divorced couple - financial split. When is the money released?

[sneezecakesmum]

My DD & SIL are selling their house to a woman who is divorced and waiting for the financial settlement before completing. Her ex is buying her out and that money is the main deposit for her mortgage. They were set to exchange contracts in a weeks time and my DD has the home of her dreams to move into settled, mortgage in place etc.

This womans solicitor today has 'come clean' (her words) and said the ex husband is not disputing the house buy out but other issues he is disputing (not elaborating on these) ? property, cars whatever?

Apparently it will be another 4 weeks which may lose my DD the new house, currently empty and not in a chain. She is very anxious and stressed with the house move anyway and this is awful for all of us.

The question is: can the solicitor get the funds for the house part of the financial settlement so the sale can proceed or must the whole of the finances be sorted out completely in one go?

[orangepuffle]

Hi there.

I am currently going through a divorce and my solicitor gave me the go ahead to press on with the house sale / purchase, regardless that we did not yet have a consent order (the bit where finances are completely severed).

I am not legally minded however, but wanted to let you know that I was given the go ahead.

[sneezecakesmum]

Thank you orange, I will let DD know and maybe SIL and their solicitor can get something similar going. They would be heartbroken to lose the new house as their little DS has cerebral palsy and is desperate for the extra room for his therapy equipment - they are curently fed up falling over gym balls and balancing boards in their only family room!

[orangepuffle]

A legal bod will be along shortly. Hopefully you'll get the answer you need.

Good luck with it.

[Collaborate]

It really depends. If she has the funds she needs anyway then she can commit provided she has a mortgage offer. If she's waiting for a payment from her husband she won't be able to commit until she's received the money and possibly also been released from her mortgage. Her solicitor should be able to confirm this to your daughter's solicitor.

[Xenia]

If the husband is saying he does not agree all the other stuff they are dividing and it's value then he cannot give his wife 50% opr 60% of the proceeds but they could sell the house and the proceeds could be put in the solicitor's account and held and then once they get their act togetehr and agree the value of other assets divide them up then. However the husband will have to sign the papers with the wife. If he is trying to force the wife to agree his figures and she is refusing then he is not likely to be all helpful and sign as his failure to sign might be his only power over her.

[sneezecakesmum]

Thank you all. It is very depressing as they were so near the finishing line! We are so disgusted with her solicitor for keeping the facts from DD and SIL until a week before the supposed move. Especially as they had tons of interest in their house. They only accepted this purchaser as she was supposedly a 'cash buyer'. The same solicitor is doing the divorce and the house purchase and has admitted lying by ommision.

When DD said her buyer was 'just waiting for her financial settlement' after divorce my heart sank after reading so many horror stories on here!

No wonder buying/selling houses is one of the most stressful events in life

[sneezecakesmum]

DD is breathing again after nervous breaking down all weekend.
Apparently the solicitor for purchaser of DDs house told DDs sol : the exH was disputing the house price and other assets and it would need to go to an ombudsman (!!??) (Never heard of that but its what was said.

DDs Estate agent told the woman this and she was distraught and said she and exH had an amicable split 50/50 and were still talking and the solicitor already had all the money already!! The only delay was having to get the court to rubberstamp her release from the mortgage (3-4 weeks extra)

The owner of the dream house is happy to wait this time so all seems to be OK, but everyone is well pissed with this firm of solicitors. We think the tea lady has been dealing with this house purchase!

[Collaborate]

Ombudsman??? Sounds like a crock of poo if you ask me. Does this solicitor know what they're talking about, or has something been lost in translation?

[sneezecakesmum]

This is what DDs solicotor told them so the whole story was a crock of poo! DDs an ICU nurse so rarely loses anything in translation! I think it was some office junior passing on a message maybe? DDs sol said this company were awful to deal with.