House Sale woes

Now coming to end of year 4 in this whole divorce and settlement process

Wife filed for divorce and forced me to leave the former family home end of 2020 and has continued to live there with two dependants.
Both dependants now way over 18
Consent order signed by court in June ordering
75/25 split of proceeds in wife’s favour
House to be marketed immediately.
House got a quick, good first time buyer offer.
Wife is still in occupation and is claiming that she can’t find any other place to move to with the money she has available to her and will only let the sale proceed when she can find a new home with the funds she has.
I’m conscious that this could take forever and blocks my ability to re house and settle my big legal loans.

Now there’s another twist.

The mortgage term expired 10 months ago. Whilst the lender has been very fair and understanding of the difficult situation, they have said that at the end of this year they will begin collection proceedings.

This scares me senseless as losing the house would be catastrophic for all parties

Anyone else experienced similar? What was the outcome? What did you do? Do I have to refer back to court? That could take months and I’m conscious that the lender may not wait.

How do I go about allowing the sale of the house to proceed in order to pay off the lender before year end?

The Court order states “house to be marketed for sale immediately” dated mid June. But doesn’t mention anything about the sale process. In effect i guess my wife could claim that she has complied as the house is up for sale.

Any advice tips or info much appreciated



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2024 02:35PM by LtBak6980318.

>>The Court order states “house to be marketed for sale immediately” dated mid June.

Are you absolutely sure that is all the order says? I ask because the whole point about court orders is that they are intended to be enforced if necessary. That is why they always (or should always) have firm timescales. For instance, in the circumstances you mention the order would usually say,'The (property) shall be sold forthwith'. There may then be other subsidiary clauses dealing with marketing, conveyancing, estate agents etc but the operative part is expressed to be 'forthwith' (in the above example). It is unlikely (though not impossible) that a judge would approve any order without a specific timetable to make it enforceable. Judges are usually very mindful of this (as should any competent lawyer involved in drawing up the order).

If this is what the order says then you can take the matter back before the court for enforcement. If it really does not have an enforceable date the order should still contain a clause which contains the words, 'liberty to apply'. These words mean that either party can bring the matter back before the court if there is an issue about its implementation which needs to be resolved.

If you have evidence from an estate agent that the offer is reasonable and that it cannot reasonably be improved upon within a short timescale then your wife has no argument. Incidentally, you refer to your 'wife' rather than 'ex wife'. This may be a slip but if it is the case that decree absolute has still not been granted you should be aware that this type of financial order cannot be enforced until decree absolute has been granted.