Selling house - Ex refusing to accept offer

[Nimbus1999]

We both agree we need to sell family home. Both signed the forms to appoint the real estate agent.

I pay the full mortgage and ex doesn’t contribute, he moved out 2 years ago but has only just provided a Form E.

We received a full asking price offer from a buyer in a very good position. I’m over the moon and am happy to accept the offer - the current mortgage is crippling me and the kids.

Deadly silence from the ex though - he has not confirmed one way or the other.

It’s been 5 days now and nothing. Worried about losing the buyer.

What can I do? Nothing I assume? We are joint owners.

It would be madness to turn the offer down - we’ve no other viewings arranged and it’s been very quiet since the initial flurry of interest.

Help!

You may have to go to court to get an order to sell if he's playing games. I'm sorry.

At the moment he holds the cards - and seems to be holding them.

You haven’t mentioned if children are involved? If so would the threat of punitive maintenance concentrate his mind?

Forge his signature (not to be taken too seriously!)

HNRWT

only seen an existence of a court order compelling each party to accept asking price and any other offer the EA recommends up to 10% below asking price.

they were 'amicable' lived together, but a Crt order still needed to be obtained as the other party was in ex's position- no care/urgency/responsibility in the world.
@Nimbus1999

Could your solicitor send a letter asking him to accept the full asking price offer (he must have agreed that the price was acceptable when it was put up for sale).
If you don’t hear back from him within 48hours then you will take it that he is in agreement and the sale will proceed

Also could add that this is a more than acceptable offer and if he rejects it, given it is a price he agreed to sell the property at and the property drops in value then the shortfall will fall to him to make up.

Also rejecting this asking price offer will be seen as vexatious and you will be asking for a penalty to be imposed each month this is dragged on for.

Unfortunately it seems he has nothing to lose and is determined to drag you down with him.

Given it is an asking price offer and he signed for the estate agents to market the property at that price could it be seen as him already accepting the offer

yes, prior to court order, they had a good offer but partner refused it. a year on, market tanked and asking price reduced to the offer she had refused a year prior. still took another 2 years to sell hence 1 year before sale, the descriptive Crt order of asking price or offers below 10% agreed by 3 EA.

oh, just saw op's reply where she agreed 50/50 but now wants 63 etc. well, sorry to break it to you, most pp in your dh's position would ignore your offer of asking price, with those complexities. what you need is a solicitor-end of. please release the person who made the offer so they can offer on properties which are ready.
@Nimbus1999

Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that.

Your conveyancer won’t be able to accept your instruction to start the sale process without both your instruction - inc KYC info for both of you.

An unwilling joint owner in this case holds the power to delay until you could get an order for sale (and family courts are very backed up at the moment).

As others have suggested, a mutual friend who can strongly advise that this is a good buyer and price who may be lost - to the detriment of his kids - is worth trying. Otherwise start the ball rolling with court proceedings to force matters. Being honest with your potential buyers as others have said.

Speak to a lawyer. You need to apply to court for an order for sale. Get lawyer to send a letter setting out the process; that you will petition the court and current options are either he buys you out, or you sell. It would be very unlikely that a court would not grant the order to sell as you have a reasonable offer, cannot afford to continue with the mortgage and have to house your kids. Make sure your lawyer tells him if you are successful in obtaining the court order you will also petition the court for fees against him due to his unreasonable withholding of consent. Alternatively he can give his consent to the sale by [insert date].

Wow, I hope everything settles for you OP

If this is the case, let's hope OP finds a kind and patient buyer like you who sees it as worth their while sticking with the sale for the long haul.

I can imagine some buyers would just look elsewhere. I do hope that isn't what happens here.

Wishing you well @Nimbus1999

We bought a house where there was a similar situation - partners split up and house was a joint asset. One partner was doing all they could to avoid selling and moving out of house (and I do have sympathy for that). By the time we looked at buying the property this had been going on for about two years. We put in our offer and in the end it meant that the person who wanted their share out of there took it to court and the court order was that it had to be sold. Ironically it meant that, because of the ongoing selling issues, and the fact that no-one else was in the picture to buy, we got it for quite a lot less than what would have been the current asking price.

The core problem for the OP is that she and her ex are not in agreement on a split of assets or anywhere near it. She has already posted that he will argue she doesnt need equity as she is asking for as she can rent.

If he agreed to a sale the money would not be released until the financial order is agreed. Which could be months or years. The OP will end up renting thus handing him the evidence he requires to state she is adequately housed.

The OP is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Like many many people she can’t afford endless trips to solicitors and court. She needs to consider what her next move will be. But she won’t be able to compel a sale and access the capital until they agree a split. They haven’t agreed a split. Which is the usual trigger to market and sell the property.

He is deliberately stalling to be awkward. This is not uncommon when dealing with a separating couple and the estate agent will have experience of your situation. Don't default on the mortgage that will cause more problems. I would sit tight and absolutely not move into rented accommodation.

I'm so sorry to hear you're going through this OP.
It seems like he's having problems accepting things and just trying to be difficult.

My friend is in a similar situation. Although she was the one who moved out of the family home as it was such a toxic environment for her and the children. They separated and she moved out 14 months ago and requested that he agreed to put the house on the market as she needed her share to be able to move on. He defiantly objected to allowing Estate Agents to come round and take photos and then refused to put it on the market and said he would stay and pay the mortgage.
Fast forward 14 months, he is trying to get her to accept his offer out of court and has stopped the mortgage direct debit saying he can't afford to pay it. No contact with the lender to try and come to some agreement, just gone ahead and cancelled the direct debit. He is trying to control her and bully her into agreeing to his (unfair) offer and I suspect your ex is doing similar.

Stay strong ❤️

Hi OP please keep an eye on his pension. Has he disclosed its value? It could be much more than you think and before you're bullied into giving into his equity demands, you need to understand exactly how much of his pension you would be entitled too. A friend was in a similar situation and offered to take more of the house equity and leave her ex s pension before she had legal advice. He refused and when it went to court the judge awarded her much more as they included the pension and house in joint equity than she would have got if he'd accepted her original offer!

I hope you’ve taken legal advice to ensure the capital contributions you’ve made to the mortgage in the 2 years since he moved out are reflected in the equity split. Otherwise each month you pay the mortgage you are effectively gifting him free money that he’ll receive when he eventually gets his share of the equity. So the normal route is for the party paying the mortgage post-separation to receive additional equity to reflect the additional capital they’ve paid off.

Please ensure you’ve got a proper lawyer.

Some people are reluctant to pay for legal advice as it seems so expensive, but a good lawyer will gain you much more money in the long run than they cost.

I'm pleased you have made an appointment with a Solicitor.

The only other advice I was going to offer is do not wait until you arrive at Court for your pre-arranged hearing to bring up the delay, but go and see the Court earlier with this information and either ask if they could bring forward your hearing date, or if you should apply for an urgent hearing just to handle the house offer/sale.

He is dicking you around very deliberately.

Surely, as he has opted out of paying the mortgage, you will be entitled to more because you have been solely paying it.
Law really needs changing, so that situations like this, someone stops paying a mortgage they basically forfeit any rights to any money or deciding on a sale. They have put others security and credit rating in jeapody just to point score!

This would disproportionately impact on women who chose to give up careers and can’t pay the mortgage.

The law doesn’t distinguish bread maker and homemaker roles when splitting assets. That benefits women and mothers.

It might impact him less because he only wants to rent but defaulting on a joint mortgage will affect his credit worthiness. So he'll be less attractive as a tenant and possibly also affect his business. What a pain.

You mean some women and mothers.
In OP's case, and many other divorcing working mothers, they are likely the main care giver for their children as well as working and paying the mortgage. In the opposite situation with the man working and paying the mortgage, it's far less likely that he'll also have the kids pretty much all the time.This disproportionately negatively affects working mothers, which is more likely to be the norm these days. In a way, I agree that recognition should be given to the contributions made, financial or otherwise pre and post split. That would heavily weight things in favour of people like the OP (or Dad's who take on everything post split).
No one should get to bail on their responsibilities when their marriage ends without penalty

In the meantime, can you see if the mortgage Co will let you change to interest only? Why build up equity he's going to take!!

Try this and would it make a difference if your realestate agent were a man? If you ex is misogynistic he might be better if dealing with a man.

ETA

Removed as posted on the wrong thread.

Because I’d imagine the OP doesn’t want to alert the mortgage company to what she hopes is a temporary situation. If the computer says no because of affordability as there is only one wage coming in, it could bring more problems for her. In days gone by they probably would’ve allowed her to switch but these days, not so much.