House sale

[Simon Harris]

Hi,

Within a DOT (Declaration of Trust) that is in place between my cousin and her ex there is a clause:

"It is agreed between the Legal Owner and the Contributor that either of them may at any time serve notice on the other requiring the Property to be sold and following service of such notice both parties shall co-operate in and take all steps to achieve a sale of the Property within a reasonable time".

My cousin is the 'contributor' and her ex is the 'legal owner'. She has written (an email and a letter) to her partner asking for the property to be sold, and he has promised to speak to the current tenant to start proceedings but to date hasn't done anything to start this process, and has equally not provided a signed copy of the DOT despite having this in his possession. My cousin has an unsigned copy of the DOT in an email from the solicitor that originally drew this up but it is not complete as at this stage it was not signed.

The 'delays' seems to be very much against the wording of the DOT (legally binding document) and I was wondering what actions my cousin could take to hold her ex to account given that this was 3 months ago?

On the same note what happens if this is still the same situation after let's say i.e. a year, what are the repercussions for her ex given that she has made the request and he is not responding?

Any help would be much appreciated.

[2222]

Most people would want to get to vacant possession before marketing the property. The tenant has a reasonable rights to notice, or indeed to stay until the end of the fixed term of the tenancy, if that is still applicable. Have you made enquiries what the position is with the tenant?

trying to market the property with the tenant in place will greatly limit the number of potential buyers. So, unless you are desperate to sell, I suggest you wait until the tenant has left.
Unless all of the paperwork was impeccable when the new tenancy was set up, it may .in fact not be possible to evict the tenant at all! So, perhaps a softly softly approach is the right one to take, gently easing the tenant out without fuss, And on a timescale that suits the tenant.

why do you need a copy of the executed DOT?

[Simon Harris]

Most people would want to get to vacant possession before marketing the property. The tenant has a reasonable rights to notice, or indeed to stay until the end of the fixed term of the tenancy, if that is still applicable. Have you made enquiries what the position is with the tenant?

trying to market the property with the tenant in place will greatly limit the number of potential buyers. So, unless you are desperate to sell, I suggest you wait until the tenant has left.
Unless all of the paperwork was impeccable when the new tenancy was set up, it may .in fact not be possible to evict the tenant at all! So, perhaps a softly softly approach is the right one to take, gently easing the tenant out without fuss, And on a timescale that suits the tenant.

why do you need a copy of the executed DOT?

Thanks for your comments but you seem to be missing the point.

The tenant is not the issue (SPT)

My question still stands re the delays progressing a reasonable request to my cousins ex to progress the sale and provide the signed DOT.

[2222]

Your cousin can bring a court case to force sale of the property. That answers your question, I hope. She might be better with a solicitor to handle that.

However, as I have tried to explain, she might have difficulty if there is objectively a good reason for the delay. I gave an example, as it would be hard to persuade a court to compel a sale with a sitting tenant. I note it's an STP, but were all the requirements met when the tenancy was set up? If not it may be very difficult/impossible to get the tenant out. It's a minefield being a landlord these days.

As part of those proceedings she can request a copy of the signed document. I see no reason why the ex- should supply her with a copy otherwise.

I am rabbiting on like this, because what most people do in these circumstances is discuss the issues with the other party, and I'm not getting the impression that there's been a lot of discussion.