Can a child's father sell the house she is living in?

[jlroberts15]

My best friiend has a 4 year old child to her now ex. They were never married but lived together for nearly five years and split up a year ago and he moved out immediately because he was cheating on her with her other friend. He has done this a number of times and has also been a lousy dad to his daughter; hardly ever being there during the first 4 years of her life; he went to Chile for 6 months when she was first born, that is just on example. The house they lived in was paid for by a mortgage which has both their names on and they also borrowed �25,000 off his mum in a formal agreement that they would pay it back when they re-mortgaged. However he has never paid a penny towards the mortgage, the house or towards his daughter even since he has moved out he hasn't given her a penny instead he has threatened that if she demands money from him he will either stop working and/or he will stop paying his mum �200 a month back towards the money they owe her so she will then have to do that herself. The mum works herself part-time and earns about �1000 a month (she also has an autistic son that's to a different dad). The problem is though that he is threatening to sell the house and get whatever profit he can from it. Can he do this; does anyone know what the mother's rights are. Can she force him to take his name off the mortgage; these are just some of the questions she has been asking me. He also wants to sell the house so her can get a mortgage with his new girlfriend; can anyone help??

[lady_p_gold]

First of all tell her not to panic. I am not a lawyer but I am sure someone like Goldenshred will be along soon to give you better advice. Basically she needs to get some advice, and needs to find out if she is registered at the land registry. She needs to go along to the CAB or get an initial appointment with a lawyer who will advise her. If she has two young children and she has been covering the mortgage then she needs to try and buy him out, all of which can be explained to her.

[maxi29]

Tell her to get a lawyer quickly. I think that if it's a joint mortgage, he can't sell the house without her permission (and vice versa). I was in a similar situation with my ex: we had a joint mortgage but I paid all of it while she was at college. When she left me, she was still entitled to half the house as she was a signatory on the mortgage even though all she'd paid was half the deposit. My lawyer sorted out an amicable agreement and spared me much heartache: this really needs proper legal advice.