Joint Mortgage Help - Split Up!

danjacko25

Hello all

I have a joint mortgage with my now ex-partner. We took the mortgage out with A&L in July 2007 on a brand new home. In the past 2 1/2 years we have owned the property, my partner was not contributing her 50% of the mortgage as we had agreed. The mortgage was taken out by DD out of a joint account which clearly shows I was inputing most of the money. She has left, and moved back to her parents now and I am currently still living in the house and just managing to pay it by myself whilst trying to tackle other debts i have. She has asked to take her name off the mortgage and pay the fee to A&L. We owe the best part of 145k and the house is definitely not worth that or at least would not sell for that. My initial thoughts were to sell the house for as much as possible and what negative equity there was, I assumed would get split 50/50 between us and an arrangement made with A&L to pay this back. I'm sure I will stand corrected! I don't need the house, I can move back to my parents house and I earn well enough to pay the negative equity off hopefully. My main questions - I can prove she has not contributed her 50% towards the mortgage, can I take this further? Where do I stand with selling the house? I'd like to sell as currently the house is costing me 1k monthly to pay the mortgage and general running costs. She earns considerably less than me and just wants her name off the mortgage. I definitely do not want to stay there. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou for your time if you are reading this.

Dan.

benjo

I doubt your lender will allow you to sell unless you have proof that the whole amount outstanding will be paid upon completion, so I doubt it is possible to negotiate a payment arrangement to clear the negative equity over time.

I doubt they would allow your ex to take her name off the mortgage since their is negative equity and there may be doubts about your ability to afford the mortgage alone.

Take a look on the debt free boards, there are some great people over there who may be able to help you revisit your finances/costs and make life a little easier to manage.

Another option maybe to rent out a room, if you dont fancy a full time lodger perhaps look for a student - if you live near a university or medical/nursing school.

Im sure one of the mortgage advisors will be able to give better advice for me but goodluck.

Mrs_Bumble

Think Benjo has pretty much covered your bases.

You will need to speak to A&L in relation to the possibility of selling and what would happen with any shortfall, what they would agree but you are correct it is a joint mortgage and as far as the lender is concerned you are jointly and severally liable for the debt.

I doubt they would take your ex off of the mortgage because of affordability and negative equity and in all honesty if you are faced with having to sell a property that is likely to be in negative equity and therefore a shortfall and debt to pay to A&L would you want them to?

In relation to your ex not paying 50% as agreed, what do you want to do about it? You were in a relationship with this person and you have stated that she earns considerably less than you do etc I assume that you both contributed in other ways to the day to day running of the property etc, so why split hairs now.

The important factor is the negative equity situation and potential shortfall debt to A&L and if you are likely to want to sell the property in the near future you need to speak to A&L as to what they will allow so that you can move forward and make agreement with your ex.

As Benjo suggests if you want to wait out the situation for the time being a lodger could help pay the bills and nursing/medical/teaching students etc would be worth thinking about?