Re:How to enforce a property transfer.

If you have a court sealed order of court either by consent or imposed as a judgment for one partie to transfer property to the other it can be enforced by court.

Firstly make sure the transfer should have taken place before you think about enforcing it and that the transfer is not dependent on any other parts of the order including the recital, the recital is the first part that starts with "AND UPON", if you are unsure ask a solicitor to check.

If the transfer should have taken place and there is no reason for the delay.

Write to the other side asking them to comply within 28 days or you will enforce the order, keep a copy of the letter and send it recorded delivery and check it was signed for with Royal Mail.

If no reply you need to compile some documents for court.

1, The TR1,this is the document that legally transfers title and ownership and can be found in the Wiki library along with a guide on how to complete it.

Once complete add a front page,

At the top a standard court header which you can copy from the Consent order you have, bellow the court header add "EXHIBIT" "This exhibit is marked "jb1" (use your initials so Joe Blogs would be "jb" and it is document number 1 thus "jb1") refereed too in the statement of (your name).

2, This is the document that sets out the order, what was to happen and when, more importantly what you have done to implement the order, include copy`s of all correspondence with the party failing to comply with the order.

Add the same front page as in "jb1" this one is of course "jb2".

3, Now a witness statement.

The front page is slightly different so standard court header then below instead of "EXHIBIT" you have;

"WITNESS STATEMENT OF (your name) MAKING APPLICATION FOR A DISTRICT JUDGE TO SIGN A TR1 TRANSFER FORM WHICH THE RESPONDENT HAS FAILED TO SIGN "

No need to mark this form (jb3)

Start with your name and address and give the background, so you have an order and your ex refuses to sign it, refer to jb2 showing your efforts to resolve the matter include all dates so the judge has a time line.

Then right;

Accordingly Mr Blogs has not agreed to sign the TR1 and therefore i make this application to the court pursuant to section 37 of the county courts act 1984 for an officer of the court (a District Judge) to execute the TR1 in place of the respondent so as to enable the transaction to continue and the TR1 to be registered at the land registry.

I therefore ask this Honorable Court to execute the TR1 in place of the respondent there being no reasonable justification of his failure to sign this.

STATEMENT OF TRUTH

I make this statement believing the contents to be true.

Sign and date.

lastly complete form D11 an on notice application which is in the wiki library and take it to court.

Unless the respondent can show the judge why the TR1 was not singed the judge will do it, or make him her sign it in court, if the respondent does not attend the judge will sign it.

Dukey,

Thank you for this advice but can you confirm the following;

1. is this for properties in the UK only.

2. if there is any litigation including the property, my understanding is that no sale or transfer can be made - is this correct?

3. with no date on the consent order how can this be implemented.

4. and with no current means or guidelines of repaying the share of the property to the party who transfers the property how can this be upheld? ie party A given property in consent order but party B doesn't receive money until another property is sold in a different country. ie judge recognised that ownership is 50/50.

Hopefully not confused you, hope you can shed some light!

Also dukey - what if the person who is to transfer the property has never received a copy of any Court Orders, sealed or otherwise. How do they know when they are to sign over the property or what conditions may or may not apply?

1. is this for properties in the UK only.

It is the process in England and Wales
and intended for property therein foreign property transfer is more complicated.


2. if there is any litigation including the property, my understanding is that no sale or transfer can be made - is this correct?

If there is an order by consent or an imposed judgment the order ends litigation or by consent there is no litigation, if by consent the order is ­base­d on the assumption of truth, if it turns out there is none disclosure for example the property is part of a trust the order would be ineffectual, it could not be implemented making it worthless, is there a particular scenario you are thinking of?.

3. with no date on the consent order how can this be implemented.

Dates are uncommon and often property transfers rely on other actions, a lump sum being payed for example or a child reaching a certain age or event, there is always a date or event to trigger sale though, 28 days 40 days post absolute are common or a child attaining the age of 18 or finishing full time education.

4. and with no current means or guidelines of repaying the share of the property to the party who transfers the property how can this be upheld? ie party A given property in consent order but party B doesn't receive money until another property is sold in a different country. ie judge recognised that ownership is 50/50.

Simple the transfer cannot be enforced until the other property is sold and partie B is payed simultaneously.

Also dukey - what if the person who is to transfer the property has never received a copy of any Court Orders, sealed or otherwise. How do they know when they are to sign over the property or what conditions may or may not apply?

This cannot happen.

If the order is by consent both must sign the order before a judge will seal it, so both have a draft before court and both are sent a sealed copy from the judge.

An imposed judgment only happens after a final hearing which both attend, again the judgment is sent to both by court after the hearing.

On vary rare occasions a final hearing can take place with only one litigant if the other has refused to attend all the way through the process, so it can be a person refuses to provide an address for the judgment to be sent by email or postally, if this does happen then in theory a judge could sign a TR1 though i doubt it would ever be the case that the respondent was unaware of what was happening.

Neither party attended court. My son enquired of his solicitor for any documentation relating to the final outcome as he did not appear to have any correspondence in his file relating to this. He does not know if he has a clean break or not.

His solicitor replied to him after about a month with the information that there appeared to be a copy of unsealed orders in his file, but no sealed orders. Her explanation was that the other side should have applied for the sealed orders.

She made no mention as to why my son did not have a copy of the unsealed orders.

He has recently changed his solicitor because of a variation of a residency order. She now has his file. She has asked him for the Transfer of House document (which he has not yet signed).

He awaits further information.

In that case no order exists, all they have is a draft order, for the order to be enforceable it needs to be signed by both and sent court to be sealed, then once they have the absolute the order is enforceable.