Regular poster but N/C for this as SIL knows my username. Warning LONG post.
Asking for advice on behalf of my brother, he separated from his wife 5 years ago divorce went through about 2. There was no financial order in the divorce, he doesn’t know why (he did it without a solicitor because of funds and ex-SIL had a good one.)
They have one child (7) my nephew and ex-SIL is still living in the family home. Family home was bought with a loan from our parents 23K in 2006 (can’t prove it was a loan) she contributed nothing, house is an interest only mortgage at around £270ish a month so zero of the actual balance has ever been paid off the house, the house has however gone up in value and now worth 20K more than original price due to extensive work my brother did to it.
So potentially 43k to be had if house is sold.
Thing is she won’t move, absolutely refuses to move, sell or buy him out. My brother is currently living in a shared house that’s all he can afford to rent on what he has left I’ve after maintenance (£150 per month but he pays £300) he has his son 6 nights and 7 days out of every 14 so a pretty decent amount and really needs his money back to access suitable housing for them both.
She keeps saying she has rights to stay until nephew is 18 and there’s nothing we can do but from what I can gather from a solicitor friend is that isn’t always the default formula but more everything is taken into account and both parents have rights to be adequately housed quite equally after a split. And nobody has any rights to enforce unless they have a court order saying so? Which neither of them have.
Ex-SIL has a very good job and with maintenance has an income of around 25K so could more than afford to buy somewhere else on her half of the deposit and any equity.
My brother has offered to pay all fees of a house sale (loaned by me) and take a reduced amount of 15k leaving her with 28K to rehouse herself. I’ve offered to loan him the money to fight this in court as I’m really worried about him and his mental health and feel closure would help him with this.
Basically what I’m asking is has anyone ever been through this and have any advice on whether he stands a chance or if it’s a lost cause before I shell out for £££ in solicitors fees.
Thanks. Sorry it’s so long wanted all the detail in.