Joint Mortgage - Relationship Breakdown

zzzLazyDaisy

cherrybelle wrote: »

His argument is that I should pay bills because some of it (council tax, electricity) goes towards the running of the house (that I am responsible of as an owner). Is he right?

No he is not right. That is ridiculous, you are effectively funding his life style!

Council tax you are not the occupier and have no liability for council tax at the property - he lives there on his own and he is entitled to the 25% single occupier discount. Has he claimed this? It just takes a telephone call.

As far as the other bills are concerned, they are utility bills, and the responsibility of the occupier. You are a part owner, but you are not an occupier. That is like saying a Landlord is partly responsible for a tenant's bills because they own the property, when in fact it is the tenant, as the occupier, who is responsible for the bills. If the tenant does a runner leaving unpaid bills behind, the utility companies have no claim at all against the landlord, they must pursue the tenant.

If I were in your shoes, I would change my address on the electoral roll, I'd tell the council tax dept that I've moved out and Ex-OH is the sole occupier, and I'd notify all the utility companies.

Oh, and btw, how exactly does tv and internet have anything to do with the maintenance of the property? If it is in your sole name, I'd give him the opportunity to take it over into his name, but if he refuses I'd give the provider a month's notice and cease the service.

moatmeister

Hi Mrs Moatmeister here!

I have recently been in exactly the same situation as you. Relationship ended but still had a house in joint names. I moved on and got married he stayed in the house. He was supposed to pay all the utility bills, which he did and half of the mortgage, which he didn't, as he was going through financial difficulties. Unfortunately you are both legally liable and because of this me and my new husband ended up paying for all of the mortgage for three years just to stop the situation getting any worse, because we couldn't agree to sell the house. I wanted to sell but he didn't we didn't want to loose the house so we were paying the mortgage to stop it getting repossesed. After three lenghthy years of paying mortgage I finally convinced him to sell but by that time the market had dropped and we lost £20k when it finally sold. My advice would be unless you can stay friends and communicate and both be fair in paying the mortgage its not going to work. Its especially complicated for you being in negative equity at least we came out of it with a nice but small amount of cash out of which was divided up to take into account the mortgage payments that we had paid on his behalf. Yes we got it back in the end! I am glad that I struggled on paying the mortgage even though it was unfair because I kept out of trouble with credit agencies which would be a nightmare now. I wish I could give you more specific help but there is light at the end of the tunnel!

moatmeister

Or...

You could both move out so no one has an unfair advantage and rent the house out untill the market (hopefully) improves....

kerry13238

if you call the council they will be able to take you off the council tax bill which will then make it single person occ so will save 25% that will help a bit maybe you could rent it out and both find somewhere else till the market picks up. you certainly should not pay half the bills he is very luck you have sound like he is getting a extreamly good deal and you are out of pocket everywhere.