Urgent advice wanted please

wilt_2

My husband left me and our 3 small boys a year ago and this is the financial situation. We bought a house for 210K with a mortgage of 197. The house is now worth approx 180k so we are in negative equity. When he left he switched the mortgage to interest only and the payments have come down gradually from 1200 to 500 a month. He is giving me £500 a month child support and I am paying all mortgage and bills etc out of this and my part time wages/benefits. As far as I could see the lender would not entertain giving me a mortgage in my own name and wouldnt let him off mortgage. Today he informs me he has done an iva and is legally insolvent from april 1st. Where does this leave me and our mortgage. He has ran up £30k debt in the last year on credit cards whereas i have managed to keep within budget although I have gradually run up a £1000 od. Help!!!

spenderblender

Hi Wilt and welcome to the boards. You really need to seek advice from the debt charities like ccs who will be able to advise you what to do. I am sure someone will be along shortly with more advice.

RAS

Wilt

Please speak to NDL or CCCS http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan#help

I also think you need a lawyer, but start with the debt charities.

Since you are in negative equity, your ex has no beneficial interest at the moment, so that does not affect the house.

To be honest, the best thing for you might be if he was made BR as then you could buy the BI for about £225 and any future increase in value would be yours.

wilt_2

Any more advice. I am thinking of letting him have the house. He has said that he will move back in and take over the debt himself if I come off the deeds. I could take out a loan and use it as a deposit to rent in Devon-my dream location. Then in a year or two I could try and get back on the property ladder under a shared ownership scheme which would surely be more realistic than me trying to take over a £195k mortgage.

RAS

Wilt

have you spoken to a debt charity about the situation.

The mortgage provider may not want you to come off the mortgage if OH is on an IVA and you need to talk to a lawyer about your right re the house.

Plus have you chcked what benfits you can get to help pay the mortgage? I suspect that you would be entitled to pretty much all the interest payments now.

wilt_2

yes i did speak to the cccs and they were very helpful but didnt have much advice about the house. I am managing the mortgage ok but it is on int only and i cant see how I would ever get it back on repayment. If I gave him back the house then I could start from scratch.

RAS

What does your solicitor think?

wilt_2

He thinks Ive got nothing to lose either way really. He thinks I should give the house up if I want to move but I am worried I will never own my own house again.

skibadee

When I moved out of my house and ex moved in mortgage had to stay in joint names.