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Legal matters

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Original poster

Ordered to pay court costs

21 replies

Fedup85 · 06/12/2019 19:29

Quick backstory, divorced in 2017, but went to court 2018 as my ex wanted his name off marital home. I agreed to put property on the market and sell. Property was on the market for over a year with 4 viewings and no offers. My partner agreed that he would buy the house, but he could only get 93000 mortgage, the house is 93000 plus has arrears of 2500. We cant afford to pay it off, cant afford to move house or rent anywhere. Now my ex is taking me to court once again to sell the house and for me to pay the costs. Im struggling to live as it is and I have ni family or friend support...I dont know what to do...

OP posts:

Original poster

Fedup85 · 06/12/2019 19:35

Sorry, I also have 3 young children. 9, 7 and 2

OP posts:

Pipstelle · 06/12/2019 19:40

Have you been ordered by the court to pay court costs or is this something you're worried about?

Original poster

Fedup85 · 06/12/2019 19:43

Its what his solicitor has asked the court to do, on the fact that I am 'breaching' the courts orders to sell my home.

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Velveteenfruitbowl · 06/12/2019 19:46

They always ask for the other side to be order to pay costs, it often dies t happen though. Do you have legal representation?

FAQs · 06/12/2019 19:50

Gather the marketing material from the house being on the market, date the viewings, you can show you followed this through as far as was practical and it failed to sell. Pretty what you have written but with evidence to back it up.

Original poster

Fedup85 · 06/12/2019 20:01

Thanks, il do that, thats good help.I cant afford legal help at all unfortunately, just trying to go to any free clinics available my partner is away through the week to with the army so chuldcare is difficult to gi see solicitors or even if I have to go to court. I feel so guilty on my children. My ex is doing all this and im so anxious over it all and rigbt befioe christmas..

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crimsonlake · 06/12/2019 20:17

I should imagine each of you would be expected to pay your own costs, nothing more in the end.
He is the one trying to enforce the sale of the property then he should pay basically.
Solicitor will be probably be using this as a scare tactic. My ex's did this, emailing me the bill for his costs which amounted to over 12k to try and frighten me a couple of days before we went to court for a maintenance variation. It terrified me as I could barely afford my own costs let alone pay his if I lost, but I stood my ground. In the end neither of us were asked to pay each others costs.
I was in also in court as he was trying to enforce the sale of the fmh at the same time. I had paper work to prove that is was for sale, I had had viewings and I was not attempting to prevent viewings. As long as you have it on the market there is not much else you can do. Good luck with it all.

Collaborate · 07/12/2019 00:17

You might well be ordered to pay his costs if the reason it hasn't sold is that you've refused to accept the estate agents advice and reduce the asking price.

Original poster

Fedup85 · 08/12/2019 22:19

Ive never dug my feet in, we reduced the price, then when we did get an offer it was the estate agents opinion that it was too liw of an offer...the house needs alot of work doing to it, and that is reflected in the price Anyone have any information on mesher orders or anything of the sort? Ive also heard that a judge can put the mortgage in my sole name taking exs name off, which is all he wants, hes not bothered about money or equity at thos point, just wants to move on, and rightly so but im in no position to do it without putting my family under financial strain and uprooting..

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Collaborate · 09/12/2019 08:02

Anyone have any information on mesher orders or anything of the sort? I don't understand the question. How is that relevant if the order says it must now be sold?

Ive also heard that a judge can put the mortgage in my sole name taking exs name off Not if you already have a final order. You'd have to do this by agreement, unless you can demonstrate that the value of ex's interest is nil.

Original poster

Fedup85 · 09/12/2019 11:42

I havent got a final order in place, the mesher order is what a solicitor advised i could have.

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Collaborate · 09/12/2019 19:37

You posted earlier that you went to court in 2018. What was the outcome of that? This thread is terribly confusing. Have the financial remedy proceedings concluded?

Original poster

Fedup85 · 09/12/2019 20:23

Sorry, it was ordered that the house be put up for sale, which I did and it was up for a year with 4 viewings. I then said to my ex that my partner would buy the property in his sole name which we went to a mortgahe advisor to do, however he could only get 93000, but as the house is in arrears we would need 96000. If we pay the arrears off we would be fine but neither of us are earning enough to get that sort of money, yet my ex is expecting me to pay his legal fees! If I had the money to do that we wouldnt be in this mess.

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Collaborate · 09/12/2019 21:15

So you have a final order after all?

If the house is worth £93k that’s how much the court can order its sale for. The lender is likely to want to convert the remaining £3k in to an unsecured loan.

If however it’s worth more than £93k and you won’t market it at the higher price you may be in trouble.

Original poster

Fedup85 · 09/12/2019 21:58

It was on the market for 115k?? It is in the childrens best interest that either a) the 2 we have between us go live with their dad who makes up every excuse not to see them anyway so doubt he would want that, or b) for financial reasons we stay in this home until im in a better situation to buy myself or sell and either rent or buy...
Renting round here is 200 more a month than my mortgage is now and I have nothing as a down payment or the credit rating to get a mortgage, so I dont know what options I have??

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Collaborate · 12/12/2019 16:18

Can you answer the questions I've asked?

How much is the property actually worth?

What does the court order you've got actually say should happen to the property?

What you've put in your most recent post is irrelevant if you already have an order for sale, which you said on Monday you actually have.

Original poster

Fedup85 · 12/12/2019 17:18

Property is worth 120k
It says on the papers that the house is to be marketed immedietly, which it was at the time...and equity to be split where the applicant (ex) gets either 5k or 50% whichever is higher the cost to him. However we didnt agree that, ex agreed that hed be happy with 5k and everything else go to me and that was wrote in the solicitors letter, but the courts wrote it down the other way...

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Original poster

Fedup85 · 12/12/2019 17:20

As the property wasnt selling i tooj it offyhe matket agreed by with ex and am in the process of purchasing it my self...just waiting to see a mortgage advisor to start the paperwork

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Collaborate · 13/12/2019 07:48

So house is worth £120k and has a £95.5k mortgage? You're living with someone else. Your ex husband is entitled to half of the proceeds of sale. Your partner can't borrow enough to even pay off the mortgage, yet you still want to obstruct the sale?

Unless you have a very generous ex, who doesn't mind ignoring the order that it seems was hard-won in the financial remedy proceedings, and doesn't mind being shackled to the mortgage on this property for an indefinite period, you have to put it back on the market and sell it for what it's worth.

Original poster

Fedup85 · 13/12/2019 11:37

Not living with someone else no, he has his own place as his work in 2 hours away, cones back at the weekends

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Collaborate · 13/12/2019 20:59

"My partner agreed that he would buy the house"

Why should he get to buy it at a £27k discount because he's your partner?

And by the way, when people talk about someone else as their partner, they usually mean someone more than their boyfriend. If he's buying the house you're living in, he's your cohabitee.

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