Can my ex force me to sell my house?Please help

In simple terms....The freehold and land registry is in my name, when we spit I stupidly signed this document to say that when I sell the house she would get half of the profit above £250,000 (all other money is accounted for). She is now wants me to pay her £21,500 to buy her out or force me to sell the house to get her money! I have had the house valued at about £290,00 Can she force me to sell or does she just have to wait until I want to sell?

here is a link to the doc -

imgur.com/X2zWgE4

Well, thank you for attaching a link to the document ; you will be surprised how many people ask us to advise on a document we have not seen.

Can she force you to sell ? I''d say probably not ; normally a sole owner is just that, the owner decides when it can be sold and there is nothing that anyone else can to do force them to sell, unless there is a provision somewhere that enables the non-owner to force a sale.

We often get this when a wife is given the right to occupy the former marital home, say until the children are 18, and the dispossessed spouse can''t normally force a sale until then.

The document seems to me to say that if the property is sold for more than £250,000 ( but not otherwise ) the NET PROCEEDS OF SALE have to be split - not the excess over £250,000.

My first reaction is that this document does not have the effect you think it has. If it''s sold, say for £260,000, you''d have to pay her £130,000, not £5000.

If I am anything like right, then you need to take legal advice .p.d.q.

I will have a second and VERY thorough look at this. If I change my mind, I''ll post again.

LMM

Although I see no reason to change my view, I''m puzzled about what you say '' all other money is accounted for ''.

Can you explain ?

LMM

Agree with LittleMrMike the terms of the interpretation of the declaration of trust in terms of if the property is sold over £250,000, then and only then do the terms come into play.

So a sale at 290,000 after deducting estate agent and legal costs and any net rents and profits (not sure what is meant by net rents and profits) is to be divided 50/50. There is no provision for repayment of any mortgage or other legal charge.

A joint beneficial owner in a property can apply to the court for an order for sale.

I would suggest you get some legal advice.

Deborah
(Non practising Solicitor)

Now I read this again I guess its not very clear

when we split (I was with her for 14 years and she left me for a friend of mine) my head wasn''t in the right place, I had just spent the last 2 years building the house and making it perfect, so I really didn''t want to sell it.

The big mistake we both made was to not get the property valued at the time

Because I think she felt a small about of guilt she let me stay in the house and she moved out!

I will try and explain this as clearly as I can :

the mortgage on the property is currently£160,000

my parents have got £59,000 worth of cash in the property

and I''ve got £30,000

When we split we felt the property was worth about £270,000 which would of meant that I would have to give her £40,000(the mortgage at that time was £130,000

Due to the fact that I had to re-mortgage on my own, I was only able to borrow and extra £30,000 which i gave her. bringing the mortgage up to what it is now. ie i was £10,000 short.

we agreed to get a document drawn up to say that she would get half anything above £250,000 when the house was sold.

What I didn''t think about at the time was the face that house prices going up so fast.
the house is now worth about £290,000, therefore if I sold it she would get £20,000

I know for a fact she is in financial trouble which is why she has told me that she wants £21,500 or she will force me to sell.

i hope that makes sense

I can see your difficulty and totally understand your intentions at the time the document was drawn up. The question now is how the document is interpreted. As the property sale price is going to be above 250,000, as indicated above I interpret it as sale price less costs of sale, so for example, sale price of 290,000 less costs of sale of estate agents and legal fees, just say 6,000 would leave 284,000 and 50/50 would be 142,000.

There is no provision to take account of a 50/50 share after deduction of 250,000.

You say the document was drawn up, who prepared the document for you?

I would strongly suggest you seek legal advice about the document and anything you can do and go from there.

Not really sure on this as I''m new to it all

So my situation is that their is £90k equity in the house , she will be happy with £20k all my savings .
Bargin you think hey , but I''m self employed and have the kids half the nights of the week . So I really don''t wanna give her all my safety net if you get me . She has a good job earning more than me and has a pension worth quite a lot , ive got none .
So what I''m gonna do is sit it out as lomy as possible with the hope of giving her £10k tops and not touching her pension .
My house is just in my name and I brought our old house to the marriage , she isn''t taking everything I can tell you that , funny thing is she had £30k in the bank when she left me . I''m sure it was her money to buy me out just like her friends have done .

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