Advice on house please

[jennakong]

I am in a very difficult situation with my ex partner, please excuse the long post. We have three boys. We separated in 2015, having bought a home together in 2003, and our second home in 2008. We have a joint mortgage. He refused to leave the family home and our relationship was awful, so after two years of living separately under the same roof I left and was rehoused by the council. Kids were then 8, 6. and 4. He has never compensated me for my share in the house, or paid any child support. He has taken the boys every Saturday-Sunday (about 24 hours) each week and more in holiday time etc.

Recently he has met someone else and he has dropped out of our weekend arrangement. He sometimes takes the children on a Sunday afternoon. He cuts off my calls when I ring at the weekend and ignores texts. Looking after the kids overnight would interfere with his sex life I guess. I have not heard from him for three weeks.

I still retain keys to our home, and frankly I am not very happy where I am now - it's quite a dodgy estate and I don't much relish the thought of bringing my sons up there, now they are getting older. My eldest has additional needs and is quite vulnerable. The house is very small compared to the house I left. My name is still on the mortgage and title of the old house.

I am very angry with my ex, I will admit that, and this may be driven by absolute rage - I find his behaviour reprehensible and I have nothing but contempt for him. I would very much like my home back (if he is not going to provide any overnight care for the kids, why does he need it?) but aware that the legal battle will be costly. Am I entitled to take my house back and eject him, given how unreasonably he has behaved? He has paid the mortgage for the past 7 years, but previously I paid it, and he owes a fortune in unpaid maintenance. Legally does he have any right to remain in the family home? I really do need proper legal advice on this, but any thoughts would be welcome.

behavior does not come into the equation.
if you were previously legally married and even if not if both your names is on the deeds then you will be entitled to some of the proceeds.
i presume you will have to force the sale and spit the money.

I Suppose not, men win again eh. Thanks for the advice.

Are you tenants in common or joint tenants? If joint tenants then you own half the property whatever he has paid. If tenants in common then you should have a defined share. You can check with the land registry for £3.

If tenants in common you can force a sale. If joint tenants you need to sever the joint tenancy. Either way you need legal advice but you can’t allow this situation to continue - you own half that house!

You can’t evict him from a house that is 50% his because you don’t like his behaviour, no.

But you can pursue him for child maintenance and you can force a sale to get your half of the equity in the house, which will both enable you to improve your and your sons’ living situation. I would suggest you do both of those things very soon.

If you hold as joint tenants then it’s 50:50share so you can fired a sage if he won’t pay you out
If tenants in common it’s 50:50 unless you’ve agreed a different share in a deed of trust

Either way seek legal advice and start the ball rolling to sever your ties to the property and release and equity share to you

Could you afford to buy him out ?

Unfortunately not!

Tried to contact this man (Ex partner) twice by text yesterday and today - he has ignored both. If I ring, as I have in the past, he sees my name and cuts the call off. This is just not acceptable is it? If one of our kids was seriously ill in hospital, or worse, I would need to get the police to contact him (not that he'd care). Or place the children in emergency foster care if I was ill myself - I have no family really, mum has dementia and I need to look after her. How can a man behave like this? He is 51 years of age. Sorry, I am just venting here, and I really need to speak to a lawyer!