Tolata Claim

[TheJetFighter]

Hi. I have a TOLATA claim against me. Not married. Were together for just over 10 years with 2 young children who live with me. Joint mortgage. I have the kids a lot more than my ex and we are currently living in the property (our wonderful home). My ex wants to force the sale after his affair (which didn't last) now he's back living with his parents. He still pays towards the mortgage but we are paying the SVR as he won't fix a rate. I've offered to cover the mortgage payments if he fixes but he's refused. He's now taking me to court and won't accept my offer to buy his share as he thinks the property is worth more. I had a RICS valuation done and its more in the range of what I've been offering. I have offered almost all 50% but 10k in a future payment. We live minutes away from the childrens school and I have good arrangements with my workplace so I can drop the kids to school and arrange pick ups too. We are only at the start of the court proceedings and it's already costing a lot of money which I will soon be in debt if it carries on. Do you think I have any chance in winning this so me and the kids don't have to turn our lives upside down? My ex, if he accepted my offer would be able to get himself a place of his own if his fiancé's are managed well. He's never been good with money.

What does your solicitor say?

It is very likely he will win.

He presumably needs the money to house himself in order to have his children and presumably has his own professional valuations, which counter yours?

How is he supposed to pay for a home for himself and the children when he's still paying for yours and his equity is in your home? I see his point.

I suspect the two previous posters have no legal training.

OP has offered what she thinks is 50% of the equity.

The way these applications work is that they firstly determine who owns what and then they either enable either the sale or delay the sale of the property.

If it is certain that ownership is 50/50 then the proceedings are to determine how much one must pay to the other to buy them out. That will require a surveyor's valuation out of which the court deducts the mortgage balance and notional costs of sale. If you can afford to raise sufficient so that he would get as much as he would get if the property were sold then you'll be fine. If you have to wait a while to get the final £10k the court has the power to allow that, and may well do so as there is a child in the property.

The risk he runs is that he may be ordered to pay your costs if he loses.

He said we'll send an email to my ex and his solicitor to see if there is any chance he'll accept my offer. If not, and it's more concerning for the kids remain where they are then we might have to apply for the schedule 1 children's act.

He got 2 of his friends from different estate agent companies to do valuations which both ended up being the same and were well over any valuations I've received. I also got a RICS valuation done too and it came out pretty much on par with the ones I received. He's being devious.