Shocked!!!

crispysteamer

I received a large envelope from the county court yesterday for a date for court hearing on repossesion of my house. After picking myself up off the floor and calming myself down, let me explain my situation and hope that someone out there can give me some advice.
I have a joint mortgage with my brother which we took aout 3 years ago. I put in a lot of money to this venture, (all fine and dandy) asked no questions cos of course he's my bro and will look after me.
I live in the house with my 8 year old daughter and pay all the bills, this was a verbal agreement. To cut a long story short, we have been doing the house up ourselves, which seems to have ground to a holt. He doesnt live here but has supposed to have been paying the mortgage. Which he clearly hasnt for it to have got to this stage. I have had no other warning that this court order was on its way. What I would like to know is how many months in arrears does one have to be in for this to happen. My brother doesnt speak to me really but we have this joint mortgage and he has clearly been coming up to the house and hiding post as there was a solicitors letter attached which I had not received. Can anyone help me out there???? I am a single mum who is in fear of losing everything that I have worked so hard for and put in a hell of a lot of my money, which clearly hasnt all gone nto the house. Many thanks :mad:

jonesMUFCforever

Not wishing to be cruel here but a joint mortgage means that the lender can come after either or both of you for repayments. It is of no use saying that you paid xyz and he was supposed to pay mortgage. There is joint and several liability.
You urgently need to get paid for legal advice on two counts , firstly you need to stop the repo and secondly you need to seek legal advice as to who owns what now and in the future.
To answer some of your questions - I think your brother would have to be at least 6 months in arrears (could be more) before it comes to this.
He certainly would have had correspondence addressed to both of you - if not he has deliberately hidden this.
If you do not have some funds to pay off the arrears and maintain future payments then I think in the end you will be repossessed.
Sorry I can't offer any good news.

spuds_2

I would urge you to go to the Citizens Advice Bureau as soon as possible to get some legal advice.

In past times, lenders have not started repossession procedings until you are six months in arrears. I get the impression that this is no longer the case - in the Sunday Times today there was a mention of a man who had been served repossession papers after missing one months payment. Apparently there are also many people facing repossession due to credit card debt.

Can you meet the mortgage repayments? Maybe he would sign the house over to you. I think the most important thing is to get some advice quickly.

dbarnes

Have you tried talking to the mortgage company to find out just what the situation is?
How far behind are the re-payments?
You need all the info before you can start looking for a solution.

I wish you lots of luck

maninthestreet

Obviously, you need to get in contact with your brother, but from your opening post you relationship with him seems to be 'distant', to say the least.
You may want to consider changing the locks on the house - this will stop him visiting and hiding/taking away any more of your post.

CCCS_Matthew

Hi there.

We don't normally post on this board, but I stumbled across it so I thought I would post. The mortgage would need to be in arrears by 3 months in order for a re-possession to be a possibility.

You've got a couple of options at the moment. Either you pay off the arrears in one go to stop the repossession proceedings, or draw up a budget and look at what you can afford to offer ontop of the normal monthly payments. If the first option is not a possibility, then you need to sit down and work out your finances on paper. As this is a joing mortgage, you really need to discuss this between you and your brother.

If you can come up with a repayment plan in order to clear the arrears, you would then need to attend the court hearing and put your proposal to the judge. If the judge accepts the offer ontop of your mortgage payments then you will be a granted a suspended repossession order. This means that providing that you keep the the agreement you will keep the house.

If your offer is not realistic, or you have not got the funds to offer something towards the arrears then unfortunately the judge will grant repoession.

Your next step is to draw up a budget to work out what you can affod. My main concern is that if your brother has been paying the mortgage, you may struggle to do this yourself - so you need to get him on board. You can get more indepth advice via the CAB, or you can book an appointment with one of our debt counsellors for a mortgage appointment to go into more detail about your repossession.

As a debt advice charity, all our advice is completely free and confidential. Our helpline is open Mon-Fri 08:00-20:00 - 0800 138 1111.

Hope this helps for now...
CCCS

Trollfever

Advice from CAB on mortgage arrears can be found here:


http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/debt/mortgage_arrears.htm

crispysteamer

I did think about changing the locks, but am not sure how I stand with that as he does own half the house with me, but choses not to live here, and if things start to get a bit nasty, I dont anything to go against me, if you know what I mean.

Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out x

crispysteamer

Thank you for your advice. As you may gather, I wouldnt be able to afford this by myself, hence entering into this contract with my brother. I have taken steps to sorting this out. Thank you so much x

jonesMUFCforever

crispysteamer wrote: »

Thank you for your advice. As you may gather, I wouldnt be able to afford this by myself, hence entering into this contract with my brother. I have taken steps to sorting this out. Thank you so much x

Good luck in that case - with a brother like yours you may need it!

neas

Im sure others are wondering this so could you confirm my understanding please?

1. You and your brother bought house together as a joint mortage 3 years ago.
2. You payed some towards the deposit right? or did your brother pay all deposit?
3. You dont pay anything towards mortgage and dont pay any rent towards brother?
4. You live solely in house and pay all bills and council tax etc
5. Your brother has his own house somewhere else
6. You arent in good contact with your brother?

Thanks !