Joint ownership of House problem
Hi I'm wondering if anyone can help. This is quite a long and complicated story. I got divorced 3 years ago. I escaped an abusive relationship and with the help of family bought a house of my own for me and my 8yo son. My ex was living in our home which we own 50-50 which didn't have a mortgage. After about a year he moved in with his girlfriend and rented out our home to dodgy people through a dodgy estate agent. He didn't pay me any of the rent. I didn't chase after it as at that time I was happy to be free of him and he was in a really bad place mentally. Self inflicted I'm sure but stupidly I felt sorry for him. He ended up having to leave the country due to unpaid debts and mostly because he was awaiting criminal charges for crashing cars. After he left I was notified from the tax agency that they were going to auction off the house to resolve his debt (as it is now his only asset). Ex said he couldn't do anything. 🙄 in fear of losing the house, i gathered my savings and borrowed money to pay the €. When the dubious contract came to an end last October I managed to get in contact with the estate agent and said the tenants would need to move out, that we would have to sell the house. He said they couldn't move as they needed time to find another property and the had a child to consider. Of course at this point I knew there was a threat of them claiming squatters rights... and we all know what a costly pain that can be! So I said okay but we were not renewing the contract and they would need to pay me for the months they needed to stay in the interim. After a lot of chasing I finally got a 3 month payment in January and another in March. At this time they were still claiming they couldn't find anywhere to live. I thought enough is enough so I gave them notice that I would be starting a court process. They then said they would 100% be gone by 15th June. I lost communication. They owe more than €5000. I finally entered the house the following Saturday, having had to change the locks. I discovered they had robbed everything out of the house and had been using it as a cannabis farm causing a huge amount of damage. I have been to the guardia civil and have got a construction company in to price the repairs. Just awful! But on top of this, I have just received another notification from the tax agency saying they are going to embargo the house because of more of my ex's debt. My ex is not willing to do anything to prevent this from happening or to repair the house. I suspect that if he enters the country he will be arrested. BTW he also hasn't paid any child maintenance in the past 3 years. While I felt sorry for him for a long time, I'm now beyond his manipulation and have realised I need to make this situation as beneficial for me and my son as possible as I will secure his future with it while my ex will p1ss it against a wall. Can anyone advise?