Courts | New owners can’t evict seller’s wife, TUI rules

A long court battle, triggered by a man who sold a residential unit without the consent of his ex-­wife, has now reached a final resolution in the Court of Final Appeal (TUI).
The decision comes after an appeal was lodged by the apartment’s new owners to get an eviction notice for the ex-owner’s ex-wife, who, in their view, was occupying the apartment illegally.
The collective of judges presiding over the case in the Court of Second Instance (TSI) decided that the central point of the case involved determining whether the defendant continues to enjoy legal guarantees, under which she is able to occupy the unit as the dispute unfolds, even though she does not have the exclusive ownership rights over the apartment.
Facing these facts, the TUI discovered that, at the time of the sale (in December 2012), the woman was still married to the man who sold the house, which was owned by a company for which she was a stakeholder.
Since the couple’s matrimonial contract means joint ownership of all goods, it was ruled that the woman enjoys an effective right to half of her ex-husband’s shares in the company. This, according to the decision made by the TUI, grants her the right to continue to live in the residential unit, dismissing the charges tabled against her.
The story goes back to 1993, when a company for which the man was a stakeholder bought the residential unit. The man, his wife and son lived in it for four years up until 2010, when the same man left that house. However, the wife and son continued to live in the apartment until the company (in September 2012) decided to sell the house.
The new owners tried several times to evict the man’s ex-wife and son by filing a complaint to the Judiciary Police, which caused the Public Prosecutors Office to accuse the woman of usurpation, accusing her of staying illegally in a home that they own. RM