Help please on house and mortgage situation

orangepeel105

My partner bought a house with his ex in 2006 shortly before they split up, both 50 50 on the mortgage. There was messing around with solicitors etc. for a long time deciding whether they were going to sell and how the equity was going to be divided etc, during which time my partner was paying the whole mortage himself.

They eventually decided at the beginning of the summer to sell the house, and also his ex finally agreed to start paying her half of the mortgage again while waiting for it to sell. However, the estate agent told them that due to them being misinformed about leaseholds and the property only having a 61 year lease left, that they were very likely to make a loss when selling the property, since they would have to pay what works out as about 13k to extend the lease back up to 99 years, as well as having to pay other fees to the mortgage company etc.

His ex has now text him today saying she is no longer prepared to pay her half of the mortgage and doesn't care if the house gets repossessed.

We are now in a quandry about what to do; basically both of us dislike living in this area and would like to be able to move away ASAP (into rented accom.). The property has been on the market for months, but no interest. My partner may just about be able to pay the mortgage by himself, but obviously it just seems like dead money since we know the longer this place doesn't sell, the more of a loss he is going to make. Now his ex seems completely unwilling to pay anything towards the house or anything towards cost of the sale etc., we are thinking of just moving out and letting it get repossessed, since he is going to make a massive loss on it anway and probably couldn't keep up repayments for very long.

Really I just want some advice about what the best course of action is; he does have money and is earning etc. so isn't bankrupt and doesn't have any other massive debts, and the mortgage is jointly his ex's responsibility. In a way we just want to be able to tell the mortgage company that the mortgage will no longer be paid and that they should just come and repossess the house now, what would be the implications of this and would it be allowed to happen?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, obviously I am not really involved in the process and we always have somewhere else to go live if necessary, but it is a big worry to both of us and we aren't sure how to proceed from here...

silvercar

They should take up the short lease problem with the solicitor who acted on the purchase; at the very least the implications of this should have been exchanged.

If they did a voluntary repossession (ie give the keys back to the lender), the lender would price low for a quick sale and get rid. The lender would then chase both parties for any shortfall.

As the property was jointly owned, both of them are jointly liable for all the debt. In practical terms, whoever seems to have the money to settle the shortfall will be chased harder.

Repossession leaves a big black mark on a credit rating; best avoided if possible.