Would a court rule for a sale of the house in my favour?

[AnonymousFish10]

My partner and I own a home together as a Joint Tenants. We have made the final decision to separate. We live in England. We have two very young children.

Once we’re separated I will pay child support. And it is my intention for my share of the home to either be bought out by her/someone else or for the house to be sold and for us to get out equal split of the profits (there are no other stipulations or agreements that were made when purchasing the home). We have owned the home since 2019.

I have been made aware that there could be a situation, where if she refuses the sale as she currently is, that the courts may stay any order of a sale as we have children who are not of legal age yet. I’ve also been made aware that the house could still be sold as the equity would be sufficient for both parents to set up shop elsewhere, so to say. If it matters, I would not be able to afford my share of the mortgage, child support, and rent for myself.

Our share would be about £60-70K each. Minus any fees etc. of course. So that will give us both enough money to secure a home elsewhere with enough space for our children (even if just rented for the time being).

What is the most likely outcome if my (ex)partner continues to want to take this to court? And what kind of legal fees am I looking at? Also, what scenario could a court order me to leave the house?

Thanks in advance!

Well can she afford to stay there and buy you out?
If not it will have to be sold.
No point in lawyers/ going to court,
you will lose money that you both need for your separate lives.

My DD is currently in this position ,
her ex partner has left, she can’t afford to buy him out so there is no option but to sell.

Why would she deprive herself of the full amount of shared equity by playing silly buggers?

Just agree to pay half the mortgage until it sells - you can go Interest only for 6 months under the mortgage charter, no questions asked and nothing on your credit report.

There's zero point in spending money on solicitors let alone barristers arguing this, unless one of you can buy the other out the house will have to be sold and split. Your ex partners solicitor should be setting her straight, if not your solicitor may need to spell it out. Refusing to sell will only lead to huge legal bills and less capital to buy new properties.

You'll both have to use your 50% of the equity to house yourselves and the one with majority custody will get child maintenance to help house the dc.

It's not really a question of what you can afford, it's a question of cutting your cloth according to what you have, so smaller property, less attractive location etc.

It's been a while but when I was getting divorced, a barrister was around £2,000 a day, so probably a lot more now. Court is to be avoided at all cost.

As you're not married it should be fairly simple and mostly just conveyancing.

Please see a solicitor OP.

It's unlikely that a stay will be granted if it prevents you from decent living conditions. If one is granted (or a meager order) you won't be expected to pay the mortgage on top of child support your ex will be expected to pay for the whole thing.

I would self represent in court personally, no decent judge would prevent you from getting half the equity. Possible exception would be one of your children or your ex having a disability that effects potential income for your ex but as you're unmarried all this is unlikely and would only be in exceptional circumstances.

You aren't married? In that case you will have to sell, and one will pay maintenance (unless 50/50). There won't be any marital ties that will force you to pay her more than her half

Thanks all - I guess the situation is that she and her father want to push this via the legal system. I assume because their pockets are deep and mine are not.

I'm trying to convince her that it's better if we don't get solicitors involved but that's just making me look like all I care about is the money...

But good to know that if it does go to court the chances are quite slim that they would rule in her favour. I'd much rather not spend £10K (that I don't have) on solicitors fighting this though.

You are being pragmatic and that’s the sensible decision. Any decent solicitor would tell her to settle because you don’t have a huge amount of money in the shared house.

A barrister won’t be £2000 a day if they are very recently qualified and you would not need anyone more experienced. However you really need to try and settle without court. Which will take forever anyway.

A family solicitor can offer usually some free advice they often give fees if you need any further time. It’s always better if parties can agree if you have not already I would take your own independent legal advice. Are you sure they are just not trying to delay things and scare you by mentioning court. I went through similar experience breaking up joint mortgage/ property with a young child and it was a nightmare because my exes family was feeding him legal information which was totally incorrect.

@Avidreader12 I’ve spoken to a few solicitors who have all sort of led me down the ‘come pay for an initial hour call at a cost of £399’ etc. I’m speaking to a couple more on Monday who may be more helpful. What do you mean delay things and scare me? Her dad is quite well off and, to somewhat his credit, doesn’t want us to separate. He wants us to work it out. But if we do separate he wants it done via the legal system.

@TizerorFizz but wouldn’t a solicitor just want their money? If they want to proceed via the courts, why would a solicitor talk them out of it? I guess they’d have to tell them most likely outcome which would be the house getting sold?

Solicitors have a duty to act in their client's best interests. No reputable solicitor will advise a client to proceed with legal action or defend a case when there is no realistic chance of success. Of course, clients don't always take their lawyer's advice and, if the client insists on proceeding, the lawyer must accept that instruction.

By the way, solicitors are generally not short of billable work. A solicitor who is already seriously overloaded (i.e. most solicitors) is unlikely to advise a client to proceed when they have no chance of success. It would just add to a workload that is already overwhelming.

If a 50/50 share is only going to be £60k, then it would be a travesty to waste £20k -£30k of that in court. (I mean 'only' in comparison with court costs). If they are rich, why don't they just buy you out? That would be money far better spent.

I just mean that using a court to decide the sale of a house due to a breakdown in a relationship is a lengthy and costly process. If you can reach an agreement between yourselves then you may only need to use a conveyencing solicitor for certain aspects of the transaction a transfer of equity. If you are both determined to seperate then either the property is sold, or one of you buys the other out. Neither of those require court therefore I assumed court was mentioned as the situation was escalated past resolution between yourselves.

@AnonymousFish10 if her Dad wants you to stay together but if not take the legal route. Would it be fair to say, he's not being nasty, just wants it to be 'right'?

if that's the case then maybe explain the cost to him & say you can't afford it. He can offer to pay your legals 😁

what does HE think is fair?

Do YOU not think it's fair she retains a bigger share of the house as she's the one having to house the children?

would that be £20/30K each!?

My partner can be quite 0-100 at times. We originally agreed to sort this amicably. She received advice, from a solicitor, that an order of sale would be stayed by the courts. She thinks that I would have to pay CMP and the mortgage share all while not living in the house, so therefore paying rent for myself too. Those 3 alone would be about £2000 a month…

She’s also under the impression that if the venue we got married in had a wedding licence then our religious marriage by default would be legal? But I’m not so sure this is true. The venue we had our Islamic marriage does have a civil ceremony licence but the only documents we signed were for the religious marriage.

Yes I do think that to an extent but see my above reply to Avidreader a bit of context. I believe he is being driven by that. For extra context: she earns about 50% more than me and plans to continue working after maternity.

If we were to not go to court I’d be willing to give her a 60/40ish split. To your point about housing the children - I want 50/50 custody. I am a very hands on and present dad and I expect to be in my children’s lives as much as possible.

@AnonymousFish10 I agree with the advice that a solicitor must act in your interests. Barristers are often likely to advise pragmatism too!

There’s not a huge amount of money here. If ex can get a suitable house on her share of your existing house, then the split you want might be fair. Rather than spend ££ on court, her dad would be more sensible if he gave her the money. As you are not married , which is important, I think you would expect to leave the relationship with what you put in but you should consider dc. You would not want them to have to move and change schools I assume.

You need to find out if you are actually legally married or not.

If you are, then the house and all other assets go in the pot and need to be divided as part of a divorce. In these circumstances a court may determine a larger share to one party (usually if they are resident parent) but in no way guaranteed - they would in any case need to support themselves to live there ie taking over the whole mortgage, buying out your share; if they can't then the house needs to be sold.

If you are NOT married then the house can absolutely be sold as simply joint owners - the chances of your ex being awarded a higher share and/or you being expected to still pay are slim to none. IANAL though, you really do need to speak to a solicitor.

But find out if you are actually married first.

If she insists on court, you can self represent given how straightforward this is.
The long and short of it is this... you own the house together and you quite reasonably can request your share of it, if it leaves sufficient for her to either mortgage or find somewhere else. Either way you need to come off that mortgage ASAP because you don't want to be on that longer term as it will affect your borrowing power, credit rating potentially etc.
The child maintenance is a separate matter and will depend on share of care etc.
Could you suggest that you try mediation as an alternative?

It’s about £60K each which I think is significant if I’m honest.

The DC are not of school age. We are talking 2 under 2 essentially. Neither of us would have to move out of the area as the share would enable renting here. My solution to it all is that she and/or her dad buys my share out and she keeps the house. I would then rent a two bed nearby which would be no more than about £1100-1300 a month

I’m 99% sure we are not legally married. I’ve never heard of this rule so I’d have to ask around. I may call the venue to find out. ^^

That is the kind of thing I’d do lol but god, surely I’d have to read a bunch of law books! Re. Mediation that hasn’t been mentioned yet but not reason why it can’t be suggested.

Yeah I’m not bothered about the child maintenance payment tbh because that’s for my children. And I am MORE than happy to pay that.