Husband wants to leave country leaving me with big mortgage

L

LMCD

Registered User
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Hi all

I find myself in an awful personal mess, and am worried about the financial implications. Long story short, my husband, a non EU national, has decided he wants to leave me and our little boy and go back to his home country. Problem is, apart from breaking up our family, he will have little or no income there ( very poor country) and so will not be able to make maintenance payments for my son or pay his half of the mortgage. The mortgage was increased by €50k last year to enable him to start up his business, which since failed. We are both contributing the same amount to the mortgage at the moment. We are both working and my son is in a creche. I am very upset about all this, as there is no way I can repay the mortgage on my own, especially as almost a third of it relates to his own business mistakes. I am afraid I will lose my home and i need to provide for my son. The mortgage is in our joint names. Does anyone have any legal advice as to what I can do to protect me and my little boy? Is there anything I can do to force him to continue paying his share and mainteneace, if he does leave? I know he has a property in his home country, but it is not in his name yet,and his mother and brother and nephews live there too.
 
"Get proper legal advice is the best advice I can give."

+ 1.

You cannot stop him going.

If he is a non-EU national, even if you were able to get some form of legal separation, you may find that you cannot enforce it.

You might have to consider selling the property, now, if that is possible, and he will agree to it and sign the necessary contracts/forms/declaration so that at least you do not have to pay the mortgage. It may be that you will have to consider renting or moving in with family, if push comes to shove.

My experience is that if someone is resistant to their obligations, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to compel them to accept those obligations. Harsh but true.

mf
 
Equity? No one can know for sure. No houses have sold in our area at all for months. It was valued at €325k over a year ago, mortgage is currently €220k, but if houses are not selling, its not worth anything
 
If I could sell the property, it wouldn't be a problem, no one is buying at the moment so am stuck with it
 
Put the house on the market.

Even if you only come out with 12 month rent in bank , you are in a far better position than you are now.

If it doesn't sell there is nothing lost.
 
My next door neighbours had their's on the market for €228k, and it didn't sell. I can't sell for less, or I won't be able to clear mortgage and legal fees for selling. Much as I appreciate the advice so far, as I said already, I am stuck with the house for now.

My question was whether it was possible to enforce mortgage payments, and maintenance payments when a spouse leaves the country, I probably did not emphasise that properly in my original post.
 

Its still worth putting it on the market and waiting to see.
I know you wanted a specific answer to a specific question but other advice you get here may be useful to you in sorting this nasty situation out.

LMCD said:
My question was whether it was possible to enforce mortgage payments, and maintenance payments when a spouse leaves the country, I probably did not emphasise that properly in my original post.
Click to expand...

The answer is probably not if its a non EU - only a solicitor will give you the legal spin on it - but as has been said above if someone is unwilling to pay it can be near impossible to make them.
 
Just to re-iterate, get to a solicitor ASAP. Or, talk to FLAC (free legal advice) - www.flac.ie

You'll need a legal separation in order to get a court to order him to pay % amount of mortgage/maintenance.

By agreeing something between yourselves, he can stop paying at any time. Of course, he can stop paying at any time even if you have a legal separation, but at least you'll have the backing of the courts from the outset.

This is a terrible situation & my heart goes out to you.

Just get legal advice as soon as you can. Maybe also put a call into One Family. [broken link removed]
They are a support org. for one parent families (not that you are one yet) but they do have experience in this area.
 
1. If you really cannot sell the house, then perhaps you have parents or other family that you can move in with on a rent-free or low-rent basis. If you do this, perhaps you can then rent out your own house to bridge the financial gap.

2. If I understand things correctly, your husband has decided he wants to leave, but has not actually left yet. Can you ask him to perhaps postpone the move for 12 months. during which you, he or both of you might make a special effort to source some extra funds to bring down the mortgage a bit, so as to enable you to sell your house? You can point out to him that the alternative will be a judgment against both you and him which will effectively make it impossible for him to return to any country where the judgment is easily enforceable by the bank.

3. When someone uses the phrase 'my husband has decided......he wants to leave' it does suggest that perhaps you hope his leaving may yet be avoided. If that is the case, get some help to see if there is still a salveagable marriage here.
 
Thank you so much Money Honey, that is exactly that kind of help I am looking for. I look into those sites and follow on from there.

Thanks also MOB, I am trying ot patch things up, but when there is a child involved, you panic and start worrying about their wellbeing and security.
 
Are you sure you cannot repay the mortgage on your own, what is the term of the mortgage and the monthly repayments? If this is possible would he be willing to sign the house over to you?

If he does leave it would be pointless to go after him, both financially and emotionally.

Did you also sign for the 50K loan, this is important as under the family home protection act you may have certain rights in relation to this.
 
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