Buying a house with 'Home Rights' to the exw registered with Land reg

[financialwizard]

Ladies and Gents,

I have never come across this before in my house buying history so need a bit of advice.

We are at the exchange stage of buying our 'forever' home. It has come to light that there is a 'Home Rights' lodged on the house by the vendors wife (soon to be ex). The vendors solicitor has so far told my solicitor that the undertaking to remove the home rights is to follow shortly, twice. Can I assume that this means that the vendor and his soon to be ex have not come to a financial agreement and that we could be waiting for this house some time?

As an aside we are not in a chain and are living in work accomodation that is not going to be taken away from us anytime soon, but would like to get moved for my son's education.

[MoreBeta]

You may find this from Shelter interesting.

It basically means the ex wife is enforcing her rights to her share of the home as a result of teh divorce. It does not means they are necessarily in disagreement about selling. It probably means her solictor and the vendor's solictor have to make the necessary arrangements for sharing the cash after the sale.

Solictors always seem to work at snails pace.

[financialwizard]

Thanks morebeta. I was struggling to find anything on google - may be asking it the wrong questions.

Just getting stressed now I think. Normally anything I do involves fighting for it along the way and so far it has gone ok so I was expecting resistance somewhere!

[Collaborate]

If they have got divorced (decree absolute) then the husband can have the notice removed. It doesn't protect her claim against the property per se but her right to occupy the property. Your solicitor will have to be careful in doing all the searches so as to get priority. She could apply to to register her actual claim against the property within the divorce.

[financialwizard]

Hmmm they are not divorces as yet as far as I understand it going through the process now.

The EA, and my solicitor are waiting for any kind of response from the vendor and his solicitor respectively. When we started the process I said I wanted to exchange 18/10/12 latest and this was agreed at the outset. Just concerned now that I may be in a position where the sale will not be able to go through and I will lose nearly 2k (at exchange point).

[RedHelenB]

Is she living in the house now? Any children living with her if so? If yes to either of these two questions it may be she is more likely to want to stay put and therefore things will proceed more slowly. Have you spoken to her to see if she actually does want to move in the forseeable future?

[financialwizard]

Sorry RedHelenB I have been really slow on this one!

The vendors wife has moved out, as has the vendor. Both living in rental as far as I know. Definately both living elsewhere as the house has no furniture in it.

[SoupDragon]

I think it just requires the wife to give permission. It is to protect her interests and to ensure the owner (in this case the H) can't sell it without her knowledge/permission.

I applied for Home Rights on my house but the property was just transferred wholly to me so I've not had the whole sale thing.

[Collaborate]

The buyer's mortgage lendeer will insist that there is a guarantee that it will be removed on completion. Wife's permission won't be enough.