HELP! Ex pulling out of house sale after exchange of contracts

[Promise22]

In need of urgent advice please. I have been legally divorced now for more than 6 months. I have a consent order in place that says that I either buy ex from his share of the house or we sell it. We have put the house on the market back in Feb as I simply don't have the funds to buy him out. Exchanged contracts last week and he has been bullying me for my new address (when I haven't even moved house!). He is controlling/abusive and I have been advised to seek non-molestation order in the past (I just didn't have the brand width or the resources to go through with it). After a series of threatening text messages over the weekend, which I chose not to engage with (that has probably annoyed him even more), he emailed our solicitor saying that he is pulling out of the house sale. There is no reason what's so over for this except that he wants to punish me somehow and prevent me from buying my own place. Note that he is not buying another property, he will simply take his share of the equity from the family home. However, I am heavily involved in the onward purchase and have even started a full house rewire between now and completion (planned for this Fri). I will speak to solicitors tomorrow and seek legal advice, but can anyone please tell me if this is even possible? Can he pull the plug on the whole chain (a chain of 4 houses) without justification? Any thoughts on similar experience or next steps I need to take will be much appreciated!!

Yes, we have formally exchanged signed contracts beginning of last week and I have a 'key undertaking' in place to start renovating the house.

You will need a family lawyer. Didn't you have one previously?

I think you should be ok - but how stressful.

You need to go to court and a judge can sign and order the sale on his behalf.

We bought from a divorcing couple where the husband wouldn't sign but it went ahead with the judge signing.

Yes, I did. And I just settled the last bill at £300/hr this will cost me massively 🤦🏻‍♀️ wish me luck 🤞. I will email her and few other people...

Wishing you much luck.

Think he's left it too late tho. He should have withdrawn consent just before exchange.

You need your own solicitor urgently. Don't just email, phone. If you are going to get an emergency order in place for Friday, you need to act fast.
It's possible that he will instruct the joint solicitor to proceed just before completion so as to create maximum inconvenience for you but keep himself out of trouble and expense at the end, but you can't take the risk.

Also, ask the conveyancing solicitor to check the terms of their instructions very carefully.
I used to be a solicitor many years ago and I think I remember there (sometimes?) being a clause saying that instructions were irrevocable. I know I dealt with situations where this was the case, but I don't recall whether it a clause put in specially in acrimonious cases or whether it was standard. It might even be covered in either the court order or correspondence, or in the sale contract itself. Get your own solicitor to check this, it may be something was raised during negotiations.
Remember the conveyancing solicitor cannot represent your interests individually as against Ex if you jointly instructed them, and might consider themselves unable to do anything at all until this is resolved.
All the solicitors involved should have considered this as a possible issue, so there's a good chance it will have been covered in the previous paperwork.

Thank you for replying. That's good to know and puts you on a sounder footing. Hopefully your ex will see sense. My daughter's ex does bonkers spontaneous things like this and then regrets them afterwards. No impluse control. Not on this scale though.

The conveyancing solicitor will probably spell out to your ex exactly what the consequences of refusing to complete will be - including the fact that he could be overridden by the court - and with any luck he'll see sense.

If you do have to go to court, ask your solicitor if you could include a provision in any order that the costs involved will be repayable to you out of your ex's half of the sale proceeds.

I hope you get it sorted but in the meantime can you give him an address of a family member and say that's your forwarding address.

Keep on keeping on

I would be looking at speaking to Rights of Women and see if this is a trigger to bring charges against him for harassment or at least get some sort of order against him.

God what an absolute arsehole. Your life must have been hell
So he didn't even go through his own solicitor (as they'd likely have told him he's bring an arse but in politer terms) just emailed yours and they just sent it on? That's a bit shit?
I hope you get some answers today and a court order if necessary.

It's very, very rare for a sale to fail after exchange. It happened to someone I knew- in that case the buyers split up and couldn't go through with the purchase- the buyers lost their deposit. The conveyancer had never seen it happen before, and she was very experienced. I think if it's the sellers that stop the deal the buyers can force the sale or get a good chunk of compensation, but your solicitor will know what to do. I hope it works out for you.

Thank you all for your thoughts and moral support. Ex texting again to say that he wants to 'discuss things calmly' 😳. I don't think there is more to say! I am just not engaging with him. He then writes with more threats telling me to give him my new address so he can revoke his pulling out or he will stop the sale 'at all costs'. I will give him the address nearer the time if I run out of options but waiting for legal advice first! Wish me luck 🤞

Indeed, my life was a living hell with the man! And he is trying to exert his control to the last minute 🤷🏻‍♀️

Are you saying your solicitor took instructions from him? Or does this solicitor work for both of you?

Either way it sounds very stressful. My ex refused to sign as well; in the end I had to pay him so he would do it. Yes, it's about control. It will be worth it in the end, keep going.

I would reply to him that if he does pull out of the sale, all the costs associated will be his costs. You will take him to court for the 10% owing to the buyers, all your legal fees and your lost expenditure on the property you were moving to. As you have a court order stating the house must be sold, not only will he lose all that money in court, the house will be sold anyway. Its beyond foolish of him, and accomplishes nothing but a short delay.

Make sure you save screen shots of the text conversation.

What are the solicitors saying to you @Promise22 are they sorting for you.

He's doing this as a way to force you to give him your address?
Is giving him the new address an option?

Don't give him your address. At most, have a look on rightmove at houses also under offer that are similar and give him that address instead. If he's a high earner he could try to contact your seller and try something.

God this is awful. I would be thinking about calling the police about his intimidation and harassment. The texts are definitely coercive

Have you managed to speak to your solicitor yet?

@HowcanIhelp123 that's a very good idea.

Yes ignore my message as clearly he's a dangerous nutter (which is the phrase my mum used to describe my XH) and find a suitable decoy to give him. A nearish one for similar or less money.

Does he have the sort of job where being in contempt of court would be an issue?

I wouldn't be giving out nearby addresses if it could possibly expose a random family to threats or stalking.

I would be getting the non-molestation order.