force of sale

[kwalker5]

how much does it cost to force the sale of a house?

[Eve]

Difficult to estimate as there is no knowing how much works needs to be done.

In order to force your former partner to sell the property they would need to apply to court for an �order for sale� which involves serving your former partner with notice that they intend to apply for a court order and giving him time to file a defence.

Should he object to the order for sale the matter would have to proceed to a County Court hearing at which point the court will decide whether to order the property to be sold.

Usually, fees for applying for a court order and completing the sale will be charged on an hourly basis. The solicitor you use should advise you of who is going to do the work and their hourly rate and an estimate of how many hours they estimate it would take.

If it changes then they have to advise you if the bill is likely to rise.

A very rough estimate of the approximate amount of fees should this matter go to a final County Court hearing could be around �5000.

It would be likely that you would have to give some fees up front on account and as the case and proceedings progress you may be required to provide further funds on account of costs.

Make sure any solicitor you speak to gives you a full breakdown of likely fee sand costs and includes any forseeable charges like copies of the title register and court fees.

It does depend on the amount of advice that you need.

Courts are very good at helping litigants in person (people doing their own applications without using a solicitor but they can have someone with them helping them out) and you can get some advice from the courts (assistance rather than legal advice) and Citizen's Advice Bureau.

Litigants in person...

http://www.elc.org.uk/pages/lawlips.htm

14:30 Thu 17th Jul 2008

[Eve]

Community Legal Service

http://www.clsdirect.org.uk/

Hope this helps!