I am owed money, can I put a charge on a property that has just sold?

[Tilly_O]

My husband and I lent our daughter and her then-boyfriend £3000 for legal fees and stamp duty when they bought their first home.

Due to their split they have now sold the house and we would like our money back. Our daughter has offered her half but her ex is refusing to co-operate or return our money (and being very rude about it!). A friend has suggested putting a 'charge' against the property but the sale completed yesterday. Can we now put a charge on the property? What else can we do?

My daughter has not yet agreed with their solicitor how the money is to be split as she wants to ensure we get our money back. We just don't know the best course of action as being nice just doesn't work!

Many thanks.

[Eve]

Was there any written agreement at the time about what would happen about paying back the money? Did the solicitors on the purchase query it in any way (money from a third party if you sent it in to the solicitors direct) and get any agreement down? Could be worth asking as solicitors are regulated as to due diligence in relation to the source of third party funds (anti money laundering etc...).

If not, it could be difficult getting the money back without his consent. If the property has sold then you cannot register a charge against it (registering a charge is not simple in itself with no consent or agreement or a Court Order) once it has changed names as the debt has nothing to do with the new owners.

The property now belongs to someone else and if their legal advisors did they job properly there will be a Land Registry priority on the property meaning that their purchase and any mortgage has priority for registration up to a certain time over any other applications against the property.

Your best bet at this stage is to try and get his consent. If not, would you have sufficient grounds to get a court order eg a written agreement or at least some kind of formal evidence of an agreement - verbal is hard to prove! Could you prove it was a loan rather than a gift - and to them both rather than just your daughter - and any terms of repayment agreed eg, if they split and the house was sold you would get your money back from them half each? Similarly, did they have any agreement as to what would happen?