Title Deeds after Husband Abandons

DB13XB

Hi,

hoping someone might be able to advise me here as I seem to be getting really confusing opinions on my current predicament.

My husband left me over 20 years ago and he soon after stopped paying any maintenance to me and my remaining child at home. He has provided no monies towards the upkeep of the family home in this time. The mortgage on the family home was clear at the time he left.

We never got officially divorced and a few months ago out of the blue he sent word to me looking for a divorce and also asked that we arrange to get the deeds of the family home sent to his solicitor, so he could sign the house over to me fully once I had signed the divorce papers. The deeds are with the bank we used and I became deeply suspicious of his intentions to get his hands on them 20 years after leaving. I contacted the bank and warned them that they must not release the deeds without my prior consent (I was afraid he might try to forge my signature).

I still have my youngest child dwelling at the family home and am also now at an age where I need to downsize as the house is basically becoming very difficult to upkeep and needs significant work to modernize it. So, the question is am I going to run into difficulty removing my husband's name from these deeds now? As we are not officially divorced, is he going to be entitled to half the sale price? Does my remaining child have squatter's rights, as they have lived all their life at the family home? As an abandoned wife, do I have any rights to full ownership of the property after a certain period of time? Do I now also have to claim squatter's rights on my own property? I've got all these questions spinning around in my head now, so would appreciate any advice that someone in a similar situation may have experienced.

Thanks!

2012paddy2012

DB13XB wrote: »

Hi,

hoping someone might be able to advise me here as I seem to be getting really confusing opinions on my current predicament.

My husband left me over 20 years ago and he soon after stopped paying any maintenance to me and my remaining child at home. He has provided no monies towards the upkeep of the family home in this time. The mortgage on the family home was clear at the time he left.

We never got officially divorced and a few months ago out of the blue he sent word to me looking for a divorce and also asked that we arrange to get the deeds of the family home sent to his solicitor, so he could sign the house over to me fully once I had signed the divorce papers. The deeds are with the bank we used and I became deeply suspicious of his intentions to get his hands on them 20 years after leaving. I contacted the bank and warned them that they must not release the deeds without my prior consent (I was afraid he might try to forge my signature).

I still have my youngest child dwelling at the family home and am also now at an age where I need to downsize as the house is basically becoming very difficult to upkeep and needs significant work to modernize it. So, the question is am I going to run into difficulty removing my husband's name from these deeds now? As we are not officially divorced, is he going to be entitled to half the sale price? Does my remaining child have squatter's rights, as they have lived all their life at the family home? As an abandoned wife, do I have any rights to full ownership of the property after a certain period of time? Do I now also have to claim squatter's rights on my own property? I've got all these questions spinning around in my head now, so would appreciate any advice that someone in a similar situation may have experienced.

Thanks!

Go to citizens advice . its too complicated to get definitive advice. Best of luck

SVI40

Hi,

Sorry to hear of your situation. One thing to note, there is nothing in Irish law that states a spouse or partner is entitled to 50% of the assets. The courts may take into consideration the input of both parties in contribution to the cost of owning the home / assets, and divide accordingly.

As far as I know, you will need the courts to have his name removed from the deeds of the house.

You need to get advice from a solicitor who is familiar with family law, and do it soon.

Best of luck!

Payton

You have to go to the bank together or separately with photo ID, in my case it was 2 forms of ID...which is scanned and put on file before the deeds are released. His solicitor will need to contact the bank so they can forward them on.
As said you need a good family law solicitor to advise you of where you stand.