How would you proceed with making ex sell house?

[islandholiday]

I'm really at my wits end with this and I don't know how to proceed.

Very abusive ex husband, finally managed to leave 4 years ago. This left him living in family home which we jointly own.

We got a court order a year ago saying the house needed to be sold within 3 months.

Well a year later the house isn't even on the market.
I have tried to do it myself via an agent, but as we're joint owners he needs to provide his details which he won't agree to do. His reason being 'we haven't agreed agent'
My compromise was that we lost with two agents. Mine and his, but he won't agree to that either.

The reason I won't agree to his agent only is that I know he doesn't really mean it. He wants to use a really obscure online only agent, then I doubt that he'd proceed with any viewings. My compromise is that he can go ahead and use them if he wants, but I can also use the one I want.

Basically he doesn't want to move out. I am not sure what to do now.

We have a court order saying the house must be sold, we are already a year over due from that. He doesn't really care about that.

I've spent £20,000 on lawyer fees already and he's not scared of them at all.

Does anyone have any advice what I should do? Once the house is on the market there will be countless opportunities to delay, such as not accepting offers etc. But I don't know how to even get over this hurdle.

Any advice gratefully received

Go back to court and insist it’s sold at auction for whatever price it can raise. You can use the court order to include it in the auction and then it won’t matter how obstructive he is being. And ask to have the court costs deducted from his half of the equity.

I got my solicitor to write to him with the date I intended to move back in. He went ape shit, but it was sold within 6 months (and I didn't have to carry out my threat, although was so raging I absolutely would have)

Ah great advice thanks, I'm just trying to work out what I should do first. Should I contact my lawyer do you think?

You could do this yourself without the expense of a solicitor. I have self represented through several financial hearings myself.
First I would send him a letter saying that unless he puts the house on the market as per Court Order you will be applying to court to get the Order enforced, tell him he has 14 days to respond.
If there is no response download form D1 11 I think from the internet and make an application back to the court that the Order was made.
Wikivorce divorce website is great for advice like this and has lots of forms to download.

There are I think a number of questions about the original order. Was it made by consent, were lawyers involved at all? IME the possibility of him not complying with an Order for Sale should have been considered, and the Order should have specified what would happen (how agents would be appointed, who would have conduct of the sale and so on). If you were represented at that stage, I think you should ask some questions of your lawyers, who may not have done their job properly. IN which event, you may be able (at least) to off-set some costs (because if the order had been, as it should have been, comprehensive, your costs of getting the sale through would have been smaller than now anticipated).

I think what you need now is an application back to the Court, seeking a further Order in precise terms. Your lawyers, if at all experienced, should not find this difficult! Clearly, the consequences of not complying should be set out. And as a PP suggests, you should seek an order that all the additional costs caused by his lack of co-operation/delay came from his share of the property.

I'd go back to your lawyers, ask them some questions, and perhaps post on the legal matters board here. Hope that's helpful

Thanks @crimsonlake and @Theoscargoesto that's really useful advice.

I will reread the court order tomorrow.

I self represented at that hearing and it was written as an order by consent. However, it is worth noting that it was his position to sell the house, and my position that I should keep the house.

Therefore possibly it didn't seem likely that he wouldn't put it on the market.

I did get written in a provision about after 3 months we'd accept a lower offer, and we had to sell it within three months, as I suspected he would continually refuse offers made as a reason to delay.

I'll reread the order, but I think it said something about needing to choose an agent by mutual agreement.

However, we've already been back to court once about the order as he was nitpicking the bit about pensions, and the judge said this is no longer an order by consent- it is a final order (not too sure of the wording)