forced sale

[Jobyfrson]

l seperated from my ex partner 18 years ago. We have a joint mortgage which he continued paying for around 2 years but paid no maintenance. He then stopped paying mortgage and paid maintenance, which he worked out after deductions. l now have 5 further children all under 16. My ex now wants to force the sale of my home and take 50% of the profit. l don't want to sell. Do my younger children stop the forced sale eventhough they are not his. He also has a charging order against the house of over £17000 from 19 years ago and wants me to pay half eventhough it's solely in his name.

So are your 5 other children his? If not how old are your joint children?

She says in OP the other 5 are not his. It would appear their shared child is at least 18.

Presumably the options are to buy him out or sell and split the equity. You can't just keep the house indefinitely if it's not just yours.

You might have been paying the mortgage but then tenants could use that argument against landlords (except tenants generally pay an awful lot more than mortgage rates).

"He also has a charging order against the house of over £17000 from 19 years ago and wants me to pay half eventhough it's solely in his name."

If there is a charging order solely in his name then, when the house is sold the money will only be taken from his share of the house - not yours.

You do not have to pay towards his debt.

No l can't afford to buy him out, but should he be entitled to 50% when he's not paid for 16ish years. His solicitor is claiming l should have been paying towards his rent after he left aswell

What does your solicitor say?

Probably going to be an unpopular opinion but yes he should get half. He has remained on the mortgage / as a joint owner for 18 years post split. If he hadn’t done that, you would have had to give up the house years ago. Remaining financially tied to an ex in this way will certainly have impacted him negatively over the last 18 years too. Children that aren’t his won’t be considered. They have their own parents.

You were not married, so the default is 50/50 of the sale. You should have drawn a legal document at the time you took on the full mortgage if it was agreed that you'd get more after all those years.

He does indeed have a defence that by not selling the house at the time of separation, he occured extra costs all those years.

Having additional children who are not his is not a legal defence for stopping the sale.

I’m afraid it isn’t his job to house you and your next 5 kids, that’s up to you and the father. So yes of course he can force a sale. I’m actually a little shocked you would even consider trying to force this man to house you and yours. Fortunately for him tne law is on his side/

How old is the eldest. I’m assuming they are now an adult?

The obvious answer would be to get the father of your further five children to buy out your ex now his own child has reached adulthood.

Otherwise yes, your ex is entitled to his share of the house. It's not his (housing) problem you had more children, it's their father's and yours problem.

The choice is you buy him out or you sell the house and split the equity. What was drawn up (percentages) when you originally bought the house? Check your paperwork.

this is a matter for your solicitor to sort. Clearly your ex should be able to take the money from a house he owns jointly. It’s a question of the amount.

The solicitor was probably referring to occupational rent which the courts can award to the owner that doesn't live in the house. It's like you paying rent for the part of the house he owned. He might not have paid the mortgage but you did get use of the whole property and his investment in that property. Unless he's in a high playing job that's going to have effected his ability to get a mortgage and buy his own place. You're lucky he's waited this long to claim his investment in the property. As for percentage given you're not married that usually goes off the original ownership split when you bought the house. You should get all the information together and see a solicitor who would be better place to tell you the legalities of the situation.