Force Sale Order - associated questions

[SSTCS]

My boyf & his ex own a flat in joint names.
All money to purchase was put in by my boyf, the ex did not contribute anything.
They had a child, split up a year later, the ex decided to leave as she could not afford mortgage, and would get benefits etc if she left. She took all of her belongings, minus a few items (patio set, curtains) and left my boyf with not alot.
My boyf was left with all the joint debts, the ex very cleverly removed her name from all joint credit cards / banks etc shortly before leaving him. Debt built up of course, struggled to repay, had to get lodgers in and enter debt repayment plans. He never missed a mortgage payment.
The ex has never paid a penny towards running costs of the flat, ground rent etc, and left behind a £1,000 electric bill that she was supposed to pay and never did. my boyf paid of her car finance after she left, and entered a mutual cash arrangement to cover costs for their daughter. The ex decided she wanted more money and went to the CSA.
Due to issues around access to his daughter, he took ex to court, this is ongoing, moved the lodgers out and i moved in with my 2 kids in order to provide a stable family home for his daughter.
the ex kicked off straight away, has spent months demanding rent from me, telling him to move out and let her move in and he pays the mortgage still, wants him to sell etc.
She filed papers with the land registry to make them TIC, which makes no difference as they are £15K in negative equity on the flat, owe his mum £10K (legal documents signed by both agreeing to repay), so they owe a secured debt of £15K, unsecured £10K - plus if they sell, appx £5K solicitors, estate agent fees etc.
She demanded to be taken off the morgage - cause of course its that easy!!!
He applied for a transfer of equity and was declined. We applied in both names and were declined. Appealed on basis of no missed payments etc, declined.
Decided that in order to get her out of our lives in respect to where we live, put the flat up for sale.
It has been put up for £160K, as this is the only amount that will cover amount owed on mortgage & selling fees. Estate agents advised probably only get £15-20K less than that but are marketing at higher price.
Ex has now filed papers with court to force sale (its already up for sale?!)
She is demanding he drop the price by £20K - not going to happen.
Her witness statement presented to the court was full of bare faced lies, criminal allegations that are ridiculous etc. My boyf replied with a stamtent to the effect that he will not respond to her lies, not wasting his breath. Gave a true time line of events, proved that her so called evidence was doctored to only show what she wanted to show etc.
They are in court next week regarding the forced sale.
The order to force sale is not an issue, the flat is up for sale, he has accepted that he will lose every single penny he paid in, is still paying off re the debts for improvements, and mortgage payments etc.
I personally cant wait for the flat to sell so we can get out of here.


The ex is livid at the sales price, my boyf would be forced to go bankrupt if he dropped the price - which we think is what she wants, so the debt would be written off under his bankruptcy - she is getting very misinformed information from so called solicitor friends.


My question is - can a judge dictate the sales value?

thanks to anyone who can help

[boxtops]

What legal advice is your boyfriend getting? This is a very complex situation and he needs to be sure that he has a solicitor who is on the ball.

The solicitor would be able to advise whether a judge can force a sale at any price - but it would have to be on sound precedent, IMO. There are people on here with legal backgrounds who may be able to give better advice than I can.

[SSTCS]

Hi, sorry I have only just got back on here.
This went to court last week, judge has issued the order (reluctantly it seemed?) to force sale at a market price the estate agents recommended.
She tried to get the ex to go to a full hearing, to allow time to think, discuss etc, ex wasnt interested.
It was made clear that negative equity will force my boyf in to bankruptcy, the judge was very clear with the ex that she will be liable for 100% of the debt, the ex accepted that without the blink of an eye.
Judge advised that when there is an offer, to phone mortgage company and see if they accept the lower than owed offer. If they do not, they are to hand the keys back to the mortgage company and surrender possession. At this point my boyf would file for bankruptcy and the ex becomes 100% liable.

The judge & the ex are aware that if I leave the flat, boyf cant afford mortgage and they will be repossessed.

Situation is that I am now looking at rented houses to move out ASAP.
Boyf will be coming with me, but does he surrender possession now or does he wait until an offer is available?

In addition, we have had to give the ex a key. She is demanding that if the flat is not up to her standards of clean & tidy, lawn mowed etc she will take us to court and evict us?????

Biggest concern right now is why the hell is she so happy to take on all this debt?
What are we missing, she must have something up her sleeve but we cant see what?

My boyfs main concern is that there is an ongoing court case over access with his daughter, and we are both concerened that she will have some legal way of using this sale/ repossession / bankruptcy against him in their daughters court case.


Anyone who can offer some best step forward advice from here, I would greatly appreciate it

thanks