Divorce/House Sale Timing

[KnitterNotTwitter]

I told DH I want a divorce a few weeks ago - haven't actually started the online process yet because I want to work out the timings/best sequence of events, particularly around selling the house.

We agree that we need to sell the house - neither of us can afford to run it on our own, or indeed want to run it on our own - in many ways it's been part of the problem. I want something smaller and simpler.

But DH has been advised that if we sell the house before the Final Order is in place then the funds will be retained by the conveyancing solicitor until the Final Order is agreed - is that right?

He's also said that he won't accept an offer on the house until the Conditional Order is made - i.e. at least 20 week's away which means it's pointless getting the house on the market yet... but why would he say that?

I'm keen to get the house sold and move on so would it make sense, assuming we agree to everything, to get the house sold, get new houses bought etc, then file for the divorce?

I wouldn’t sell the house until divorce finalised and final % agreed per consent order no

If you both agree and get a letter from solicitors then conveyancers can release funds based on what the letter tells them to do. If the subsequent order is finalised and differs from your interim instructions then it leaves you in an awkward position is the risk. It's possible to have the conveyancer release funds though ahead of any consent/financial order being sealed

Sounds like DH is using the sale of the house as a bargaining tool... he won't accept an offer until a conditional order is made? Is the financial split likely to be contentious? Id be taking your own legal advice to not relying on his reports. (That said he can of course refuse to accept any offer / refuse to sell at any point up until a court orders him to do so - or hands the entire house to you) tricky business divorce.

My house isn’t on the market yet. I’ve had it valued - by 3 estate agents - but can’t sell until I know what the final order will be as there is a battle going on with that. I have my eye on a few cottages or a new build and also want something smaller.

I had no idea about this. That's worried me now. So this happens even if there are no children and its more or less agreed who gets what %? Surely this means some people will be trapped in the house together until the decree absolute etc comes through and only then be allowed to go on the market?

I had advice from a solicitor and was told house could be sold before financial consent order and final order of the divorce. Solicitor said when drawing up consent order she could include an addendum or something saying marital home has been sold and was split 50/50 as we both agreed with this. However we have a straightforward divorce. Married 5 years, no DC neither of us have significant savings, both agreed to keep our pensions separate and no joint assets despite the house which we have both paid 50/50 into

I guess the main issue if if it’s sold and split, parties purchases new houses, but then the financial
split when finalised is different or one party could subsequently try to claim more

Thanks everyone. Turns out DH had got confused between accepting an offer and exchanging!

It doesn’t have to be so- it comes down to trust. And to whether courts in your area have backlogs and therefore timing .
so (this is under old system last year and on unreasonable grounds so quickie process that isn’t possible now- it’s now a min of 26 weeks) we got 3 agents round to value property at same time as we agreed between us how to plug assets. This was before I petitioned. We rough draft our consent order in layman’s terms and agreed which estate agent and conveyencing solicitor to use. I then petioned. We put house on market- in 10 days we’d had 3 offers and accepted one. We proceeded with sale. At same time courts gave us date for Nisi and we gave our outline consent to solicitor for drafting.
by our decree Nisi in lateish May our house sale had progressed, though not yet at exchange. But the solicitor had our signatures pre dated on consent and ready to submit to courts as soon as Nisi came through which was earliest it could be submitted.
my ex moved out a couple of days later after Nisi as he knew consent was with courts. And house sale was completed in mid June. I applied for final asap and the final was given end June along with sealing of consent order.

my ex knew that I had to sell the home, and asap to get to my share of assets- so he knew I’d not muck him around and introduce unnecessary delays. He knew the legal documents were ready and provisional signatures done . So he was happy to move out and let me finish the sale.

the way we wrote the consent order was based on a calculation of “sale price-expenses” and how that would be split- so it didn’t matter what ultimate sale price was…we were getting a proportion of it.

our conveyencing solicitor did need to see the consent order before releasing funds- but they only saw the pre sealed version the solicitor submitted to courts at time of Nisi with our signatures. It was no issue for them to release funds direct to us individually in proportion given in that document.