Ex selling the house - I'll be homeless... any advice / help?

[JohnLewisAdMadeMeCry]

My ex and I own a property together. He has wanted to sell it for ages as he wants to buy a flat with his new girlfriend and can't whilst he is on the mortgage but I have refused, I want to live here and pay all the bills and mortgage. I can't afford to buy him out.

He managed to get a Court Order for the property to be placed on the open market and sold. I will get 50% of the equity (not a lot, only about 5k).

I have been ridiculously stupid and ignored it for 3 months. Please don't judge, I know I've done the worst thing possible by not dealing with it all immediately. I have not complied with the court order and have refused to sign the paperwork for it to be marketed by the estate agent as i have nowhere else to live.

I have now received a letter from the court with a date for another court hearing - he has made another application to court because of me not complying with the order.

Is there anything I can do to stop it being sold? The Court office told me I have missed my chance to appeal the order as it's been 3.5 months now. Are there any other ways to appeal at a later stage?

What will happen at court next month? The original order stated if I did not comply I will be held in contempt - what exactly does that mean for me? What powers do the Court have - are they able to evict me even though I own the property? If not then what can they do to force me to agree to the sale/ move out?

I will have nowhere to live. I can't buy him out or get another mortgage alone. The mortgage here is interest only and for this 2 bed house it is around half the cost of renting a 2 bed flat and more than even a 1 bed flat. I simply can't afford to rent. Will that matter or now the order to sell the house is made is that it?

Please advise if you can...

You need serious legal advice, OP. As it stands, you are quite severely in contempt of court, in multiple orders.

You need to approach the council now, and if your current situation doesn't entitle you to a council house, you need to find somewhere privately. As the non resident parent, you may find that you are considered low priority.

Otherwise, you are facing a very real prospect of prosecution.

You will be able to pay his legal fees - it will come out of your £5k share of the equity. You need to stop the accumulation of costs and expenses so that at least some of your share of the £5k equity. Could you move out, sleep on a friend's sofa for a couple of months whilst you earn enough to save a deposit in a shared house and owned house is urgently sold to release anything you will get from its sale and tell your husband's lawyers so they can call a halt to the expensive proceedings and get estate agents around in the next few days to view the empty property. Make sure you clean it up so as to get a good price and you both want it sold urgently so you may need to consider sale at auction if you cannot find a buyer who can complete within 1 - 2 months.

I'm sorry but reading this, it's a clear illustration of the stupidity of sticking your head in the sand.
If this were a man posting, he'd get flamed - and it's the first time I've said that on here.
Please stop wishing for things to be different, there don't seem to be any straws to clutch at anymore. Comply with court orders, consider that the costs you are racking up is simply money that could go to making your DS's life better.
The court has drawn a line under the current situation, so next step is to work out how to move on from here and ensure that you will, eventually, be in a better position as the NRP or to move back towards 50/50 care with your ex. What's you've got and what you can do once this has been sorted is a good place to start from.

OP - join Families Need Fathers. Seriously. You need help and there isn't an awful lot for non resident parents. FNF is one of the few that does. It's not a dad's organisation - it's a parenting one. At many of the meetings you'll meet mums - both resident and non resident who are going through the same sort of thing as you.

It's free to go along to the meetings and it's free to phone the helpline. If you join the charity (and it's much less than an hour of a solicitor's time) you will get access to an online forum where there are lots of people going through the problems you have.

There are a lot of people who have gone through the same stuff you are faced with now. Although most of them are dads the solutions are exactly the same. Don't stick your head in the sand...find out what the situation is. The longer you leave this bad situation, the worse it will get - believe me. The quicker you do something the better (and easier) the outcome will be.

Contact me if you need some pointers.

Why don't you look for (a) room(s) as a lodger in another family's home?