Looking for advice - can you force sell a house?

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DP and his ex broke up 4 years ago (never married) they bought a house together and are both 50/50 owners. (They have a kid together but it’s 50/50 shared custody)

He’s stayed on the mortgage these last 4 years as she she won’t sell or buy him out.

We have 2 kids together and are looking to buy a place together as we don’t want to keep renting and want to make a home but can’t get a mortgage as he doesn’t earn enough to be on 2 mortgages. There is about 20 grand equity in the house that is his and 20 grand that is hers. He can’t just sign over his half as it’s needed for a deposit on a new place.

Has anyone been through similar or is there any advice as to what we can do to speed the process along? Or is there a legal route we can take. He’s tried numerous times over the years to do this amicably and has asked nicely but she simply says no and I don’t know what to do. My kids ask to do things to the house and I have to say no - I would love to make a real home and buy things that I know I want to keep for my home but I can’t.

We looked at the tenancy but this morning - apparently he would have to charge her rent and show it’s been paid in order for that to count as a landlord status and not a personal residence and he feels bad doing so.

“should we just have not had kids because his ex is not keeping her word? What if we waited and in 5 years she still won’t sell then we've been waiting 9 years to have a child”

Don’t over dramatise!

He’s only been split up 4 years, and the agreement you said was to sort of the house after 2.

You can’t tell me it would have been any hardship at all for you to wait 2 into a new relationship before choosing to have a child? I mean come, even without an ex and a house and a child, plenty of people would say it’s not bad thing to give a new relationship 2 years before deciding to have a baby!

And sure maybe at 2 years in you’d have discovered this was going to go the way of a court order to force it. And maybe you’d have decided not to let that slow you down having 1 or 2 children. But the fact is, you went into this eyes wide open and both made the choice to have 2 children in a poor school area.

Nobody is saying you should wait 9 years. I just think it would have been sensible to wait 2.

“We looked at the tenancy but this morning - apparently he would have to charge her rent”

The legal terms Joint Tenants and Tenants in Common relate to home ownership and have nothing to do with tenancies, rent or landlords.

On 28k how can he even afford to pay for 3 kids let alone a mortgage in the current market? There would be no point forcing the sale, it could take a year, equity would be gone and you’d be putting his first child in unstable housing for nothing because I doubt either of you have a deposit. You’re probably on benefits yourself.

It will take 2 incomes for you to buy so I would discuss with the ex when you can realistically get a mortgage.

The ex sounds like she has her head screwed on.

Joint tenants and tenants in common are nothing to do with landlords or rent. They are ways of jointly holding the freehold.

Have a Google