Vexatious Ex. Letter before action trying to force house sale.

[OakAshSycamore]

Hi there,
My ex has instructed a solicitor who has sent a letter before action forcing sale of my house.

Background, we were together for 4 years although we never lived together or shared bank accounts. He was a considerably higher earner in comparison to me, director of a business, think high 6 figure salary, dividends, shares, very generous benefits package. I am a single mother with a disabled child, working part time and caring, as such I fall within the low income bracket.

He was very very generous with his money, insisting on paying for things and never mentioning repayment throughout our relationship. I often felt uncomfortable and pressured by this dynamic like he had the power in the relationship because I had few resources. He would say things like, by investing in you I am investing in our future. I bought a house with my divorce settlement and he offered to cover the shortfall via a financial gift, all legally drawn up with the solicitor and mortgage company.

I now see that his behaviour was what is termed as love bombing or 'white night' behaviour designed to keep me dependent to him while he wielded financial control over me. Lots of red flags became apparent at the latter part of our time together there was a lot of harassment, aggression and manipulation. I finally saw the light and ended things after a very scary incident which frightened myself and my children and I could see we were unsafe with him. He took my ending the relationship very badly and there was months of abusive messages and threats. Lots of look at what I have done for you, given you etc, I am subsidising your lifestyle type thing.

Fast forward to now, I have received a threatening letter from his solicitor forcing sale of my property (which is in my sole name) on the following basis.

Our Client also contributed a substantial amount to the purchase price. This
money was not provided by way of a gift to you but was paid on the understanding that our Client would have an interest in the property.
Our Client therefore has two potential claims under TLATA, namely through a resulting trust
(contribution to purchase price), constructive trust (intention) and can also ask the Court to
assess his rights under proprietary estoppel as he has relied on promises that the property
would be held jointly and he has acted to his detriment (in providing the lump sum and monies

I have copies of the legal gift letter that was issued by the mortgage company and witnessed by the solicitor. I am so confused by this, the financial gift for the property forms 75% of his financial claim against me. He must have omitted telling his solicitor this surely?

What is my best approach in response to this. I don't have any savings, I know that his calling card is to manipulate and intimidate.

Just pop a copy of this legal letter back to the solicitor with a covering note

“I trust this will close the matter”

What were the terms of the gift? That it was never to be repaid?

I am not a lawyer but as far as I'm aware if the gift letter is legitimate (which it will be if it was witnessed by a lawyer and issued by the mortgage company) he's talking out of his arse.

I don't know about the other money - is there anything in writing, at all, ever, to suggest that it was loaned and not gifted? If not, again I doubt he can get far with this. I understand it's stressful though. You really do need to seek legal help, even if it's just a bit of initial advice to see where you stand

A gift is never a loan and is not repayable.

Extract from gift letter.
This gift is given freely, no interest will be charged and no repayment is required.
There will not be any interest retained in the property being purchased
If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

After we split up he was harrassing me heavily about the money, I said I would look at my options to give him some money back as I felt very pressured and wanted him out of my life. I looked at my options and there werent any, I took advice on the harrassment and blocked him on all fronts.

Op just do as I suggest and get on with your day

Please take the advice here. A letter before action is really just a threat. And consider reporting him to the police for harassment.

And don’t forget that a letter before action is just a letter stating that they intend to do something. It doesn’t mean that they can or will do that thing. I could send a letter of action to King Charles saying I’m going to move into Buckingham Palace next week, it doesn’t mean it be able to. Solicitors will write whatever clients tell them and I’d imagine he has omitted mention of the gift letter.

@OakAshSycamore , please take @Doyoumiss advice which is the best approach At this juncture.

He doesn't have a leg to stand on @OakAshSycamore

You owe him nothing, zero, zilch!!

The letter is him swinging his dick, his lawyer will know this but has been instructed by your ex to send it.

Take the advice of @Doyoumiss and send a copy of the gift letter.

Do not be intimidated nor even contemplate giving him money, he's trying to bully you.

A letter from a solicitor is just a letter. It has no more effect than a letter from me, a random stranger on the internet.

It is another form of harassment. Since you blocked him on all fronts, he has resorted to paying a solicitor to use legal language to do it.

Sorry you are going through this.

Not a lawyer but I know a bit about how mortgage companies work and I would be extremely surprised if they would have allowed you to get a mortgage over a property in your name only that another party could have any rights over. Which will be why they asked for the official gift letter. Any sensible person would say that if he really thought that the property was to be held jointly why did he not add tell the mortgage company this, and why did he sign the letter?

My understanding is that a solicitor does not have to think that the a claim has any chance of being successful to send a letter before action. He may well not have told the solicitor about the gift letter, but he may also have told them and been advised that the claim would not succeed but asked them to send the letter anyway.

Do you have household insurance? You may find that some legal advice is included. I think it would be worth asking them- even if it doesn't cover fighting if he does make a claim it could be enough to reassure you that he has no claim and/or on any steps you should take.

You've not said exactly how he frightened you and your children or why you feel unsafe with him, but you might want to consider whether you need to speak to the police about this. This letter is a form of harassment and if he was already making you feel unsafe it could be worth asking their advice.

Thanks everyone, I will respond with the copy of the legal gift letter as suggested. What should I do about the residual sum? Should I reiterate it was money gifted and that at the time he was happy to give it without my asking and with no conditions asked? Should I mention that he was harassing me for months after we split and that I have felt pressured and intimidated by him.
To add context he was going through a divorce around the time I bought my house and after he made the gift to me he said it would prevent his ex wife getting it. I feel like I have just been caught up by a manipulator.

Our Client therefore has two potential claims under TLATA, namely through a resulting trust
(contribution to purchase price), constructive trust (intention) and can also ask the Court to
assess his rights under proprietary estoppel as he has relied on promises that the property
would be held jointly and he has acted to his detriment (in providing the lump sum and monies

He would say things like, by investing in you I am investing in our future. I bought a house with my divorce settlement and he offered to cover the shortfall via a financial gift

I am not a lawyer, but the constructive trust idea is extinguished by the legal gift letter (whoever said the mortgage company would offer you a mortgage on a property of which the beneficial owner was someone else, was correct, I think).

The idea of proprietary estoppel is that if you tell someone something like "all this will be yours one day" and they act to their detriment (by, for instance, making curtains for the house and buying plants for the garden) then you are estopped from later on going back on your promise, because that would be unfair - you may have to give them a financial share in the property along the lines of what you originally promised. It doesn't really fit the idea that the detriment is actually the payment for the real property, as far as I can see.

There is no way that - following a divorce - any court is going to accept that you intended to give him anything of the property which you bought with your divorce settlement and a gift from him. If the intention was to hold the property jointly, as he suggests, there would be legal paperwork to that effect.

So my non-expert opinion is that this is blowing hot air. That might give you some comfort while you consider next steps.

You should absolutely not do any of this.

Send a letter that says "I acknowlege receipt of your letter, without going into detail, all claims are denied."

Leave it at that.

You must know and remember at all times his lawyer is not open to negotiation, persuasion, or reasoned argument. His lawyer is his friend (for money) - not yours.

By trying to argue you are conceding that he may have a point and you will find it very hard to avoid giving him money in the end.

Do not explain, do not argue, do not engage.

Write a letter saying "thank you, all your claims are denied."

If he really wants a court action, there will be plenty of time to negotiate after he's filed the paperwork, at which time proper legal advice will be what you need.

There is nothing to gain by engaging now.

OP please take some legal advice before you do anything. Lots of solicitors offer free 30 mins.

Okay, thanks. I will send this response as you suggested along with a copy of the legal gift letter. I doubt he'll stop at this but ill see what happens and as you say pop along to a solicitor for some advice.

Edit I didn’t see what you were quoting

Don’t waste a penny on a solicitor
you have hard and unequivocal evidence
that will end the matter

Do not send them a copy of the legal gift letter. Do not send a copy of anything. He's perfectly well aware of what he signed.

You are hoping that his solicitor will see the letter and make him stop. This will not happen. You cannot persuade his solicitor.

Seeing a solictor for advice is a good idea.

Nonsense

Send a copy op. The solicitor will advise client that dead in the water rather than any more back and forth

My brother and I researched a claim for proprietary estoppel some years ago, with a good solicitor. It is an unusual, quite irregular type of property law - expensive to pursue and tricky to be successful.

The letter you produced should be more than adequate to close down a pr. es. claim and stop it on its tracks. As others have said, a letter before action is merely a threat. Let him put his money where his mouth it and proceed from the ‘letter before action’ to ‘action’. He won’t get far.

I would have a chat with woman’s aid / police tbh. I do think if serms like an extension of his harassment. He has no leg to stand on regarding the deposit gift.

With the other monies what were they used for? Did they pay for significant upgrades to the house that would of improved it’s value? Landscape garden, new kitchen/ bathroom type stuff?

I’d not dive too deeply into your reply. Remember every letter will cost him £100 pounds plus and it’s perfectly acceptable for every reply to take a week or two. So just send the legal declaration of gift.

The legal nonsense in what the OP quoted in their first post shows that the solicitor already know this is a lot of hot air. The solicitor has already advised their client that this is a waste of time and the client still authorized a threatening letter.

The solicitor will not persuade the husband of anything and sending copies of documents the husband already knows about will not help.

Remember that each letter his solicitor sends you is consting him £500, and to set up any kind of claim is going to cost in £20k.

He knows full well that he's not going to get that back..