Removal of ex from property title deeds

[HummingbirdSong]

To make a very long story short, I offered on a house at the beginning of March but the seller soon found out that her ex was still on the title deeds and needed his cooperation with the sale of the house. He was bought out when they divorced and hasn't been living there for some time. There is a court order to sell the house and the solicitors have confirmed he is not entitled to any of the sale proceeds. The ex asked the seller for some extra money, and as a gesture of goodwill, the seller agreed to give him £5000 (to keep him engaged with the selling process). Well, you guessed it, he moved the bar, and has been obstructing the sale, but on the other hand, confusingly, not wanting the sale to fall through. The seller has now gone down the legal route to have his name removed from the title deeds. She paid the solicitors a lot of money in mid-May to formally start the process. How long do these things take? Can his name be removed without his cooperation given that he has been an obstruction since the beginning of March? Could he face any legal costs and will that be made apparent to him soon? If he's likely to cave in and just voluntarily remove his name from the deeds - how long into the process could this take?

If he transferred his share of equity to her, there'll be paperwork to show that. Was it an error on the part of the solicitor to not get the deeds updated?

I ask because that's exactly what happened to me! Bought my ex out, the conveyancing all went through but when I did the financial order as part of the divorce, the conveyancing solicitor had forgotten to change the deeds. They submitted the paperwork then and it took about 3 months - that was 2 years ago. But I was legally the sole owner at the point the paperwork was submitted. I the same way when you buy a house the deeds aren't updated instantly.

If she didn't do a financial order, then it gets messier. He could still have claim to the proceeds of the house sale even though they are divorced. She'd likely need to do the financial order now, and if he's not in agreement about the money it might need to go to mediation.

I think you are asking a piece of string question. A shorter time if there is appropriate existing paperwork, much longer if there is not. Given that you say that the female seller "paid a lot of money" to start the process in mid May, I am going to guess that the appropriate paperwork is not in place and additionally suggest that the female seller has not told you ALL the facts?