Conveyance advice

[Sharpy3775]

My now ex partner and I parted ways in 2009. We had a mortgage together for the property we lived in. When we split she agreed to sign over her half of the property to me as there was no equity in it and it would cost us more to sell it for a loss.
Before I got the chance to do everything legally she went bankrupt. Because she was still named on the property, the insolvency service took her beneficial interest. At the time I struggled on my own to pay the bills and mortgage but managed.
I now want to sell up and move on with my new partner. I downloaded the land registry for the property and there are restrictions on it, put on by the insolvency service.
The property is in negative equity, our mortgage was interest only.
I have contacted the insolvency service and they have said I can buy the beneficial interest for £1000 + £211 solicitors fees.
I will then have to pay a solicitor to remove the restrictions.
Firstly, do I need to go down this route? Can I sell the property with the restrictions in place due to the property being in negative equity?
Do I need to get my ex partner removed from the mortgage and deeds, and what is the easiest way to do this considering we don't speak anymore?
The whole situation is getting to me now as it feels my ex partners financial mistakes are preventing me from moving forward with my new life.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Spickle]

Sorry, I'm not a legal expert but do work in conveyancing.

If the insolvency service sell to you their beneficial interest, I assume their restrictions on the property would no longer be valid, so should be easy to remove from the title but yes I think you would need a solicitor to handle this for you.

You wouldn't be able to sell the property with the restrictions still on the title - those restrictions relate to you/ex ownership of the property, not a subsequent owner.

You can remove someone from the title with a Transfer of Equity (may need a solicitor also for this), but be aware that documents will need to be signed by your ex, so she will be made aware that this is what you are doing - hopefully as she already agreed to sign over the property to you prior to being made bankrupt, she will sign the papers without any hassle.

Good luck!

[Spickle]

Actually you can sell the property, but the restrictions would have to be removed on completion following the insolvency service discharging their charge (assuming that you can pay the debt, or there are enough monies following the sale of the property to pay the debt). The solicitor acting for you would have to give an undertaking (promise) to discharge the charges to the buyer's solicitors, so your solicitor would need to be provided with evidence that you have enough money or equity in the property to meet the shortfall - your op suggests there isn't any equity???

[Sharpy3775]

Spickle - I have this out today, the restriction basically says as long as we give notice to them, I can sell. Any monies arising from the sale, must be declared. This is so the Insolvency service get their bit. Due to the negative equity though, they will receive nothing.
I've just rang my mortgage company to enquire about transfer of equity and they won't entertain it, they suggested I remortgage and pay off the monies owed to them. The obvious problem now is I can't remortgage a negative equity property and they don't have any schemes which allow you to pay the shortfall as an unsecured loan. Am I stuck now?

[titchy]

You need to pay to have the restriction removed AND enough to cover the negative equity. If you can't then yes you are stuck. Can you rent it out?

[Sharpy3775]

If I rent it out I'm potentially bringing it back into positive equity and either my ex or the insolvency service will make money on the property, which is unfair as I'm spending all the money to make things right.