Mortgage Separation

Brendan Burgess said:
Another messy option is to find a family member or friend who will buy half the house from you.

None of these options is ideal, but they are all better than selling your house.
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I'm afraid to put too much information up here. It was my family home and we were living in it. When my Mam died I had to buy my siblings out. All my siblings got their share, but one sibling gave me his share for us to use as a deposit with my share to get the mortgage, on the condition that we bought pay it back. Now I'm going to be left to pay his €27,000 as well, as what I borrowed to give him the €90,000. He was paying the mortgage, and I was paying all the other bills, but I don't have that in writing.

We signed a contract in March, which I forgot about because of all the stress, and I was just diagnosed with skin cancer, and was waiting on surgery. The contract says that he got €50,000 on the signing of the contract and €40,000 on discharge of the mortgage by the 30th April, bit I foolishly gave him all the money, and obviously I haven't sold the house, as I can't afford anywhere with all the money I owe.

Now my circumstances have changed, I hot a permanent tenant and also start back work part time ,which means I can now meet the mortgage in full, which I've been paying since he left.
 
Also, he walked out on me, and left me in a very vulnerable position. I'm the one that approached the bank explaining the situation, and I've filled out Financial Statements, and sent them in. As of today he has made no contact with the bank.

What I want to know is if I keep paying the mortgage and they refuse to take him off the mortgage, can he take me to Court?
 
So you owe your family 90k plus 27k and 169k on the mortgage.
That’s a lot of debt for a part time worker.

From the banks perspective you have good loan to value ratio, they won’t be aware of the 117k debts I guess. But servicing 169k on a low salary will be a challenge, even with a tennant.

Have the bank responded to you?
 
Most of the money I owe to family and friends has been agreed that will be left to them in my Will.
 
The lender is not going to take his name off the mortgage based on your income.

Another option to consider would be if anyone else would be prepared to put their name on the mortgage instead of him? They would not own the property but they would , in effect, be responsible for the mortgage. If you have someone like that, it would be worth a try

Brendan
 
Reeah30 said:
Can he take me to court
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This is a democratic society, so of course he can apply to the courts.

However

It will take a lot of time and cost him a lot of money.

@dubdub123 is 100% correct; slow down, consider everything carefully, get good legal advice and don't make any hurried decisions.

He's a single person, in good health with no dependents and no other debts (since you are paying the mortgage in full). He can wait a while.

In regards to the expression 'family home'; this has a specific legal meaning.

Whilst this may have been the house you grew up in, as you weren't married, this property would not be considered the Family Home within the meaning of the act.
 
His credit rating is going to be bad, because he has not been paying the mortgage.
 
You are correct in everything you have said.
 
From the point of view of taking his name off the mortgage the bank will only do that if you qualify based on your income for the mortgage amount based on their present day criteria, that is unlikely.

This is separate to them helping you based on the financial statements if needs be, however they may be of the opinion that they should chase him for the repayments rather than allow you reduced payments if that is what you are looking for. If you are not looking for reduced repayments and are meeting the present ones even if that is by yourself then the status quo remains for the bank, there is no incentive for them to chase him or take his name off mortgage, having a second income earner on the mortgage protects them and at the end of the day that is pretty much all the bank is interested in.
 
Reeah30 said:
His credit rating is going to be bad, because he has not been paying the mortgage.
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You have taken over the mortgage and I presume you are paying it in full?

If you are paying it in full and someone searches his credit record, they will see a mortgage with full repayments. So his credit record is clean.
 
Reeah30 said:
Can I be forced to sell, even if I am meeting the mortgage?
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Not by the bank; and if you say his name is not on the title deeds, then I don't see what leverage he has to force a sale.

So here's my tuppence worth.

1. Focus on your health first and foremost.

2. Don't make *any* decisions for at least another 6 months till item no. 1 is sorted.

3. When you are ready, clearly lay out all your financials & get legal advice.

4. Keep up your payments, in full and on time. Good decision to get a sharer, you can earn 14k tax free, so get a second one if you can.

5. Find a counsellor to talk to & ways to deal with the anxiety.
 
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Your views are full of emotional contradictions Reach30. I get that you feel he behaved appallingly and that you are in a worse position now. Separation and breakup make both parties poorer and in a more difficult place financially.

But look at the position you are in now.

You have a house, and you are paying the mortgage. This gives you a stable living arrangement. You have given your ex €90K as his equity in the house, he is in a good financial position to move forward with his life.

The bank will not take his name off the mortgage. The bank will probably do nothing as long as you keep paying the mortgage in full.

Yes, your ex can take you to court to ask the judge to make a property adjustment order as part of the separation. The best protection you have is to keep paying the mortgage in full. The judge will only act based on facts, not someone spinning them a story. And as has been seen time and time again, judges are extremely reluctant to force a sale if you would end up in a vulnerable position. You are in a very strong position as you are now the legal owner of the property - the €90K you paid to him in exchange for him giving up his ownership of the house. Your name is now on the title deed. A judge may view his request to sell the house as coming back looking for a second bite of the cherry. By continuing to pay the mortgage you are not exposing your ex to any financial risk. The judge will not tell the bank what to do about the mortgage. He will see the level of debt you have taken on, the mortgage, the loans from family & friends.

You cannot control what your ex will do. Given that you have no children and have made a clean break you can request that he not contact you again and if there are any legal matters do it through your solicitor. You have done all you can and now is the time to focus on your mental health and concentrate on plodding through the mortgage which you say you can afford to pay. Put you ex out of your mind and let the legal system take its course if that is the route he wants to go. Listen very closely to the advice of your solicitor in the case that your ex does apply to the court. Just follow the advice, and don’t muddle it up with how you feel emotionally.
 
Some very good advice in this thread.

For the sake of everyone, it’s important to remember that you cannot approach a bank to “take someone’s name off a mortgage”. You have to get a new mortgage in your own name. The new mortgage would pay off the old mortgage. The new mortgage is granted (or not) on the basis of factors such as age, value of house, interest rates, and income. I have seen many cases on AAM over the years of people paying off a mortgage much higher than they would qualify for today.


FYI the ex’s credit rating is not impaired as payments are up to date. But it will probably be impossible for him to get another mortgage when he has ghis mortgage outstanding.
 
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I can certainly see it from his point of view. The fact that he is still named on the mortgage means that he will find it very difficult to get a mortgage somewhere else. It also means that if you get into financial difficulty, the bank could come after him for the mortgage.

Just to be clear, you can't just take his name off the mortgage and add on someone else's name in his place.

You and the other person will have to apply to get a mortgage somewhere and use those proceeds to clear the mortgage.

You must have had a solicitor advising you when you did the agreement with him. Are you saying that in March 2024, your solicitor reached an agreement with him or his solicitor that you would get his name off the mortgage within 2 months?

I doubt that the agreement actually said that. Your solicitor should not have allowed you to sign such an agreement. Check the agreement and ring that solicitor. They won't charge you a huge amount to advise you.

Brendan
 
Hi Brendan,

The contract was signed on the 19th of March on the agreement, that I had someone to buy out his part by the end of April. Brendan, I was dealing with a complete bully and narcissist, in hindsight when I signed it, I just wanted him as far away from me as possible.
 
I can't afford a mortgage on my own, due to medical issues, I work part time and I am renting rooms.
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I think what you are saying is that you can keep up the monthly payments; but can't remortgage the property on your current income.
Would a Judge force the sale of the house, to get his name off the mortgage.
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Eventually, yes it's possible - but he will have to get a court order first and getting to court could easily take two years or more.

So that buys you some time, but you will have to come up with a plan.
 
Yes, it is the same story, but when I originally posted, he wasn't sending me Solicitors letters. I got the first one in August and again the 5th of this month. I was just wondering, if anyone had any previous experience of this, if he took me to court. Would I be made sell, or could a judge order him to pay half of the remaining mortgage, so he could be taken off it. Considering he already got a lump sum, which is equivalent to what he has put in. Also my family, sold us the house €50k cheaper, than the market value, and my brother also gave us €54k on the condition we both paid it back, and he hasn't paid a cent back.
 
You reached an agreement with him back in March.
You were both independently advised by solicitors.

No, the courts will not order him to pay half the mortgage.

If he takes you to court, there is really no knowing what the court will do. I would imagine that they would ask you to honour your agreement. But they might give you time to do so.

Your best approach is to try to find someone else - maybe a relative - to take out a mortgage with you to replace your mortgage with him.

Another possibility, although it's a long shot, is to ask a Credit Union.

Brendan
 
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