Can son force his ex to sell?

My son and fiancée have broken up, no-one else involved. She would like to buy him out of the home with her parents help but parents have been unable to secure a mortgage in order to get my son off the current mortgage.

The split is very acrimonious; fiancée and her parents have told my son that they want him gone as quickly as possible (for as little as possible!)

Can my son force her to put the property up for sale as she isn't able to buy him out?

You don't say whether the house is in negative equity or not?
Does you son have interest in buying her out and would he be in a position to do so?
Did they have any sort of an agreement prior to buying in case something like this cropped up?
Your son would be best to engage a good solicitor.

The house isn't in negative equity. Mortgage is 100k - 2.5 years into 30 year term. My son isn't in a position to buy her out and would rather sell, draw a line and move on. No agreement put into place between them in case this happened. I have advised him to see a solicitor but he's young and ignoring me!

What might the house be worth?
Did he front up a deposit for the purchase of it.
They will need to look at current market value minus remainder of mortgage. Divide by two. They will also need to take into consideration other imputs like what deposit if they paid differetn amounts or start up costs in the house.
Have they made him an offer yet?

House is about worth 170k. Purchased a for 140k, house in a bad way at the time. Son put in 28k, fiancée put in 12k. Fiancée's father done considerable work to the house; rewiring, re-plastering, new driveway and purchased most of the white goods for the house. I feel that would make the contribution about equal.

Her parents have offered him 25k to walk away. He feels so guilty about the split and has said that he'd be happy to take that.

They have 5yrs left on their own home mortgage; house worth approx 200k and a seaside chalet too. They have the 25k to give him but I don't think that they'll be able to resolve the mortgage issue as they are both 55.

If he can get his name off the mortgage I'd be telling him to take the money and run.

The big problem I see is that he won't be able to get his name off the mortgage going by the first post.

Which leads to the last option .... sell ... and split the remaining (if any) proceeds between them.

His ex. can't afford the property on her own (even with parental support) so it will have to be sold.

He needs a solicitor now .... to protect his interests (even if you have to frog march him there).

OP, are you seeking advice on selling a house or simply out for blood. From reading the posts so far, i'd say the other side are being pretty fair. They could simply force the issue and demand the sale of the property; then have somebody place a crumby offer on the property.

Forget the emotionally involved bit and allow these young people to shake off the past and enjoy life.

House is worth 170k, so taking into account offer below asking, costs etc €50k between them profit Doesn't the €25k seem fair to you? Particularly considering the fathers labour?
A good solicitor is needed to draft up an agreement, but I concur that her, and her parents are being very fair.

Is there any other connection with the property, like on family land or beside another family member?

The fiancée and her parents do not want to sell, they want my son out of the deal asap. I'm not out for any blood (mercman).

I feel that the offer is fair and as I said in my 3rd post, I feel that the work done by the father equals out the extra amount paid by my son for the deposit.

Her parents want him to move out and they will assume his half of the mortgage and bills etc whilst they try to come up with a way to get him off the mortgage. He can move in with friends for minimal rent. I have advised him to move out but to continue paying his 1/2 of the mortgage and related charges.

On the surface her family appear to be nice but are being quite intimidating. My son is 23 and has limited family to turn to for advice, (me and his paternal grandmother). His part of the deposit was some of his inheritance from when his father was killed in a car accident. The rest as most can guess is gone. I am just afraid that he'll walk away from this relationship with nothing.

Perhaps the best idea , given the circumstances , is for your son to distance himself from this obviously difficult matter.

Employ & consult a solicitor & refer the fiancee's family to such solicitor , if it's a question of being equitable to both parties then this course of action should ensure fairness - perhaps this argument will convince your son to approach a solicitor ?

Selling the place might not happen quickly either. I would have thought, accepting their offer through a legal agreement via a solicitor would get him out of the situation quicker.

accepting their offer through a legal agreement via a solicitor

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Wouldn't get him off the hook of the mortgage though unfortunately and should he want to get finance or anything in the near future he may well be declined as 'on paper' he has a mortgage and could be deemed to be overstretched already.

I've suggested renting out the property, with any sum over and above the mortgage going into an a/c to be put off the mortgage as a lump sum. (Although I'm sure that would probably cause more issues than it would solve)