Case study Have moved out of jointly owned house and I am now paying nothing

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gemma1

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Hello,
Need major advice on the above topic. Myself and my ex are now split up over 2 years. Have a mortgage. He is still living in the property. He has buried his head in the sand and refuses to negotiate with me/solicitor/etc with regard to sorting out this mess. It is in neg. equity but not sure what amount. I want this whole thing sorted out as I can't deal with the amount of stress over it. What is my next step. Mortgage with BOSI (Certus). I would like to try and sell the property and see would Certus do a deal with the shortfall. I would really appreciate some feedback. Thanks.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. Firstly we were never married or engaged. Had planned to but thankfully I seen the light, now just have to get this mess sorted. Mortgage with BOSI for 320k, I'd say 300k approx owed yet. My ex is paying interest only amount. There are 3k arrears. I have stopped paying anything towards it. He changed the locks on the property so I couldn't access it. I have a solicitor acting for me but as I said my ex will not respond to anything. Is court my next option? I would like to enforce a sale, try and get a half decent price and see would Certus cut a deal (as I am reading that they are trying to). I am afraid I will never have a mortgage again with this mess. I have tried for so long to get this process started but my ex will not engage. It seems so unfair he will not allow me to move on with my life and I really don't know why he is trying to hold this rope around my neck like this. Also I don't think the bank would allow him to take over this mortgage on his own.
 
Can anyone offer advice of how to get closure on a situation like this in the current climate, or is it a matter of grin and bear it and hopefully markets will change? How would family law look on this - how long to be living together so to be common-law spouse. My ex will not engage whatsoever to draw matters to a close, head buried in sand, hoping I will go away. Ex in the house. He has business interests and I'm sure he could take over the mortgage by himself if he really wanted to. How much would it cost me to get a court order to enforce the sale of the house? Please offer some advice as I'm sure many posters out there in same situation,
 
Hi gemma

I have combined a few of your posts from different threads and deleted some tangential replies to focus on the issue.

How much is the house worth?
Is it a cheap tracker?
When did you last contribute to the mortgage?
Are you under any pressure from anyone on this mortgage at the moment?

Your ideal outcome
Sell property for whatever price it gets.
BoSI agrees to write off the shortfall

or
Ex buys out your interest in the house for half the current mortgage

If Ex is not cooperating at all, then you won't be able to achieve either of these outcomes.

What if you do absolutely nothing?
You pay nothing towards the mortgage and forget about all this.
Over time, the property might go up in value and the negative equity would be eliminated.
You would retain ownership of the house so your ex would not be able to sell it without your agreement i.e. paying you half the equity.
You have the right to move back in at any time.

On the downside, you are still legally liable for the mortgage and if you ex abandons the house and mortgage, BoSI could come after you.

Your credit rating with the ICB is destroyed as you are not paying your mortgage and will remain destroyed while the mortgage is in arrears.

BoSI is probably happy as long as the interest is being paid on the mortgage
They would be prioritising dealing with the customers who are in arrears and who are paying less than the interest. You are probably not on their radar.

You could formally write to BoSI noting that you have left the house and would like to dispose of it in an orderly manner and come to an arrangement on the shortfall. If the joint owner does not cooperate, you could advise BoSI that you will consent to a repossession.

I don't think that they will repossess it, but if they do start the proceedings, it might force your ex to face up to his responsibilities.

The downside is that if they do repossess and sell, you and your ex will be jointly and severally liable for the shortfall. I would imagine that they will come after you for it as your ex will probably refuse to pay anything. If you have an income they will get a judgement against you and an instalment order.
 
I don't see you being able to resolve this without expensive court procedures. You will then end up with big legal costs and a shortfall.

For the moment all you can do, is to write regular official letters to him and to BoSI showing that you wish to resolve this matter. If there is a court case at some later stage e.g. when the house has recovered equity and he wants to sell it, your trail of correspondence will show that you acted responsibly and he acted irresponsibly.

Is bankruptcy in the UK an option?
If you go bankrupt in the UK, he will be left with the house and full responsibility for the mortgage. After a year, you will be free of him.

This is probably not an option if you are in a good job at the moment, but bear it in mind..

Does the Personal Insolvency Bill do anything for you?
I don't think it does. You can contribute to the mortgage if you wanted to, so BoSI would veto any Personal Insolvency Arrangement for you.

Could the Insolvency Bill be amended to help people in your situation?
It probably could have a provision in it allowing the joint owner of a house to force the sale of that house without the consent of the other joint owner if the bank agrees.

I think that people in your situation should get together and campaign for this.
 
Brendan thank you for taking to do out such detailed posts.

House is probably worth 210k. Ex is paying interest plus capital as Certus put on the pressure to get the arrears sorted out. No contact with ex. I would not be looking to go bankrupt in the Uk, have a good career here so that wouldn't be an option. Some others have said to me about leaving things be for the timebeing and that hopefully the time will come when it won't be in such negative equity and ex will have to sort something out. Ex loves the house and area so I know he will want to hold onto it. How would one enquire about getting the clause put into the Insolvency Bill for one owner to be allowed sell if bank allowed it.

Also I have wrote to BOSI several times, they followed up with some nasty enough phonecalls to me then. Don't want to know about the situation really.
 
The fact that your ex really wants to hold onto the house, improves your position.
The fact that he is paying more than the interest only improves your position, as he is gradually eating away at the negative equity.

You don't have to make any payments. You don't have to contribute to the negative equity. He will do all that to hang onto the house.

A fair resolution of this would be:
You have €45k to BoSI off the mortgage - your share of the €90k negative equity.
They put the balance of the mortgage in his name.
Your name comes off the deeds.

If he is not prepared to face up to it, then it saves you €45k although at a cost of long-term uncertainty and a poor credit record.

Your solicitor should write to him saying that you want to sell the house from time to time. So when the house is back in equity, he will want to start the process of taking you off the mortgage and you can then insist on a cash payment if you want to.

What is the interest rate? If it's a cheap tracker, then this would reduce the effective negative equity.

Brendan
 
Thanks Brendan for outlining the above as I am in a similar position with the exception that Ex does now want to buy house but wants me to pay the neg equity of my share to Ex directly. He is engaing with the banks to see if he can take on the house on his own. Good job so no issue there.

Neg equity circa 50k in total. Tracker on 280k now at ECB +
.75% with ICS.

How would a cheap tracker reduce the effective neg equity?

Many Thanks
 
Germma1 you actually have no real issue. Your ex does though. He is paying the mortgage, you mention he pays full amount, has good job and loves house and area. All good for you. Eventually he will have paid off the mortage and he's going to get a right shock when he discovers you may have a claim on it. It is he that needs to come to his senses. For whatever reason, probably due to the split, he doesn't want to engage with you. He's a idiot. Give him a few years of paying, a new wife and kids and he'll come around.

This obviously means you cannot purchase, but you can rent, you can save and when everything is sorted you can then buy if you want to.
 
Trudy78 said:
How would a cheap tracker reduce the effective neg equity?
Click to expand...

Not sure what your quesiton means.

To make matters simple and to sort this out for both of you I'd be agreeing to pay 25K in NE, but not directly to him. Only on condition your name comes off the deeds. Lucky you an ex who is trying to sort it out, come and meet him half way.
 
Split with ex - house jointly owned

Hi
Reading threads here similiar to my situation and need advise on what to do as sick of the stress.

Jointly own a house: Loan o/s €260k
Term : 29 years
Current M Value : €220k
Negative equity : €40k ( €20k each)
Tracker mortgage: repayments currently €928 pmth ( both paying €620 each towards mortage, life, house insurance on it)

I wrote to the bank asking for " debt forgiveness" if we sold for €220k would they write off €40k.
The answer - NO.
They said we would continue to owe €40k between us over 10 year term at current tracker rate : approx €200 each.

I dont want to take over the property in my own name as i have already gone to a different bank asking per say would i get a mortgage on my own if i didnt have this house & i would and the max being €200k i could borrow.

The current house is in a bad location and i want to buy a small house in my own name.

What to do?
Do i take on the €20k share of the negative equity and hope a bank lends to me with this noose around my neck?
Or
Do we rent the house " indefinitely" while we go our seperate ways and still pay €200 each per month (to bridge the gap in rental income and mortgage repayments).
Current rental for this house would be €850 pmth.
I am the one that will manage it, i will have have to deal with tenants etc as ex is useless!
Any help here would be appreciated .....
 
Can anyone offer any advice/positive feedback where they actually sorted a mess like the ones outlined above out? I am sick with the stress of all this. What can be done to make a non-coperating ex actually negotiate? How much would court fees be to enforce a sale on the property?
 
Bronte said:
Germma1 you actually have no real issue. Your ex does though. He is paying the mortgage, you mention he pays full amount, has good job and loves house and area. All good for you. Eventually he will have paid off the mortage and he's going to get a right shock when he discovers you may have a claim on it. It is he that needs to come to his senses. For whatever reason, probably due to the split, he doesn't want to engage with you. He's a idiot. Give him a few years of paying, a new wife and kids and he'll come around.

This obviously means you cannot purchase, but you can rent, you can save and when everything is sorted you can then buy if you want to.
Click to expand...

The issue is though that I want to move on in my life, situation cannot go on forever. Want to get married etc and this is hanging over me.
 
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