Selling a house after divorce, your 2026 guide

The consent order is enforceable. Your solicitor can apply to the Family Court under Part 33 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010 using Form D11. The court can order specific performance, authorise your solicitor to sign the contract and TR1 on the recalcitrant party's behalf under FPR 9.24, and make a costs order. Most applications settle at the first letter or first hearing.

The order itself is your authority to sell. You don't need to go back to court, as long as you both cooperate. Tell the other party in writing within the time your order sets out. Get three valuations from RICS-registered valuers, then instruct solicitors. If whoever is living there won't cooperate, you enforce the order under Part 33 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010.

If you still owned as joint tenants, the whole house passes to you as the survivor, whatever the consent order or the will says. That is the right of survivorship. It is why solicitors sever the joint tenancy early, using Form SEV and a Form A restriction at HM Land Registry. Severing is free and takes 2 to 6 weeks. If it was never done, get legal advice now. There may be other arguments open to you, but your position is much weaker.

For most people, no. Private Residence Relief under TCGA 1992 s.222 covers every year you lived there, plus the last 9 months you owned it. Transfers between you and your ex are also tax-free for three tax years after you separate, and for as long as it takes where a court order makes the transfer. You could face a bill if you moved out and were gone longer than that. An election under TCGA 1992 s.225B can protect you, so ask a tax adviser about your own dates before you sell.

You will if you still own a share of the old house at the end of the day you buy the new one. There are three ways round it. Sell the old house first. Or buy first, sell the old house within 36 months, and claim the extra back from HMRC within 12 months of that sale. Or use the divorce exemption in Schedule 4ZA paragraph 9A, which applies where a court order decides who keeps or buys what. Your solicitor has to claim it in writing, so ask which route they are using.

You can, but don't. Wyatt v Vince [2015] UKSC 14 confirmed there is no time limit on a financial claim after divorce. Your ex could come back years later, even once the house is sold and the money spent. Get a consent order or a clean-break order before you complete. If your ex won't cooperate, your solicitor can apply under Part 9 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010. At roughly £750 to £1,500, it is the cheapest protection in the whole sale.

Usually yes. Most consent orders have a fallback clause that kicks in automatically when a buyout fails on affordability. It gives the buyout a set window, often 30 to 90 days. Once that runs out, the clause to sell takes over. If your ex now won't engage, you enforce under Part 33 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010. The failed buyout itself counts against them in court.

It depends how much time you have. An estate agent usually gets you more on price. Ask yourself three things. How soon is the sale deadline in your order? What is the house costing you every month you keep it? And what happens to you if the sale falls through? If two of those point to a fast sale, take it. If not, use an agent. Agent fees, legal fees, months of mortgage interest and the risk of a collapse all narrow the gap, but it rarely closes altogether. We don't price from a percentage, so put our written offer next to an agent's valuation and see for yourself.

Most sales complete in 7 to 28 days from you accepting the offer. The fastest is 7 days, where the title is clean. If a Form A restriction, a Form II or Form K restriction, a unilateral notice or a registered charge sits on the title, add 5 to 10 working days while your solicitor gets the consents and discharges. Selling through an estate agent normally takes around five to six months.

The sale still goes ahead. A consent order binds your ex's estate, so the clause to sell survives their death. The executors have to agree to clear any charge on the house and to split the money the way the order says. Get a solicitor who does probate involved straight away. If the joint tenancy was never severed, the whole house passes to the survivor, and the shares set out in the order may not be enforceable against the estate.

Run six checks before you sign anything. Look the company up on Companies House and check it is active, files accounts and has real directors. Ask for proof of funds: a dated bank statement in the company's name, or their solicitor's undertaking. Check they really are listed with TPO and NAPB. Read their reviews, including the bad ones. Look at the footer of their website for a company number, registered office, ICO registration and complaints procedure. And use your own solicitor, never theirs.

Yes, always. You have the right to use any SRA-regulated solicitor you choose. The Law Society practice note and the SRA Standards and Regulations 2019 are clear that your solicitor works for you alone. A genuine buyer is happy with that. A buyer who pushes back is telling you something. We can cover your legal fees if you use our panel solicitor, but you are free to use your own and pay for them yourself.

• Selling a house during divorce, the during-proceedings sister guide
• Cash buyer vs estate agent, the net-after-costs comparison
• All the fast-sale routes compared
• Sell house fast Sheffield
• Sell house fast Doncaster
• Sell house fast Rotherham
• Sell house fast Barnsley
• Sell house fast Wakefield
• How the SYPB process works

This page is a general guide and not legal, tax or financial advice. Every divorce is different. Before making decisions about the matrimonial home post-decree, take advice from a Resolution-accredited family-law solicitor, a Chartered Tax Adviser, or the free services at Citizens Advice and MoneyHelper.

The lender will chase you both, because a joint mortgage makes each of you liable for the whole payment, not half of it. Missed payments show on both credit files, even if only one of you caused them. Tell the lender early and ask about a short-term arrangement. Ask your solicitor about having the missed payments taken off your ex's share when the house sells. If arrears are growing, selling sooner usually costs you less.

If the house is in both your names, yes, you both have to sign. We can speak to each of you separately and work through both solicitors, so you never have to sit in a room together. If the house is in your name only, you can sell on your own, but your ex may still have a financial claim, or a notice left on the title from before the divorce. Check that with a family solicitor first.

We don't work to a percentage. Every house is different, so we price yours on what it actually is and on what you tell us about it, then give you our best offer at that point. We don't open low and work our way up to get a deal over the line. The figure only moves if conveyancing turns up something material, such as a title defect or a structural problem, or if the house turns out to be different from how it was described. You are trading some money for speed and certainty, and we would rather say that plainly than dress it up. We put the offer in writing the same day and it stays open for 14 days, so you can take advice or compare it with an estate agent. If the agent route suits you better, take it.

Possibly, but the lender has to agree first. If the sale won't clear the mortgage, either someone covers the shortfall or the lender accepts less than it is owed, and that is their decision, not ours. We can still look at the property and give you a figure to take to the lender or your solicitor. Be wary of anyone who tells you this is simple, because it rarely is.

You can, if your lender will put the mortgage in your name alone. That means passing their affordability checks on one income, and plenty of people are turned down at this stage. Get a broker to check before you agree anything, so you aren't promising something you can't deliver. Most consent orders have a fallback built in: if the buyout fails, the house gets sold instead.

Not on your own, no. Once the divorce is final, a spouse who isn't on the deeds loses the automatic right to stay, but you still can't change the locks or force anyone out. It takes a court order, and your solicitor applies for it. In practice most people move once they see the order being enforced and understand that the costs may come out of their share.

Not always. Some couples agree to delay the sale until the children are older, and the court can put that in the order, usually with a trigger such as the youngest child turning 18. It keeps the home stable, but it also keeps the two of you financially tied together for years. A family solicitor can tell you if it fits your case. If your order already has a trigger, the sale happens when it fires.

We don't put a board up, list the house online, or send a stream of viewers round, so most of our sales are quiet ones. One visit from us is all we need. We can't promise nobody finds out, though. The sale price is recorded at the Land Registry and turns up on property websites later, and lenders, solicitors and the council all have to be told. If privacy matters to you, say so early and we will keep contact to whatever suits you.

Selling and clearing the joint mortgage usually helps, because lenders stop counting that debt against you. Any missed payments already on your credit file won't vanish when the house sells, and they can hold you back for a while. The sooner the arrears stop building, the better your position looks. A mortgage broker can pull your file and tell you honestly where you stand before you apply anywhere.

Some of it, but not the divorce parts. There is no such thing as a common law husband or wife in England and Wales, so what happens to the house comes down to whose name is on the deeds and what each of you put in. Disagreements are sorted out under different rules, usually through solicitors or the court. If you are joint owners and you both want to sell, the sale itself works the same way.

Yes, if you both own the house and you both agree to it. The money is the tricky part. Until the financial side is settled by a sealed order, it is often safer for the proceeds to be held by the solicitors rather than split there and then. Selling first and arguing later causes real problems. Our separate guide on selling during divorce goes through this in more detail.

No. We buy in any condition and we don't need you to decorate, fix anything or clear the place out. Leave behind whatever you don't want. Our offer already allows for the work the house needs, which is part of why it sits below the open market price. If the two of you are still arguing over furniture, that is for you and your solicitors, and it doesn't hold up the sale.