What can be done

[divorcequestions]

Friend is getting a divorce. She has a non molestation order and occupation order against her stbexh.

The 2nd hearing has hammered out most of who is getting what. She will retain the main residence and he will get his business, and a couple of rental properties.

The issue she has is there is another property that is in the grounds of the house which has a buyer (btl investor) interested in buying it.

The judge said that in fairness that stbexh would get 75% of the proceeds and friend 25%.

Friend was agreeable with this.

Then stbexh said he would buy friend out of her interest in the property and give her just 5%.

He has since upped this amount but not to anywhere near to what the judge thought of as fair.

The problem my friend has as you can Imagine she doesn’t want her abuser living next door. Looking directly into her kitchen. Able to monitor everything she does.

No one seems to think it is harassment or if they do they cannot think of anything that can be done.

He knows that if this is not settled it will end up in a 3rd hearing which anyone with any sense knows will end up costing more than the value of the property.

In some ways it isn’t about the money although the proceeds would pay her legal fees and pay off her other debts but about the fact he is still controlling her.

This divorce is almost in the 2nd year.

Should have said at the end

He is still controlling her and will continue to control her or drive her from her home.

I would refuse under all circumstance to allow him to buy her out. Surely it would be A breach of his Non-mol for him to buy it? What is her solicitor saying?

Her solicitor is useless.

She is refusing to let him buy her out. It is unthinkable and I doubt any judge would let it happen but instead of having everything settled and being able to move on he would rather drag it into a 3rd hearing.

Another thing would be if it did go to a 3rd hearing they would in all probability lose the buyer and because of its size another buyer would be difficult to find and they might end up with substantially less money and massive legal fees to pay.

He told her multiple times when they were living together that my friend if she tried to divorce him would get nothing.
He said he would see himself broke before he allowed her to get a penny and he seems to be heading that way.

Sorry should have pre read.

The property is tiny and the btl investor thought with a little work it would make a nice Airbnb place.

So it isn’t your average house and you would be looking at someone who would really only use it as holiday let accomodation

It seems strange that with a non ole station order, and being given the main property on the land, the judge allowed him to keep the other property as well as all the other properties and business. Is there anyway to challenge that, or show breech of the non molestation order by his frequent comings and goings?

The judge wanted the building and the land it sits on which at the moment is part of the garden of the main house (the judge said the main house should go to friend) was to be sold to the separate buyer.

It is stbexh who is saying that he doesn’t want to sell to a 3rd party and he wants the building and pay my friend a much smaller sum or he will take it to the 3rd hearing which no one in their right mind wants as it would cost so much more money.

Friend has been living off the kindness of her friends since this began because he put down he earned so little no court could award her any maintenance.

The judge at the previous hearing warned that if stbexh continued down the path he was going he risked losing everything as they would look at his behaviour in a very dim light

Friend should get a better solicitor. She can refuse to sell. She could sell her own house and move. She doesn’t have to take his offer and he cannot force the sale on somewhere he doesn’t own outright. I would move.

She can’t move atm as although there is some agreement about friend retaining the marital home it is still in joint names and if she agrees that he can have the building and everything is sorted he will make her life a living hell and make it virtually impossible for her to sell her house and move on without her reducing the price by a significant amount.

He has a huge family and just to spite her they will arrive each day and light bonfires, play loud music, egg the dogs on to bark incessantly etc. Just to put potential buyers off

Please don’t say they won’t do this they have done worse to other ex wives on divorce.

She is dealing with a guy who would rather lose everything than agree to his wife to have a penny.

The man is definitely not someone who I would call reasonable or sane and his family think he can do no wrong.

Friend would have got a better solicitor if she could but all the solicitors wanted money up front and she had nothing.

She would have qualified for legal aid because of the domestic violence but because she part owned other property she couldn’t get it.

In cases like this I think there should be a halfway house where even if those suffering from domestic violence have another property they cannot sell at the time they can still access any solicitor and the fees taken out at the end.

We suspect he or his family rang up the disability payment people to say friend wasn’t disabled. They stopped her disability money within a few weeks of him being escourted off the property. Basicly disability people wrote to say they didn’t think she was disabled.

It has taken nearly 2 years to get before a tribunal and they have awarded her everything back dated to when they stopped it.