QLD Ex threatening court order to evict me from our house

[jamie fraser]

My wife and I are currently living as seperated under the same roof for the last three months. We have a Qld high set house and I'm living downstairs in a self contained granny flat. So we dont actually see much of each other. We have three children who live upstairs in the main house.
Ive agreed to have the children every other weekend or more if convient.
I've also tried to get my wife to agree to either buying me out of the property or letting me buy her out. All of a sudden she is threatening to obtain a court order to force me out of the house. There has been no provocation on my part or threatening behaviour apart from calling her "nuts" on one text moment.
My question is can she do this? And on what grounds?

 

[sammy01]

Is your name on the title...Look even if it isn't the chances of a judge kicking you out are not great.... UNLESS - She gets an avo against you.... Don't doubt how easy they are to get... The fact that you've texted her and called her nuts is darn close to enough.... See calling someone nuts is 'harassment' Do not doubt that AVO's are very easy to get and once she applies for one she gets a shopping list of things she can restrict you from doing, stuff like going near the house, for example. So then yup, she will have kicked out out

 

[jamie fraser]

My name is on the title. Is there anything i can do (apart from watching what i text) in the meantime to prevent this happening ?

 

[sammy01]

ok so you said, you've agreed to have the kids alternate weekends, more if convenient. How much time do you want with kids? do you think 50/50 is achievable.

Look don't engage in conflict. Dont argue. Is it a done deal, as in no going back? mate divorce suxs... If it is salvageable work towards that... IF not then be very strategic.

Why not ask if she wants to sort mediation in order to get some professional assistance going forward. Relationships Australia can help and it is free, or very cheap, depending on your income...

Can you buy her out? can she buy you out? Do you think she has a good grasp of the reality here? my ex thought she could kick me out, get an avo, and stay living in the house, while I paid her child support and the mortgage, effectively leaving me with enough income to buy a tent to live in...

Your best bet is to be professional, play nice, don't get involved in arguments. But clearly, the current situiation cant continue

 

[Rod]

If she so much as hints at getting an AVO and you have a mortgage, then you simply tell her you'll stop paying it when you no longer live there. After all you'll need your money to rent elsewhere.

Might be time to move on with your life. When a wife starts threatening this way, and it is an escalation (ie not happened before) it is often a harbinger of worse to follow. Start saving your bikkies and get ready for the heave-o. Once your wife decides to make your life miserable, chances are she will be successful unless you couldn't care less about her or your kids. Start planning for the worse, and hope it doesn't happen. Start by checking out alternative emergency accommodation (friend, family etc). If an AVO does arrive you may be able to have it changed if the matters are not too serious so that you can continue to live in the granny flat but say keep more than 5 metres away from her. Dangerous though if she makes up stories in which case go straight to family court and sort out divorce, property and access time with kids. FYI, family court can override state based AVOs.

As for your questions, no she can't kick you out as a joint owner. As Sammy said her option is to fake an AVO excuse. Do not give her one to use against you. The law is stacked against you because other men have and continue to abuse their partners and because of this you will be deemed guilty until proven innocent. Sucks, buts that's modern life as an Aussie male.

 

[Rob Legat - SBPL]

In terms of what Rod said about not paying the mortgage, that can be more trouble than it's worth. Failing to pay the mortgage can see the bank chasing you personally for the debt, and the ruination of your credit file. Be very careful about going down that road.

 

[sammy01]

yup not paying the mortgage should be a last resort... If you're still living there then continue paying... Mate I wound up with an avo, child support and paying a mortgage on a house I could not go near due to the avo... And she would not even discuss letting me see the kids. That is when i stopped paying the mortgage and all of a sudden she was prepared to talk about child access etc.... But it is not a good idea to play that card too early in the game.

But Rod's suggestion to start planning for life away from wifey is a good idea. Mate I could see the writing on the wall, but refused to accept it. The result was just that I was even further behind the 8 ball than if I'd have just accepted it and moved on.

Is it worth suggesting to her that you sell the property and both go your separate ways once its sold?

 

[jamie fraser]

Ok thanks guys. The main reason im still here is a friend of mine in Sydney went throught the seperation thing last year. And was advised to seperate under the same roof as this would give him a better bargaining stance to get a share of his house.
At 47 all i want is a share of the house so i can put a deposit down on a new place.

 

[sammy01]

so give us some figures, how old are kids... incomes, how long you've been together? inheritence? anything... and we can give you a ballpark of what you're likely to see.

Mate the worst this is when one person gets greedy. My ex thought she should get 105% of assets... YEP 105%... in the end she got about 60% and we both spent about $20 000 on solicitors... if she wasn't so silly she would have gotten at least $30 000 more because it all could have been done lots cheaper.

 

[jamie fraser]

That's where it gets a bit more complicated. I have my own business which I started about 6 years ago, she is a 49% share holder in a Pty Ltd company and i'm the balance 51%. The business got into trouble two years ago, and I ran up some scary debts with banks loans, credit cards etc. About 12 months ago I took up advice from a friend of mine who is a very experienced business person. He's acted as a mentor, and we've pulled the business around from owing $175k to at this point about 75k and falling. Although my wife is a partner, she has little to do with the business and rightly blames the debt all on me. Hence the separation. She couldn't handle the fact I reduced my wages to nearly nothing and took on a second job to reduce the debt. The extra hours I worked (she works part time and refused to add any hours to her week) took its toll on the marriage.
The house is worth $550k, and the mortgage is $360K, savings are all gone, but there is no other credit card debts etc. apart from what is in the business.
The girls are 7,10 and 12.