Removing my name from our mortgage

ivegotacrazyexwife

I have a mortgage with my soon to be ex-wife.

Ideally I would like to sell the house and split the equity, which at the moment is very little, ie 10-15k. She does not want to sell the house, which is fine as I am happy to walk away as long as my name is off the mortgage.

She does not work and will be living on my maintenance payments and state handouts. It is unlikely she can afford to make the monthly mortgage payments.

How do I get my name off the mortgage and remove any liability on my part? She is also not willing to negotiate on this and refuses to sell the house.

Voyager2002

Ask your mortgage lender. They are likely to agree, provided that she has sufficient income to service the mortgage. If not, they will require her to find a guarantor with an adequate income -- perhaps a parent.

ivegotacrazyexwife

That is the problem I have, she does not work and has no intention of working and her family will not stand as guarantor.

She refuses to negotiate a settlement in any shape or form including access to our children and I do not want to be lumbered paying for a house because of her intransigent behaviour.

Caz3121

how old are your children. Does she not work as they are very young, it may be possible that she can stay in the house with a mesher order in place which would mean that when they were older she would have to sell or buy you out, it would be usual for her then to have full responsibility for paying the mortgage although there may be some spousal maintenance

dusty64

I fear you are stuck with it. I was in exactly the same position a few years ago. First, you have to get your ex wife to agree to take on the mortgage. If she doesn't then you a fighting a lost corner. If she did then you would have to convince the mortgage company that she can pay the mortgage. You could default the mortgage in the hope of repossession but that has all the obvious pitfalls. In my case I left the property with nothing and paid the CSA. She kept the house and my name stayed on the mortgage until she met someone else and didn't want my name on it.

The bottom line is you need to get your ex to want to take on the mortgage and then convincing the mortgage company she can afford the mortgage.

ivegotacrazyexwife

dusty64 wrote: »

I fear you are stuck with it. I was in exactly the same position a few years ago. First, you have to get your ex wife to agree to take on the mortgage. If she doesn't then you a fighting a lost corner. If she did then you would have to convince the mortgage company that she can pay the mortgage. You could default the mortgage in the hope of repossession but that has all the obvious pitfalls. In my case I left the property with nothing and paid the CSA. She kept the house and my name stayed on the mortgage until she met someone else and didn't want my name on it.

The bottom line is you need to get your ex to want to take on the mortgage and then convincing the mortgage company she can afford the mortgage.

That was the answer I was afraid of. She won't sell the house and won't take on the mortgage.

How can you not be allowed to sell the house by your spouse but not remove your name from the mortgage? Surely in this instance the law is completely wrong?

opinions4u

ivegotacrazyexwife wrote: »

How can you not be allowed to sell the house by your spouse but not remove your name from the mortgage? Surely in this instance the law is completely wrong?

The law is prioritising maintaining a home for your children.

The instability of marital breakdown is awful for them. Forcing them to move house would compound that further.

Not saying that you ex is completely right on everything, far from it. But try to put yourself in your children's shoes first and foremost and rebuild your life from there.

They will want

- parents together
- to see both their Mum and Dad
- stability and security of where they live
- to know their Dad will turn up every Saturday morning(or whatever time is decided) as agreed and look after them well all day!

You need to deliver on the second, third and fourth points if you can't on the first one. Time to work with your solicitor to achieve this.

worried_jim

I don't think you will be able to remove yourself from the mortgage under your present situation.When you move out if your ex falls behind on the payments the mortgage company will pursue both of you equally for the arrears regardless of you living there or not.

Gorgeous_George

Stay in the house.

It is your house as much as it is her house. If you have moved out, move back in and refuse to move out until the house is sold.

[meercat ]Simples [/meercat]

GG

dusty64

ivegotacrazyexwife wrote: »

That was the answer I was afraid of. She won't sell the house and won't take on the mortgage.

How can you not be allowed to sell the house by your spouse but not remove your name from the mortgage? Surely in this instance the law is completely wrong?

There isn't much you can do I'm afraid. The only obvious answer is to default on the mortgage but this has severe drawbacks. In my case, I waited until my ex wife wanted to move on. Not ideal but it paid off in the end.

ivegotacrazyexwife

opinions4u wrote: »

The law is prioritising maintaining a home for your children.

The instability of marital breakdown is awful for them. Forcing them to move house would compound that further.

Not saying that you ex is completely right on everything, far from it. But try to put yourself in your children's shoes first and foremost and rebuild your life from there.

They will want

- parents together
- to see both their Mum and Dad
- stability and security of where they live
- to know their Dad will turn up every Saturday morning(or whatever time is decided) as agreed and look after them well all day!

You need to deliver on the second, third and fourth points if you can't on the first one. Time to work with your solicitor to achieve this.

Just to clarify this house is in the UK and we currently live in Australia - her country of birth and where she lived until she was 22 years old.

She wants to move back to the UK with the kids - I am free to return if I want, but not as a family - and into the house. The house is currently being rented and the tenant is under contract until July.

I appreciate the points you make with regards to the children and their wishes, but in this instance there is no continuity there as we relocated overseas.