppy1805 · 30 August 2017 at 3:39PM

Hi everyone,
I am looking for some advice on behalf of my in-laws. They have been divorced now a couple of years and separated 6 years. My mother-in-law unfortunately has quite severe mental health problems (although at time she knows how to play on these and will freely admit to this) neither party has lived in the property for a good couple of years, MIL is in and out of the local mental hospital and FIL rents his property. Now my MIL is quite bitter towards my FIL (rightly or wrongly it has nothing to do with me) and will freely admit to having the house repossessed rather than letting him have anything from it, obviously my FIL doesn't want this to happen. At the moment I believe she is getting financial help towards the mortgage but there is a shortfall monthly, the remaining balance would be cleared with equity for them both if the house is sold.

Now to my question, the house is in dire need of some attention and it being stood empty is doing nothing for the house or them, my MIL's family believe cutting ties with the property will help her recovery and I agree however she is very bitter towards mental health workers and anyone who doesn't agree with her so getting her to agree to this is going to be very difficult.

Is there a line of action that my FIL can take to force the sale of the house? MIL will not listen to any of us when we explain she can benefit from this and start afresh, she is hellbent on making FIL suffer for leaving her unfortunately,

It is a delicate situation and my FIL had a solicitor who did very little for him except take his money. MIL constantly changed hers.

Thanks in advance.

Savvy_Sue · 30 August 2017 at 3:48PM

I believe a court could make a ruling, but I don't think it will be easy. Sounds like FIL needs a more proactive solicitor, or if he knows what he wants done he can just instruct them to get on with it.

boppy1805 · 30 August 2017 at 4:01PM

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I believe a court could make a ruling, but I don't think it will be easy. Sounds like FIL needs a more proactive solicitor, or if he knows what he wants done he can just instruct them to get on with it.

I know, it's so difficult to know what to say without being the ping pong ball. I do believe it's in the best interests all round but MIL is a little stubborn to say the least and quite bitter.

gingercordial · 30 August 2017 at 5:33PM

boppy1805 wrote: »

Hi everyone,
I am looking for some advice on behalf of my in-laws. They have been divorced now a couple of years and separated 6 years. My mother-in-law unfortunately has quite severe mental health problems (although at time she knows how to play on these and will freely admit to this) neither party has lived in the property for a good couple of years, MIL is in and out of the local mental hospital and FIL rents his property. Now my MIL is quite bitter towards my FIL (rightly or wrongly it has nothing to do with me) and will freely admit to having the house repossessed rather than letting him have anything from it, obviously my FIL doesn't want this to happen. At the moment I believe she is getting financial help towards the mortgage but there is a shortfall monthly, the remaining balance would be cleared with equity for them both if the house is sold.

Now to my question, the house is in dire need of some attention and it being stood empty is doing nothing for the house or them, my MIL's family believe cutting ties with the property will help her recovery and I agree however she is very bitter towards mental health workers and anyone who doesn't agree with her so getting her to agree to this is going to be very difficult.

Is there a line of action that my FIL can take to force the sale of the house? MIL will not listen to any of us when we explain she can benefit from this and start afresh, she is hellbent on making FIL suffer for leaving her unfortunately,

It is a delicate situation and my FIL had a solicitor who did very little for him except take his money. MIL constantly changed hers.

Thanks in advance.

Divorce involves several stages: the decree nisi and decree absolute which dissolve the marriage (so one is free to marry again) but also usually a financial consent order which covers the split of assets and property and any maintenance that's going to be paid. This document would usually cover what is going to happen to communal property such as houses, including timescales for disposals if that is what the agreement is.

However getting a financial consent order at the same time as the decree absolute isn't mandatory so some couples omit this step, either because they are misadvised or can't agree so leave it. Generally that's a bad idea because it means each party can still claim financial support from the other, and leaves everything in a mess.

So the important question is whether such an order exists.

If there is one, does it mention the house and what is to be done? If it says for example that the house should be sold within five years and that has not been done, this is now something FIL can take to court to have enforced.

If the order doesn't mention the house or there is no order yet it will be more tricky.

Forcing house sale after divorce, mental health

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