Seperation agreement and forcing a sale

Hi,

I moved out of a jointly owned property just over 4 years ago. I have one daughter who was 9 years old when I moved out. I moved out because of a break down in our relationship, and to move things forward, My ex partner promised to put the house up for sale if I moved out.

After this we began mediation, where I signed over a car to my ex partner and we agreed a pattern of where my daughter would sleep alteranative weekends and one day in the week with me, (on average 156 nights a year with me) and to sell the property and divide the assets, divide a loan repayment from my ex partners parents equally, and all other assets and liabilities would be retained by the person in whose name they had accrued.

My ex partner refused to complete mediation after two sessions and since that time I have tried speaking and wrting on four occasions to get things moving to deal with the jointly owned home.

I would like some advice on what I can do, to:

1, agree a change in arrangement for my daughter, who is now 13, the existing arrangements worked fine at primary school and with my previous job. Now for both myself and my daughter with changes to schools and for me work the existing rather complicated arrangement is not satisfactory. We would both prefer to change to a principal of alternative weeks with each parent, subject to changes when neccesary.
2, agree a written legally binding seperation agreement,
3, agreeing a way foward to deal with the jointly owned property, the only financial tie remaining betwen us.

The property is a large 4 bedroomed house with a modest mortgage. There is sufficient capital within the property for both of us to buy another modest house each with a small mortgage of £20,000 to £30,000. We both work full time and would not find this difficult.

I have been renting a small 2 bedroom house, and have furnished it completely at my own cost while my ex-partmenr has enjoyed the benefits of our large jointly owned property with all of the assets accrued during our relationship.

I wish to move on with my life and provide a stable home for my daughter. My ex partner appears to be quite happy with the existing arrangements living in a large and very comfortable 4 bedroomed home for nearly half of the year on her own, which paying a very small monthly mortgate, which is less than half of the monthly rent I have been paying for a small 2 bedroom property.

I hope I have explained the situation. At no time have I tried to force entry to the jointly owned prperty but I have been on several occasions refused access by my ex-partner. Not wishing to cause any anxiety I have not pursued the matter. I would like to know if I should try and move back in, get an occupation order. What are the chances of forcing a sale. It would not make my daughter homeless as she lives with me half of the time and her mother would be able to rent like I do now, or buy another property with a modest mortgage.

Sorry for typos.

Are you married?

You use the term partner which suggests you never were.

We were never married.

OK, that is clear.

About Separation Agreements. In theory they are, or are capable of being, legally enforceable ; but on the condition that

You both make a full and complete disclosure of your finances ; and
Both of you have access to independent legal advice.

Of course, strictly you do not need the permission of a Court or a separation agreement, to live apart.

About forcing a sale.

In principle you could, but of course the primary issue is who gets what - 50% each or some other percentage ?

The other issue is that a Court may delay a sale if the house is needed as a residence for a child who is a minor.

It is also possible to obtain a decree of judicial separation, but all this does is to absolve the spouses from the duty to cohabit. In practice hardly anyone ever applies for one, the only exception being where one of parties has religious objections to divorce.

I wouldn''t normally recommend separation agreements if it is clear the marriage is over. It might be worth thinking about if you are planning a trial separation or something like that. In most cases they are an unnecessary expense.

But you need advice from a solicitor who specialises in property law.

LMM

My situation is remarkably similar to the original posters, though I am in Scotland. I am at the start of the process, so would be keen to hear more form the OP about how things are progressing.

I have so far failed to convince ex to agree to mediation and a separation agreement but am worried about moving out before these are in place, or at least agreed to.

A few weks ago I sent my ex partner another letter (five so far) poining out that we needed to settle our existing financial ties, I offered to buy her share of the equity in the property for a sum, I would accept the same same sum to be bourght out, or we could sell the house. I also wished to agree and go to court to agree parental responsibility is split 50/50 and for the court to agree anything else we failed to agree on.

Re the property specifically, I advised that I would ask the court to do two things:

1, agree a court order for a co-habitation agreement so that I could move back in without arguments.( I do not really wish to move back in as it would be difficult for all of us(, but it might move things on.
2, ask the court to force a sale of the properyy on the basis that the current situation is of significant financial detriment to myself, and by selling the property it would not be putting my daughter out of a home. There is enough equity in the property for both my ex partner and myself to buy new houses with moderate mortgages.

I attended a first mediation meeting with the national mediation service, and they asked my ex partner to mediate.

This seems to have worked.

She has contacted me and agreed to try to buy me out. However she has refused to mediate, so I will contibue to fill out the court forms and take this matter to court. In the meantime if she can buy me out that should take no longer than a couple of months to complete.

I''ll update the forum when there is another update.




I also advised I''d be trying to mediate again, and