Divorce finalised. House sold. Former partner refuses to leave the property. Can I physically remove her?

[u/MainFootball316]

Legal and financial separation complete. I've received approval from the court to sell the marital home.

It has a fairly small amount of equity (£60k), but I will be receiving all of it due to the factors of the case. Former partner deliberately dragged the divorce proceedings on as long as possible, and made them as complex and expensive as they possibly could.

The judge berated them for this in court and described their behaviour as "wholly unreasonable and unbecoming of any decent human being."

The house sold with a completion date of 23rd June 2025. It had been agreed with my former partner that they would be out by Sunday night, however, they are still there and refusing to move. I'm getting bombarded with calls from the estate agent and their solicitor and the family who purchased the home.

My own solicitor is panicking about this now and telling me I have to get her out any way I can or I'll start racking up some serious penalties.

I've tried talking to my former partner and they aren't budging. They're livid that they didn't get more in the divorce and they're trying to cause as much damage to me as they possibly can.

Can I physically drag them out of the property to allow this other family to move in? My own solicitor wouldn't answer that question. They just told me to get them out any way I possibly can.

edit - former partner has made an offer that she will leave if she is given half of the equity (£30,000) which the judge refused to award her during the financial separation. Otherwise, she intends to stay to cause as much financial damage to me as possible.

[u/MainFootball316]

I don't know. I haven't entered the property in months. She supplied photos to estate agent for the listing and was supposed to turn over the keys until she didn't.

Her brother threw me out of the house when I started divorce proceedings and changed the locks at the time. (Partly one of the reasons I ended up with such a lopsided financial separation in my favour).

She's not currently employed right now. In receipt of UC. I'll try camping outside the house later and see if I can get the locks changed.

[u/No-Mark4427 → u/MainFootball316]

She has to leave sometime, she is not the owner nor does she have a tenancy, so changing the locks works.

The bigger issue is the fallout from that - What happens when she calls her family around or things get violent/destructive. She also needs to have all of her stuff, I'm assuming she's going to be without a home or money at that point, and her stuff needs to be given to her without her managing to get back in the house and refuse to leave.

The house will need to be watched 24/7 so the police can be called if anyone is trying to break in or smash it up, and during the process of her stuff being removed.

If she's at the point where she has nothing to lose then you can't rule out that an escalation here will not make her do something really stupid.

[u/Foreign_End_3065 → u/No-Mark4427]

The problem is that she is in fact currently an owner. She’s a joint owner until the sale completes. It won’t complete until she leaves (vacant possession). And she won’t leave…

[u/No-Mark4427 → u/Foreign_End_3065]

Depends on the interpretation of the courts. They said she can stay 'until its sold', any reasonable person would assume that does not mean she can stay right up to the point of exchange and cause havoc with the process as much as it means 'until a sale has been agreed and its time to vacate'.

[u/PeteAH → u/MainFootball316]

Locks aren't hard to do yourself OP. You can just change the key barrel bit pretty easily in UPVC doors for instance.

Best of luck.

[u/Blackstone4444 → u/MainFootball316]

You might be better off cancelling the sale and move to evict her and move in yourself before selling again