# Joint Mortgage with Ex



## Curragh (28 May 2011)

Few years ago I bought a house for €230k jointly with my girlfriend plus a joint finance company loan DD every month. 

We have since split and Im having bother as regards her side of repayments, we agreed at the time that she would remain in house and pay her part and Iwould pay my part out of the joint account and she would also pay rent but this is now not happening as was originally verbally agreed. 

When we were together she always had access to on-line banking and this remained the case to this day she also gets the statements to our house. 

As of the past five months or so I've being getting calls from the financial institution as regards a few un paids on the home loan and a few calls from GE as regards the home improvements loan. I asked them to send out some statements to me and noted a few on line withdrawals. 

€200 approx covered my half of all dds on account per week but after speaking with the lenders my ex partner has being taking the monies Ive being putting into account as well as not paying her part of the loans and when DDs are looked for there is no monies to meet them . 

She has being attempting on occasion to pay but doesn't appear to be lodging on time but other months she seems to neglect making lodgements but waits till my standing order goes in and withdraws that. 

This girl has since married. 

I want to know where legally i stand. She has put the joint account in overdrawn for months on end and I believed everything had being up to date. 

When i got the first few calls from the home improvements lender I contacted her and she fobbed me off saying something like her wages didn't go through and she said she was sorting it. 

I want to move on and try to get rid of this huge burden, I have and will always pay my debts and on time, she is bringing my credit rating down and Im at my wits end. 

Have i any options as regards possibly forcing its sale even though its in negative equity or have i any options at all. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated?


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## iscritto (28 May 2011)

Fews things you can do :

1. Hand the house back to the lender - both of you will be responsible for the shortfall.
2. Can your ex take over the house in full - remove your name from mortgage and title - in other words she buys you out or vise versa if she does not live there or willing to move out. 


In the short term - close the joint account - pay your half directly to the lenders. Make sure you tell them whats happened. However it won't stop your credit rating getting effected if she does not pay her part.


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## Curragh (28 May 2011)

Hey iscritto, 
1 is possibly the only option but the lender will not close the joint account as the mortgage is linked to it and the shortfall is drawn from it, so still im tied to her and her financial problems, 
the lenders will not accept money paid directly to them unless full amount is paid so without her amount im shafted
The bank will not allow her to take over the mortgage as its considered a refinance and they would not give her the amount required even before she started having financial problems even though she is married, similarly i attempted to take it over but could not as it is in negative equity
I have been in contact with the lenders but all they really care about is recieving their payments, they werent willing to advise any alternatives and when i requested to speak to the legal team they wouldnt allow it


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## iscritto (29 May 2011)

The lender will not be helpful when it comes to handing back the keys as even if you have to pay the short fall they will be at a lost. It might be a good idea to talk to an independent legal person. 

As far as not accepting payments if less than the full amount - this is mad. Surely the bank would be better of getting some payments each month.
If you want to keep the house - there is a new code of conduct that the banks will have to comply with from July (not sure if start of end of month).
Its worth a read as it gives some guidelines on what banks have to do for people in arrears. I will post the link later as the site seems to be down now.


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## Greta (29 May 2011)

Get good legal advice ASAP, to see if you have any options to prevent your ex stealing your money, as this is what she is doing, other than to hand back the keys to the bank, to stop paying anything towards the mortgage and to demand that the bank repossess the house as soon as possible.

Yes, that would leave you with negative equity to repay but at least this situation won't get any worse after that. As it is now, the worse-case scenario looks like your ex living in the house for several years, not paying anything and stealing your payments before they reach the bank, the unpaind interest, the arrears and charges building up... Eventually the bank will repossess and chase you for a much larger shortfall than it is now, while you will have wasted several years and a lot of money providing free accommodation for your ex!


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## Curragh (29 May 2011)

Gretta, Thanks a mill for the advice, and i reckon yes i will have to just make get some legal advice and see what they say about the situation... as i would imagine she and her husband would possibly have some rights as theyve had this accommodation for a good wee while....

Its a messy situation, i wish i could get it sorted but seems like ill have to suffer the consequences of my own doing


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## Bronte (31 May 2011)

You should not pay any money into an account that she can and has withdrawn from.  Talk to your bank and come to a new arrangement on that.

You are both liable for the loan, it's not a half loan each.  So you need to hire a solicitor, there is no two ways about this.  Remember the bank does not care who is paying it back, and if you're the one with the good job it will be you they come after.  You need to sort it out before it gets that far.  That will probably mean forcing a sale of the property and one or both of you paying for the negative equity out of savings.


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## Curragh (2 Jun 2011)

contacted bank and was told cannot remove her acess to 24hr banking without her consent and mine... very unhelpful.. all i need is a block put on the account to debits is this not possible... 

contacted sol and if i go for a sale aparently in order to sell the property it wud prob sell at 130k leaving the negative equity 100k approx serious money and i def wouldnt be able to come up with it by myself... 


im in bother everywhere i look


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## Bronte (6 Jun 2011)

Curragh said:


> contacted bank and was told cannot remove her acess to 24hr banking without her consent and mine... very unhelpful.. all i need is a block put on the account to debits is this not possible...


 
Did you ask the bank could you pay the mortgage directly and not use this account?


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## Curragh (6 Jun 2011)

aparently this is the account both of us signed a dd mandate for and so this is where the FULL DD must come out of every month as per agreed when signed....


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## niceoneted (6 Jun 2011)

I would go to the bank in person. Speak to someone as high up as you can. Bring a copy of your bank account and show them how you have ensured the money is in the account and where she is taking it out. Inform them that you want to pay the mortgage directly to them from another account or you will cease putting money into the joint account. 
Have a copy of this in writing and present it to them. It shows you are attempting to pay your mortgage and they are not helping you to do so because of some red tape.


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## Curragh (20 Jun 2011)

ok.... im no better off with all suggestions. given to me even tho i appreciate greatly all ye're help has anyone heard of property abandonment and how said would work... im sick of paying for this property, i no longer want anything to do with it and am seriously considering letting her have the property... if i was happy to let it go along with all the payments ive made and along with all the contents ive bought and if she was willing to take the property from me how would this work... she would be happy to take it off my hands i think!!! and if she did and she paid the mortgage up to date could i make something legal whereby in a year or so she could apply for prop abandoment saying ive not paid as of now would this work????


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## partnership (20 Jun 2011)

I would go to a soliciter and look for some sort of order against her forcing a sale of the house.  If she is not paying then it would be hard for her to win.  If nothing else it would force her to do something.  As long as you are paying she can happily live in house rent free.


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## Bronte (22 Jun 2011)

Curragh said:


> contacted bank and was told cannot remove her acess to 24hr banking without her consent and mine... very unhelpful.. all i need is a block put on the account to debits is this not possible...


 
But that is not what you need to do. You need the bank to allow you make mortgage payments but not from the account that you hold jointly with your ex. Did you ask for this? In writing? Also don't understand why a bank will not send statements to both parties where they have split up. Can you log on to on line banking yourself. 

Have you asked her if she and her husband would be willing to take over the house?  Can they afford to?


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