Court ordered closure of joint accounts, can I just remove name instead?

[Fightingback16]

We are court ordered to close our joint bank accounts and split the money in our divorce.

Does it need to be closed or can I just remove his name?

I think you have to go into the bank together with iD to agree to one name coming off the account.

Removing his name is effect closing it, as it is no longer a joint account (the bank will treat it differently). It's essentially a closure of one and only ending of another, so no difference

I would open a new one - saves spending years working out old direct debits/standing orders and avoids errors.

A lot of banks won’t let you convert a joint account to a sole one, unless one of the parties has died.

HSBC is one of these. The reason I was given is that it’s because if a payment for the removed party is sent to the old joint account number, it can be a bit of bugger to get back. Particularly in the event of a divorce.

The bank is Lloyds. It is not a good divorce, we can’t see each other due to domestic abuse so I’m not sure how this will work. He won’t co-operate.

The other 2 accounts are with HSBC, both have 70p in no direct debits etc so will happily just close those. I’ve tried calling but on hold for over and hour.

Only one person needs to be there to close it. I had to do this with a joint a/c at Lloyds and i went in and closed it. Ex didn't need to be present. For your own sake get a print out of balance before you close, transfer half to him , print out that transaction too

I think it depends on the bank and their policy. I was in a similar situation but with barclays who wouldn't close the account despite me explaining DV etc. In the end I had to get a mutual friend involved to shame him into giving his signature to close it. It really was a shitty situation at the time so you have my sympathies.

Yes you can often close them alone but not change to a sole named account alone.

You need his permission to remove his name.
You dont need permission to close the account unless it is set up for both to sign

So I went in and because of DV they just looked at the court order and removed him from my account and me from his. We are then ordered to share the money. I owe him 35p and he owes me £750.

Maybe you should have transferred the correct amounts of money before removing the names and then you wouldn't have to chase him for your share

Yeah he after chatting with the bank manager she suggested not a good idea as could provoke him. I’m buying him out of the house so if needs will just pay him £750 less.