Ex husband who has contributed nothing to house or child maintenance for 10 years is expecting his 40% share of house when sold

[Grittzio]

Ex husband walked out 10 years ago leaving SIL to bring up 2DC, at the time through a solicitor it was agreed he would get 40% of house equity when house was sold when DC leave education. However he has since not paid any child maintenance or contributed to house in any way, SIL has struggled to keep house going paying mortgage, bills etc and GP's have helped out occasionally to keep roof over their heads. Ex is now pressing for sale of house, can anyone advise if it's worth pursuing to see if lack of child maintenance/household bills can be deducted from his 40%? My SIL never really got the CSA involved,(she did initaially and got a couple of £20 payment's) she suffered mental abuse from Ex over years, and she always wanted to keep the peace for the sake of her DC.

Bumping for you. What an absolute tool he sounds.

Thank you, first time OP here.

Total tool! There are some family lawyers who post on this board, so hopefully someone will come along.

I'm not a lawyer. You say they agreed this through a solicitor, were the courts involved in making this order? It seems to me that he could get the 40%, less what he should have paid towards the mortgage, and less essential repairs and maintenance which have been carried out in the past decade. If she's made major renovations, the costs of that shoukd come off too.

But I don't think there's much hope of reclaiming child maintenance.

More informed opinion will probably drop by, but maybe not till morning.

It was a divorce settlement through a solicitor, no courts involved as far as we know. Further to your comments OLDLADY, looking for advice as to whether SIL should pursue paying 40% less his share of mortgage, she hasn't made made any renovations but essential repairs include new boiler and heating system.

Did she close the case with the CSA? If she did then she wont get any money after that.

Your SIL needs to really see a solicitor and get on to the CSA ASAP sk thme how they will deal with things on their end.

My God - some men are below contempt. No advice but really hope justice is done. SIL is obviously some kind of woman to have kept all that going!! Hope it works out for her.

I'm not a solicitor but it's difficult for anyone to comment without knowing if the agreement was ever submitted to the courts for approval and the exact terms. With this type of agreement it isn't unusual for the person living in the property to pay their own household bills, maintenance and the mortgage.

She would be able to claim arrears of CM if it was included in an order by agreement ratified by the courts or she has an open case with the CSA. Unfortunately the courts and CSA can't enforce arrears if there is no legally binding agreement or a CSA case was closed.

As STIDW says, hard to say without seeing the wording, but on the presumption that the agreement was made in a consent order and therefore signed by both parties and ratified by the court, it is enforceable by the Husband.

The usual thing with these orders (usually referred to as Mesher orders) is that the person staying in the house pays the mortgage and outgoings, and the other person (the husband in this case) receives a percentage of the gross sale costs. This is because the person staying in the house is enjoying the sole occupancy of it, and the other person of course has to pay rent or a mortgage on another property.

Sometimes, though, I've done this type of order and included a clause to state that there will be an adjustment for part of the mortgage, but that's relatively unusual.

The child maintenance issue is separate. If he wasn't paying, the wife should have pursued him via the CSA. She can't simply now decide to deduct unpaid child maintenance from the Mesher order unless that child mtce was ordered by the court or assessed via the CSA and in any event, court ordered child mtce arrears are normally limited to one year.

If the order or agreement included provision for child maintenance, rather than leaving it to the CSA, or provision that he pay towards the mortgage, or paid spousal maintenance, then arrears might well be able to be deducted from his 40%

Your SIL really needs to go through the actual agreement or order or whatever it was with a family solicitor. It's completely impossible to advise based on what you say here.

Thks for all advice, mumble you have a point re SIL having occupancy of house and ex having to find rent. I've a feeling the agreement was just made at the solicitors but we will be encouraging her to go and see a solicitor ASAP. It's just seems so unfair that she with a little bit of family help has kept house going, the mortgage was in arrears when ex left, and if it weren't for FIL they would have lost house, she has kept it going, brought up 2 DC who have now come of age, and now to pay him off they will have to sell up. I will let you know outcome.

Agree with Munbles and STIDW.

You can usually only enforce the last 12 months of maintenance arrears.

Even if the original agreement wasn't turned in to a court order, if he's kept to his side of the deal I don't see her being able to easily persuade a judge to give her something over and above what the agreement provides.