Unmarried, Tenants in common.

Not strictly a divorce question as I am unmarried!

I am tenants in common with my partner, the relationship has broken down and I am in a position to buy another property, hopefully as soon as possible.

My partner does not currently work, although she has said she wants to find employment, take over the mortgage and buy me out of the property, which I would of course happy with, but I would like to know where I stand if this does not go smoothly, which I suspect it may not.

I believe it is possible to force the sale of a property through the courts if the situation cannot be amicably resolved. Is this a lengthy and/or expensive process?

Can the fact that my partner is not employed, or that we have a 16 year old living at home be used to prevent this process?

There is currently around £140k equity in the property.

Thanks in advance.

>>Can the fact that my partner is not employed, or that we have a 16 year old living at home be used to prevent this process?

Yes. A court is unlikely to order the sale of the property while it is still needed as the home of a dependent child. That is not to say that you would be deprived of your share of the property but you may need to wait until the child is no longer dependent before you can get your share by forcing a sale.

4 months later and as I anticipated my ex partner now has no intention of finding a job for at least the next 2 years, until she finishes her 3rd post graduate degree! She expects me to continue paying the mortgage.
Is there no way to resolve this?
If it came to it could I buy her out and my daughter remains in the house? She would contest this as having the lump sum of equity would disqualify her from claiming benefits.

>>She expects me to continue paying the mortgage.

No. You are not married. Your only obligation is to pay child maintenance which is paid according to the government formula. She has the benefit of living in the house and you do not so in principle she should be paying the mortgage as equivalent to rent. She can, of course, use the child maintenance you pay her to pay the mortgage. Paying for a child's accommodation is child maintenance, after all. What you should NOT do is to pay her the child maintenance and then pay the mortgage separately. You should make sure that she understands that the child maintenance is to be used to pay the mortgage. The child is sixteen. It is not reasonable that you should be expected to fund your ex partner's lifestyle choice.

This would all be different if you were married but you are not so your obligations are limited.