Welcome to the trust deed forum Nettie.

What a horrible and worrying situation to find yourself in.

Is there any written record of your agreement with your ex or was it verbal?

I'm presuming there wasn't a formal legal transfer of the house into your name only?

Also - how much equity do you think there is in the home at the moment?

I have solicitors letters of him saying the house if I don’t go after pension etc. The fact he has clearly spent over £40,000 in a few months (left army in March this trust deed started aug) would suggest he can’t offer anything else in settlement. I pay the mortgage but can’t get mortgage in my sole name . No formal legal transfer of his share for this reason.

The letter I received states approx 42.000

Hi Nettie,

Thanks for sharing this information.

I think it's important to be clear with you that this is a pretty serious issue as his trustee has a responsibility to address significant assets that he legally owns. If there's been no legal transfer then it seems almost certain that he legally remains the joint owner of your house. I'm sorry that I cannot say otherwise.

You should quickly get legal advice to help protect your position. If paying for a solicitor isn't affordable then you may well have access to a local free law centre who can help you instead. This should be the first thing that you do. The solicitor letters you mention may be of interest to a legal adviser.

You might also want to get advice about how to secure child maintenance from your ex. If your legal advice is that the trustee does have a claim on your ex's share of the equity in the house, then you might be able to offer his trustee these monthly maintenance payment towards his equity. Essentially, funding his equity using his maintenance payment to you.

Thank you. What actually can they do as I don’t want to sell and I’m not wanting to buy his share. As I believe I am entitled to all his equity. Surely I should have been informed of this before it was agreed back in aug. I have only just found out about it .
He has defaulted on his Child maintenance agreement also.

Nobody will want this to happen, and it would only happen as an absolute last resort if nothing else could be arranged, but the trustee (if they have a legitimate claim) could eventually be able to force a sale of the property.

That's why the focus at the moment should be on legal advice to see what can be done to protect your interests and/or to minimise your financial exposure.

Unfortunately an ex can proceed with a personal insolvency process without informing their former partner.

Sadly this scenario has arisen on the forum a number of times over the years and it always seems so incredibly unfair. For any other joint homeowners reading this thread that might separate in the future, it's important to legally action any agreed transfer of property interests at the earliest possible stage.

Ok so take me to court, Even with children in the home. What a lovely situation to be put in through no fault of my own. Thank you for your advice

No problem Nettie and I'm sorry that I couldn't answer in a way that's more reassuring.

Hopefully a legal adviser will be able to spot opportunities to contest this situation with his trustee.

You may want to check back on this thread as well. Kevin or Paul (when they next visit) may be able to share further information that's useful to you as you go about dealing with this.

Hi Nettie. I'm really sorry that you find yourself in this situation through no fault of your own.

It is quite complicated and the worst-case scenario would obviously be a really harsh outcome - the trustee forcing a sale of your home through the courts. However, it is by no means certain that it will ever come to this. For starters, this is the last thing that the trustee will want to do and they will no doubt be open to any arrangement that can be offered to avoid this.

Secondly, even if it did eventually come down to the trustee taking legal action to sell the house it is not a given that the court will allow them to. You have rights and a Sheriff is bound to consider the effect on you and your children of a forced sale. They may decide that the house cannot be sold until some time further down the line, or even not at all. If it gets to the stage of legal action then you should definitely get some legal advice and representation if at all possible to argue your case. How old are your children, Nettie? And how old is your husband? I am just wondering how long before he might be able to access money from his military pension.

All of the uncertainty and cost of legal action is another reason why the trustee will not be keen on going down that route and would probably settle for a much lower amount than they initially state.

Is the £42000 the full amount of the equity or just his half share? Does this figure seem right to you?

In respect of him not paying maintenance, have you considered getting in touch with the Child Maintenance Service?

Hi Nettie,

You must try and find some time to reach out for legal advice regarding your position and how to do the best for you and your kids.

Have a look online to see if you have any local law clinics or advice agencies and get in touch with them. You should be able to fall them an email and they will get back to you.

Also keep communication open with the Trustee as they will want to find a solution that hopefully works for everyone.

I'd also consider speaking with the CMS like Kevin has suggested as you and the kids may be entitled to financial support.

Thanks Kevin.
He already has access to his military pension which should be approx £900 pm. He also received a substantial lump sum just before entering this trust deed. Set up a business the year before but did not start trading until a month after the trust deed.

The 42,000 is the full equity and would seem it is correct when I got a house valuation 3 years ago. Eldest child in higher education and the youngest is 15.
I contacted CMS and found them not very helpful.

OK, so it is only his half share of that £42,000 that they will be looking to gather in. I am sure they would be open to offers well below £21,000 though, given the high costs that they would incur if they did go down the route of trying to force a sale instead.

Thanks Kevin. They have emailed me asking for me to prove that I have the majorlity of household costs ie I pay the mortgage in fulll as my ex defaulted. We had agreed he would pay mortgage in lieu of child support.
His trustee also want any correspondence I have of mutual agreements, and also for me to provide information of my ex’:a other assets. He set up a business the year before trust deed but did not start trading until a few weeks after the trust deed was in place. I found all this out via social media so I’m sure his trustees could do the same. It feels like they want me to make their life easy and cheaper by providing all this information.
I didn’t sign up to anything so unsure why I need to share my financial information with them

Hi Nettie,

You make a very fair point about providing personal financial information to a firm that you have no personal relationship with.

However, from the questions they're asking about household costs and mutual agreements it seems like they're trying to make a fair assessment of the situation that could help things to work out in your favour.

It also sounds like they might be a little sceptical about the asset information that your ex has provided to them.

Hi Nettie

Just wondering if you got anywhere with this and what the outcome was?

If no further forward, you mentioned about a lawyer's letter. Was that a registered Minute of Agreement? If so, that would make your case much stronger that your ex (and therefore the Trustee) does not have a legitimate claim to the equity.

Theoretically a Minute of Agreement could be overruled by the court (as the transfer of title to the property had not taken place), so it is by no means a cast iron guarantee, but the Trustee would have a real fight on their hands if it is registered and it would certainly put you in a much stronger negotiating position.