Can ex partner sell his house?

Dairylea

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Hi, can my ex sell his house? A bit of background...I am a qualified cohabitant for the cohabitant redress act. Currently waiting on solicitors appointment.

The house is his outright and has been our family home for 10 years. Mortgage recently cleared. He ended the relationship and has temporarily moved out. I remain with kids.

He is putting pressure on me to move out. I was homemaker while he was family earner so I have no income and all assets are in his name.

The cohabitation redress act has not been discussed between us yet. Mainly due to apprehension on how this news will be received by him. I’m trying to cover all scenarios once the discussion is had. I presume he will move back into the house. My question is...can he sell the house if he wanted?

Many thanks for any input.
 
Stay where you are.
Document all interactions and what is said.
Do not engage.
Get to see your Solicitor as soon as you can.

Thank you for the reply.
Yes I have documented the conversations. I’m waiting on legal aid which will be a further 5-7 weeks unfortunately.
I have suspicion that he does know about the redress act hence the rush to get us out of the house. It wasn’t the initial agreement when we split up but a week later it is the stance he is taking. I assume he got legal advice within that week maybe. He does have other properties and accommodation options. But he feels that I’d be entitled to rent allowance so I should take that. My issue among others is that it forces me onto benifits long term due to cost of rent and childcare.
 
"..he feels that I’d be entitled to rent allowance.."

Why are you listening to what he says? Is he your solicitor?

Don't engage, don't respond; don't let it take up head space. Get your appointment date confirmed, bring someone with you, take notes. You won't remember everything.
 
Stay in possession of the house, see a solicitor. I don’t agree you shouldn’t interact. Try to be civil and polite for your own sake and the children’s.
 
Advice was to not engage on discussion re moving out; not a suggestion to cease all communication.

When a father wants to remove his children from the only home they have with no idea about where or how they are going to live, be reared or educated civility is clearly not within the relationship.

It's time we stopped telling women to be 'polite'.
 
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Thirsty fair point. I was not telling the woman to be polite for politeness sake, just to be strategic.
 
Thank you for your advice guys. Yes going forward I don’t plan to engage verbally about the housing. Keeping to minimum contact but civil and polite in front of the kids. It’s a fine balance.
 
Am I right in saying that he plans to move you to one of his other properties so he can get you to claim rent allowance and either pay him that as rent or let you keep it as income ?
Edit: Oh on second glance probably not but please clarify.
 
They are people not pieces of furniture!

Bit harsh there Thirsty. It's only a figure of speech.

My reading of the situation is that he wants her and the children to move out to a rental property (not his) and off she goes and claims rent allowance.

He wants rid of her and he wants to keep all his property to himself.

What a selfish man he is. He's in for a rude awakening as she has rights to the family home especially as she has spent the last 10 years of her life being the home maker.

Dairylea.... don't move out. Get legal advice. Be civil, courteous etc. but be totally vague when/if discussing his big plans to 'move' you.
 
Yes just to clarify, he wants me to find a landlord who accepts rent allowance and for me and children to move out so that he can move back into the 4 bed house (family home).

I was not always homemaker. When we first met our net income was much the same and I contributed to the mortgage and bills. Last 4 years I have been homemaker due to children and practicalities. We would have been paying out too much for childcare and he traveled a lot for work so made sense that I became homemaker.
 
Also, and maybe it’s irrelevant but the split was his choice, quite out the blue. Although it seems like a vengeful move from him we were not on bad terms.
 
That’s tough Dairylea. It sounds like you have enough going on without loosing the stability of your home. Mind yourself. Find a good solicitor to shield you a bit.
 
If there is an asset and you are a co-habitee for the past 10 years, perhaps a private solicitor would take you on, in the expectation of getting funds from your ex, rather than waiting for legal aid?? It would probably mean a sale, but it might be a consideration???????
 
Thank you DeeKie. Thanks Ravima, as far as I understand the court would not order a sale of the house when it comes to a property adjustment order...I think...but could be wrong. I’m hoping to maintain the right to live in the property while the kids are young. They need the stability. The more I read the more concerned I am though. Would legal aid solicitors be less capable than a private one? A Guard has said this is the case!
 
You're in a tough situation Dairylea but don't feel rushed into making any decisions. I don't have experience of using legal aid (didn't qualify) but I never heard any comment that they would be inferior to a private solicitor. I would warn you that going the private route is expensive, very expensive if you end up having to go the whole way to court. Its nerve wrecking having to wait for a legal aid appointment, I know even in my own situation the waiting nearly killed me, you just want it done!

Two bits of advice I'd give you:

1. all of this takes an incredible amount of time, in my case more then 3 years. So as much as possible relax, live your day to day life and as others have said remain civil (even if you want to tear your hair or his out) and don't commit to anything with him.
2. Get a good support system, have the friend you can rant at but more importantly have a friend that is sensible and can see both sides - they'll be the one that keeps you grounded and reasonable when you have to deal with the ex. If you don't have someone like that consider a counselor/therapist. Best advice I was ever given was keep the emotional stuff away from your solicitor - they're there just for the legal stuff!

You will get through this.
 
Would legal aid solicitors be less capable than a private one? A Guard has said this is the case!

I would think that both would be the same. I was suggesting 'going private', that you might get advice earlier.

No need to post the answer to the next question. How much is house worth? If you have been the homemaker for the past 10 years and the main carer of the children, you would probably be in line for 50% if house was sold. Would you be able to buy somewhere else for that 50%? You are correct in that the courts will not force a sale that will make you homeless, but if you are in a home worth say €1M, then a court could order the sale as you would be able to buy another house for €500K.

Good luck!
 
Thank you Ravima, you have put my mind more at ease. No, a sale of the house would not be enough to buy another house outright if it was split 50/50. But if all assets were counted then the house is worth less than 50% of all assets combined. I’ve no idea if other assets are even a feature with cohabitant redress though.
 
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