Court order

[enchantress]

My son has a court order only four months old for financial settlement after divorce. He had to pay £40000 to his ex immediately whereupon within 28 days of the order she must sign the documents to transfer the family home to him. He then has to pay her a further£65000 by march 2018. There is no charge on the property.

He paid her the £40 000 then paid to release her from the mortgage liability but she is now refusing to sign the transfer documents for the house. Instead she wants a charge put on the house and the order varied stating that she was unrepresented at the final hearing ( her choice as she had been represented up to this point) and she did not understand the proceedings. Can my son enforce the order or can the court change the order in favour for her getting the charge and more money even tho the final paragraph is a clean break?

She'll have a job. She would need leave to appeal out of time. Hard to get. And then successfully appeal. Even harder.

Yes he can apply for an order that the judge sign the transfer documents for her. He should crack on with that.

But his own solicitor is advising against this and advising he agree to a charge on the house. I think his solicitor has made mistakes and is trying to cover up.

Do you know where we can find information about asking the judge to sign the transfer? Is this the same as enforcing the order?

That seems odd. Is she asking for a charge to secure the March payment? Or a larger amount

To secure the March payment but his ex is also threatening to appeal the order on the grounds she was not represented and my sons solicitor is saying agree the charge or she will get more. How can that be when they have a clean break?

Sorry, placemarking.
As a general question/ comment, once the court has ruled on the financial settlement then this is pretty much 'it' without exceptional circumstances?

Thanks. That is what I thought and have read. It just seems really strange that his solicitor is advising against trying to enforce the order and instead apply to have a charge added. It just doesn't make sense

I agree with the others. Just crack on with it. The judge has already certified that on the face of it the order is reasonable.

No. She is simply refusing to sign the tr1 unless she gets a charge on the house until the second lump sum is handed over.

It has taken 5 years to get financial order as she vanished off the David of the earth. Had private investigator try to locate but no luck. Sometimes has s solicitor sometimes not. Has refused to give her address for papers to be served. Won't even disclose address to my sons solicitor.

He is worried that having handed her £40 000 already as per the order and having removed her from the mortgage within 28 days of the date of the order and her now refusing to sign the tr1 as per the order that if he hands her another £65000 and allows a charge to be placed on the house that she will simply take the money and disappear again without signing and they won't be able to find her again

Do not change from the stated agreement as set out by the judge. You can understand that she does t want to sign the house over till she has her cash but everything has been rubber stamped by a judge so if either of them act badly from here on in it will reflect upon them should it go back to court.

I would get your son to seek another opinion. Book an hour somewhere for £100. It'll be worth it. Maybe his solicitor is trying to save him thousands in fees by avoiding court again. Who knows!

Sorry not much use! There are lawyers on MN though

My son is content with the order and sees no reason why his solicitor is suggesting he pay to allow a charge to be added instead of simply enforcing the order. He has abided by its terms and has now run up conveyancing costs, paid building society fees to begin the transfer and got a solicitor to try to get her to sign the TR1 because that is what the order says.

1 he pays her £40 000 within 28 days of the order
2 that he makes attempts to release her from the mortgage liability within 28 days of the date of the order
3 that she transfer the family home and facilitate this within 28 days of the order
4 that he then pay her a Further £65 000 by 31st March 2018

There is no pension order simply thereafter a clean break

She was removed from the home 5 years ago for violence towards my son and his children

She has paid nothing towards the mortgage bills or children until more recently when she was tracked down and made to pay child maintenance at source. Even then my son received abusive calls because she had had to do this.

Now after paying for 5 years to solicitors, private detectives, paying the mortgage single handedly and looking after the children he finally got the order. Four months down the line and she is refusing to abide by it and again he is now running up fees for conveyancing and chasing her. He would not have handed her £40 000 if there had been a charge she would simply have had to wait. Now she has the money and still wants more

Given how difficult she has been I wouldn't be keen on her having a charge. If it came to it she could deposit a pre-signed release with his lawyer only to be used whn he pays the further sum but I don't see why your son should be put to all this extra hassle and expense.

Can he afford the £65 000 now?

No. If only he could. He has to get it from his pension. Next year.

I've told him if she wants to add s charge let her apply to a judge to vary the order. Then he can say why he objects that she is likely to simply take the money and vanish again

1. Apply to the court for the judge to sign the transfer deed.
2. Pay the remaining money when it is due.

She's either not going to apply to vary the order, or if she does it will get swiftly kicked out by the court.

I can't understand why there wasn't a charge put on for the 65 000 originally. I can see from her point of view why she would want one before signing the house over.

She will take the money and disappear again. She will still not sign the transfer. It has taken five years to track her down. She wanted the house sold and showed no care for where her children would live. Even at court she said if he didn't have the money to give her the house must be sold regardless of the children

I can't understand why there wasn't a charge put on for the 65 000 originally. I can see from her point of view why she would want one before signing the house over.

The case is over. Why on earth would anyone entertain indulging someone who wanted to start all over again (when there is no way in law that the case can or will be reopened)?

Because his solicitor has said if he enforces the order the judge will simply side with her and vary the order to add a charge. But he has followed the terms of the order in getting her off the mortgage within 28 days and paying to do this as well as now conveyancing to do the transfer which the building society of course insists must be done. Her solicitors said not acting any longer. Couldn't find her again to sign the tr1 then her solicitors said she had come out of the woodwork again refusing to sign anything. Now insisting a charge be agreed but he must pay for it to be added to the order. He doesn't want it as he wants to remortgage and can't do this with her on the deeds. She wants the house sold. The charge wasn't put on to give him control after the hellish 5 years of trying to pay a mortgage on a part time salary look after the kids and paying thousands to try to gain a financial settlement.

He wants to enforce the order but his solicitor says not wise as she will come back for more. Basically he has paid thousands to get this far has done everything correctly and as advised to do got the order but is now being told the order can be changed. Why is it a final order if it can then be changed just because she doesn't like it's terms and terms she agreed to in court?

She is now using the £40 000 he gave her to fight him. He wouldn't have had to give her this money if the order hadn't said so.

I have to say I disagree with his solicitor's advice. The court cannot simply "side with her". There needs to be a law that says the court has the power to do as she wishes. Orders can only be varied if there has been material non-disclosure. She can only seek a charge for the lump sum if the payment is late.

Why is it a final order if it can then be changed just because she doesn't like it's terms and terms she agreed to in court?

The question starts with a false assumption.

I agree. I think it might be time to consider a change of lawyer.

I strongly suggest your son gets a second opinion as with collaborate i also disagree with his solicitors advice.

like you fear if you do put a charge on the properoty she can disappear with the money and you would be stuck with the painful and long process of discharging the the charge (because by the sound of it she wont sign the charge release if it is put on it which would give your sons sociletors more work which could be a possible motive for their seemingly bad advice)