Can I force the sale of my jointly owned property?

[Tusktusk]

I jointly own a property with exH. We split up 9 years ago. He continues to live in the property with his new DW. They pay the mortgage, I do not. I rent my home.

We did initially after the split discuss selling. He wanted to stay there. He wanted to buy my half of the property but didn’t have enough money to do so. He asked for time to save up.

I waited for a couple of years and nothing happened. We had a lot of joint debt from our marriage and I wanted to get rid of the debt and free myself of the property. I declared bankruptcy as I thought this would force the sale of the property and leave me with a blank slate after the initial fall out.

Unfortunately for me (fortunately for my ex!) the bankruptcy officer (sorry, I’ve forgotten the actual term!) decided not to sell the property but to put a charging order on it instead, for a fixed amount (half the estimated equity at the time) plus interest.

Five years on, I am still the joint owner of the property and a joint name on the mortgage. If he dies, it will come straight to me. Yet he lives there with his wife and I haven’t stepped a foot inside for years. I don’t pay anything towards the mortgage or upkeep but I did for 10 years before the split. I also paid all of the initial deposit and legal fees when we first bought the property, as I had just had an inheritance.

I presume that the value of the property has gone up since the charging order and even if we sold it now, some of the equity would be mine after the charging order is paid.

But my main issue is this: I am renting. I am unable to move on I my own life I.e take out a new mortgage and buy myself a property because I already have a mortgage. In less than a year it will have been 6 years since my bankruptcy and my history will be clean. But I can’t move forwards. And what would I do if he did actually die? Kick out his wife? Charge her rent? I feel on very shaky ground as I haven’t even paid anything for the house in nearly 9 years. She presumably has.

I would really like to be rid of my interest in this property. To complicate matters, exH and I have DC who spend part of their time living in that property with him (although most of their time is with me.)

What can I do?

You need to see a Solicitor, the charging order is obviously the reason he doesn’t want to sell as proceeds will go towards his bankruptcy, but it will always be there, so needs sorting, you’ve given it long enough.

It is possible he could have severed the joint tenancy on the house and changed the ownership to tenants in common. He could then leave his share to his wife if he dies.

It's worth downloading a copy of the title from the Land Registry and see if there is a restriction which prevents the sale by a sole proprietor.

I think you would have to go to court to force the sale.

Sorry, re read it’s you that was adjudged bankrupt, so any proceeds from the sale may go towards your bankruptcy. You need to speak to your Trustee in Bankruptcy who should be able to advise you.

I think you would have to take legal advice. Potentially you could seek to do a deal with your ex whereby the outcome is equitable for you, and you sign over the house to him. You would have to go to court to force a sale so that would be expensive and best avoided.

Was there a financial order when you divorced? If so, what does that say about the property?

@prh47bridge There was no financial order. We did a very simple divorce without solicitors and agreed to sort out the (pitiful) finances between us.

That is a shame. A financial order would have sorted out what must happen with the property. You need to see a solicitor.

I wondered if OP's share of / mortgage on the marital home might be possible to convert to BTL. OP is liable for CGT on the sale, anyway.

@peanutbutterkid Could you explain what you mean without the acronyms please? Also, explain it like I don’t know anything about law, property or finance. I have my areas of expertise but as you can see from my whole predicament, this isn’t it

BTL is buy to let.
CGT is capital gains tax which you will owe on the property for the period you haven't lived there less an exemption for the last 9 months.

OP = original poster.

as far as I know... Because you moved out, you don't get 100% capital gains relief when that property is sold. You'll have a small tax-exempt allowance on the sale profit , but otherwise have to pay tax on your share of proceeds from sale (but only on value gained since you moved out). People aren't liable for capital gains tax (CGT) when they sell a property they constantly lived in. But you don't live there, so you have to pay some CGT. I'm guessing you've never talked to an accountant about all this?

Your big problem is getting "another mortgage" so that partly depends on how the bank views your mortgage on the property your ex lives in. Probably it should have changed to a buy-to-let (BTL) or investment mortgage years ago. Maybe you already did that...

If it were changed to investment mortgage, that might give you scope to borrow / get a mortgage on a property you are going to live in. Everyone else is saying talk to a lawyer, but I wonder about if you spoke to a nice building society. At least they don't charge for their advice !! Explain the circumstances and ask if they would let you borrow to buy a property to live in, while keeping the other one as an "investment".

You presumably need the equity out of the X-marital-home to get enough deposit, though?

Does the lender know on that X-marital-home that you don't live there, it should be an investment loan for you but not for your X?

The lender definitely knows I don’t live there, yes. I explained the circumstances and told them my change of address years ago. They send me a mortgage statement every year at my current address. As far as I know, they haven’t changed it to an investment mortgage for me. I could ring the mortgage company to check this though.

You will be liable for CGT at point of sale though in the future.

I’ve never talked to an accountant (other than socially) in my life.

This is not a big expensive property and neither me nor my ex are high earners.

We didn’t use solicitors for our divorce because because we couldn’t afford solicitors and we had nothing but the house to sort out. No private pensions, savings, nothing.

My bankruptcy was also small. Not quite small enough for a DRO (mini bankruptcy) but not far off. I had no assets apart from my share in this property.

We are not talking about big finances here. I appreciate that legal or financial advice before now would have been a good idea - it’s just that those kinds of services are beyond my means.

Fair enough about the CGT. After the charging order I’m not sure what profit I would stand to make - and I don’t much care, as really I just want to be rid of it without actually just giving it my ex.

Talk to a nice lender like Nationwide (who won't charge for this advice) about if you could get a mortgage on another property while still having the other one. They can't do worse than say no.

In meantime, maybe you could maybe persuade XH's new wife that it's in their interest to try to buy out your share, for her security if nothing else.

Many of the replies to this thread have missed the poiont that you were declared bankrupt. From that point onwards you no longer owned an interest in the property, which will have vested in the trustee in bankruptcy.

The trustee has the opwer to force the sale of the trustee's interest, which is worth half the current equity. On sale, if after debts are repaid and cost of the bankruptcy (which will be eye watering - trustees costs are one of the biggest scams going) there is anything left you would get that, but I don't fancy your chances.

@Collaborate At the time of the bankruptcy, the trustee decided not to force the sale but as an alternative made a charging order on the deeds which was worth a fixed amount (half the equity at the time of the bankruptcy) plus interest.

The bankruptcy was 5 years ago. It’s all done and dusted but for the charging order.