Options to removing ex from deeds/mortgage

Hello,

I would really appreciate your advice on the following:

2008 Feb: bought house with ex house price 410k (current value of house EUR 270000)
2008 Oct: ex moves out and I have been paying the mortgage since
2012 Dec: I have a drop in income, mortgage goes into arrears by EUR 7000,
2013/14: 12 month period of interest only (EUR 450)
2014/2015: 12 month period of reduced payment (EUR 1100)
2015: I am now due to return to full payment in January (on tracker, EUR 1325) and I am currently asking the bank to capitalise the arrears (EUR 7000)

Ex has not been involved in any negotiations with the bank or paid towards the mortgage. We do not have any legal document outlining what happens with the house.

I have asked the bank if it is possible to remove his name if he agrees but the bank are not willing to give the mortgage in my name. The bank are also refusing to provide a letter stating that I am the only person paying the mortgage and dealing with the bank.

I would love to hear if this situation is risky for me in so far that my ex can make a claim on the house in the future, although he has not paid. Is there anything I can do now to prevent a future claim? He is willing to sign a legal document to give up any future claims to the house.

I have contacted 3 solicitors that basically said the bank needs to agree to a change of ownership. What other options do I have?

Many thanks for your help in advance!

lalelu - I have edited your post as I presume you omitted the word "not" which I have inserted in bold?


The bank will insist that he stays on the mortgage as you have demonstrated through arrears that you might not be able to pay the mortgage in full. A court can't direct that the bank release him from the mortgage.

You can do a side agreement with your ex wherein you agree to take over full responsibility for the mortgage and he surrenders any claim to the house. That will not change his relationship with the lender - they can still come after him. However, it would weaken his claim at any future stage to ownership of the house. Solicitors don't like these side agreements, but I am not sure why. ( MF1 comments on it in this post.)

A solicitor has suggested the following to me, although I am not sure how it works. Your ex would complete an undated deed or conveyance and then if you ever wanted to sell the property, you could. It sounded a bit iffy to me, but the solicitor's view was, that while it was not ideal, it was the best option in a difficult situation.

From your ex's point of view, he will be liable for the mortgage until it is paid off. He will probably want the property sold as soon as you have paid off the negative equity, so that he will then be free of it.

Brendan

Thanks for the feedback Brendan. I would hope that once the negative equity is paid off and my studies are complete/I work full time again, that I will be in a position to get a mortgage in my sole name.

Is there any chance you could pass me on the details of the solicitor that suggested the undated conveyance? So far I have contacted 3 solicitors and none of them have been able to offer a solution.

I would really like to get at least a side deal done, so that I feel a little bit more at ease!

Sounds like you have the situation fairly under control but just to answer your Original question yes there is a risk that your ex could have a claim over your house, once your house becomes worth something. This will happen a) if you die and the life assurance policy pays off the mortgage or b) once the house comes back into positive equity
a) isn't your concern as you won't be here! But might be of concern to your new husband if you were to marry
b) at the rate you're going this isn't going to occur for the next 10 years anyway? So not something you have to worry about in the short to medium term future.
Once the house does become worth something, AFAIK your ex would have to go to court to force a sale and this would be expensive (I'm guessing 10-20k in legal fees) so there would want to be a sizeable reward for your ex at the end of the court case to make it worth his while. I'm guessing he wouldn't do this until the house was worth 100k at least?
I'm assuming the fact he hasn't contributed basically ever to the mortgage (save a few months at the start) would have to be taken into account by the Judge if such a court case did arise-But that's just an assumption on my part. If he paid 30k towards the deposit or paid the legal fees or tax for the purchase etc that would obviously be taken into account as well if a court case did arise.

So I'd say until the house is back in positive equity, and well back into it at that you don't have to worry about him upsetting the apple cart. And hopefully by then both he and the bank will play ball and let you transfer it into your own name.

I don't know anything about side agreements but you could try this guy if you haven't already: http://www.lawyer.ie/property
Try to stay on good terms with your ex for the next 10-20 years is the only thing you can do otherwise really. You can't plan for changes in either of your personal circumstances that could force things to a head either