Ex husband risking sale of the house

[Rainbowdropz]

Good morning all,

I told my husband I wanted s divorce in Feb 2020, I started the process in court and online. We have been living together throughout the whole process (which has been acrimonious and we do not speak) and we've been legally divorced since April this year. We have a final hearing to sort out the finances next year.

In the meantime we both agreed to sell the house. We've found a buyer, but we cant agree on where the funds should go. My solicitor has offered to hold the funds but as he is a narcissist, he has disagreed. My ex wanted his solicitor to hold the funds, but his solicitor is unprofessional and had to be shown how to upload documents by my solicitor- so I have no confidence in his solicitor. My ex has suggested that he take half the funds and I take half. I've rejected this solution, as he could easily dissipate the funds and it would be harder to get the funds back following the final hearing if I am to be awarded more. The conveyancing solicitors have stated that they cannot hold funds after the completion date. We had a joint account that we no longer use, I spoke to the bank and they said they could block withdrawals from the account and we would both need to come in to make withdrawls. I made this suggestion to my ex and he rejected it. Yesterday, I found out that he has somehow managed to go to the bank and close our joint account so now that option is no longer available.

What other options are available that won't be costly, as the only thing I can see us doing is pulling out of the sale of the house until the hearing is done.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be grateful.
Thanks in advance!

@titchy

The simplest thing seems to be to split the proceeds 50/50 and let each party's solicitor hold their 50% until the January hearing.

It means you don't lose your buyer, but given that neither party can access it it's no admission that 50/50 is what you'll settle for.

His solicitor may be an incompetent arrogant dick, but surely he wouldn't risk his registration by doing something a court has ordered him not to do.

This. Have each party's solicitor hold 50% in escrow. If his solicitor is on some way up to anything nefarious, the other 50% is still protected, and in the meantime the sale etc can continue.

If his solicitor holds the money it will be put into his clients account which the Law Society have very strict rules aroun. Could you have a letter from his solicitor that the funds will not be distributed until after the ruling from the judge and also distributed according to same ruling.

No solicitor wants to piss off the Law Society as they can stop them from practicing.

Can you find eg on the Law Society website a list of approved solicitors locally, reduce to a list of, say 5, then let him chose one of them.
Or say here's a list of 5 local solicitors, I'd prefer not (my favourite) as (random excuse eg I used to know someone worked there) but will let you choose which one (and he'll then chose the one you prefer not ie your favourite)

If the equity isn’t that high then your numbers are off, particularly in terms of what you stand to lose. Using lawyers to fight or to lose out on a buyer may very well outweigh the 10%. You said the 10% would be £40-50k. Simple maths says the equity would be £400k-500k. Since you say the equity actually isn’t that much, I would strongly advice you to get clarity on your situation and then decide whether it’s worth fighting over the 50:50, losing a buyer and wasting a lot of the equity on solicitors’ fees.

disapated approx. 140k from our joint account

Ouch

Lawyer needs to advise likelihood of any of that being accepted for in equity division

Just as an update. I found a conveyancer who is local and has had some dealings with my estate agent. They have agreed to hold the funds until the outcome of the final court hearing. I had to get my estate agent to mention them to my ex husband, as if I were to suggest it he would have said no. My ex has now agreed and the memorandum of sale now reflects the new conveyancers details. We're just waiting for the paperwork to sign to get the ball rolling.

I've spoken to the bank about the joint account that was closed and I was told that the type of account it was, it only needed one person to come into branch to close it. It's probably for the best that we didn't use that account due to this. The bank have offered me compensation as they could clearly see that I had an appointment to discuss the account, but the person who I had spoken to nd booked the appointment, didn't bother to write up any notes that would have indicated that the account was under dispute and this would have prevented its closure.

I'm hoping that as soon as everything is signed it'll put my mind at ease. Thank you for all of your help and suggestions.

Well done for ploughing on and searching for a solution. It would have been so easy to give up but you didn't. I hope everything else works out for you just as well.

@Haywirecity thank you so much. I was determined to find a solution, as if we had to go back to market I could see him dragging his heels if he weren't happy with the outcome from court. I just need this nightmare with.