Can I force a sale of our house?

Hi Everyone
I have recently separated from my wife of 8 years.
I am currently renting a studio flat while my wife is still living in our marital home with our 2 kids (3 & 7 yr olds).
We have quite a bit of joint debt (about £35k) which I am currently paying along with the mortgage and some of the bills.
Can I force a sale of the house? There is enough equity in the house to pay off all our debts. I have agreed in principle to pay rent on a place for my ex & kids, and even then I will have enough income to rent a house where I can bring my kids to stay over.
Also, and I realise this may be the wrong forum for this question so apologies if it is, do I have to pay for somewhere to live as well as child maintenance, or do i just have to pay child maintenance?
My number one priority is keeping the kids as stable as possible through all this so if I can find her somewhere to rent I am willing to pay the rent for her.
Any advice would be appreciated...

One of the problems with trying to force the sale of the FMH is that everyone is now trying to do that to pay off huge debts (and in divorce for both parties to be able to live some sort of reasonable life).

What saddens me is that we went straight from one type of lending i.e have as much as you want and everything will endlessly go up, to another which stated we are now responsible and therefore it is back to the old basics of 3 x income.

The result has been that the housing market has become very stagnant and no-one really can pay off debts or get out of debt (I suppose for the young generation the "good" thing is that they can''t get into housing debt).

Sorry, I am just feeling very depressed today looking at the huge financial mess society is in at the moment.

Talk to your wife (maybe you have already tried) and attempt to come up with a solution that will help you both.

In short the answer is no. the main factors are how old your kids are. as you have already left the FMH, was this your choice? I see your kids are important but so is them still lving in their home. i hope you get through this

There is another factor here in that generally if you have an existing mortgage it is a cheaper way to live (basically a rent to the bank rather than a rent to a landlord) than renting actually is.

Reduce the mortgage to interest only (if it isn''t already) and it is more cost effective than renting. I know that it doesn''t solve the problem of how to pay off the mortgage loan at the end of the mortgage term but I think approx 66% of all mortgages are now interest only so you are not going to be on your own (I am in the interest only gang as well and am supposed to be finding £176,000 in just over 4 years time - NO HOPE IN HELL of that!!!!!).

Yes, it was my decision to leave.
So if i cant force the sale, can i legally make the wife pay for half the debt..?

Well you haven''t posted up the actual financial amounts, what your income or hers is and the other relevent details although you mention that you have joint personal debt.

The thing that it is best to get your head round is that forcing someone or attempting to force someone to do something is not a good way to negotiate or get yourself out of trouble.

So many of us are now in the same boat regarding finances. In my case my husband has totally refused (so basically FORCED) me - he refused at the beginning of the divorce to allow me to market the FMH for sale, then he refused (SO FORCED) me to pay a mortgage that was capital and interest and was more than my monthly gross earnings (£1,400 pm) and then after 12 months finally agreed to reduce the joint mortgage to interest only, then refused (SO FORCED) to allow the mortgage term to be increased - as it is a joint mortgage loan and he has now taken off will all the repayment method and the bank are writing to me every month stating that they are going to reposses.

Just be careful what you do and what you attempt to negotiate.

Forcing anyone to try do sonething is never a good start. That is what happened to me and a good relationhip which could have been saved , turned nasty very quickly. Maybe you should try talk to your wife/ex wife , it is always a good starting point. Gaood luck