Lol he can’t just demand £60k and the sale of the home with a Mesher order in place - wasn’t he listening in Court? That’s the entire point of it.
He should not immediately jump to selling the house either. Has he asked for a mortgage repayment holiday? Ask him for written proof from the mortgage lender. Also ask for a mortgage broker to provide written proof that he is unable to convert the mortgage to an interest-only mortgage and/or to extend the term to enable him to afford it.
how was he ever going to “transfer” a property into your name when you aren’t named on the mortgage or the property deeds? Surely now you’re divorced that would be a Sale of the property from him to you? This seems odd to me. If it’s a sale not a transfer then be aware that you may be liable for stamp duty.
I would reply to your ex that your expectation is he continues to pay the mortgage as per the Consent Order, and no Trigger Event has occurred under that order. Tell him you will reply again after consultation with your solicitor.
The undertakings regarding the FMH were part of a comprehensive package to settle your financial affairs when you divorced, taking into account all the factors. Even if he takes it back to Court, the Court does not have the power to simply change the Mesher order because your ex wants to. And if he took it to court to argue that a variation was financially necessary, I think the entire financial package would have to be revisited - not just the part regarding the FMH. It is unlikely a Mesher order would have been granted without good reason, and scrapping it now should lead to you being significantly compensated eg Spousal support, share of pension, child maintenance. So he should be aware that everything is back under review if he seeks to deprive you of the court-ordered security of living in the FMH with the DC. He can’t just end a Mesher Order because he now wishes he’d asked for something different in the original divorce settlement.
Having said that, the Consent Order is not binding on the Mortgage Lender. This means if your ex stops paying the mortgage ultimately they could pursue him to repossession. I expect the mortgage lender knew you were married and you would be living in the house and so they would have asked you sign a waiver to your rights to remain in the home in the event he stopped paying the mortgage. In that case you cannot prevent the repossession. If the mortgage lender knew you lived in the house but you were not asked to sign to waive your right to remain in the home in the event of a mortgage default, you may well succeed in stopping a repossession (the lender would then have to take you to court for a resolution I suppose? Unsure).
Of course if your ex defaults on the mortgage, his credit would be screwed for many years and this might defeat the object of the exercise from his point of view. If he’s genuinely broke this may be unavoidable. Or he may have decided he won’t be affected by his crappy credit rating - in that case, if the house is repossessed there may well be money leftover after paying costs of repossession and settling mortgage arrears. I would certainly argue that you should receive a large chunk of any equity leftover given you are losing your home.
As your first step, you should confirm that you are unable to transfer the mortgage to yourself and settle the £20k as per the Order. This part of the order is very hard to enforce through the court but you can show you’ve tried. Contact a mortgage broker and ask if there’s anyway you could take over the mortgage without incurring stamp duty. also check the original consent order that the equity split really is a fixed £20k not a specified % as you may have just remembered that it was equivalent to £20k. If you could almost afford the mortgage, a deal might be done - you buy the property but no £20k and instead HE takes out a loan and gives YOU a lump sum, say the amount of the Stamp Duty plus your legal costs.
if you can’t get a mortgage then you can’t, and that’s that.
Selling the FMH may now be the only sensible solution. But in that case you should take it back to court because you are suffering a loss - your expectation was to live in that home until you could afford it, or to live in it until dc reaches age of 18. That is worth something to you. Let’s say there is now £200k equity and he was expecting to receive £20k. If he now forces a sale I would argue he should not only receive NONE of the equity due to the loss you are suffering, he should also settle % of his pension assets on you. Say you didn’t pursue that before because you exchanged the security and comfort of staying the in FMH. Now he wants to remove that, he should compensate you. Don’t go for Spousal support or additional CM, as he has become flakey and there is no guarantee he’ll pay up. Go for a clean break of assets.