Help - seperated and worried about joint debt.

Poosmate

Hi Worried, sorry to hear of your circumstances. Congratulations on sorting the £9k loan and making some headway on it!

Is the car loan (£14k) in your name only? Is that the original debt or has it increased with interest/charges for his non payment? What is the value of the car? And who has possession of the car?

Sorry for all the questions but I am thinking if he has the car and it has quite a high value could you ask for it back if the loan is in your name (as you can proove ownership even if the car registration docs are in his name - they state the registered keeper not owner). You then have the vehicle to offer to the finance company as whole or part payment? Otherwise you could sell it and pay off some of the debt if Black Horse are not the car finance company? Anyone else got any ideas on going down this route?

Also, regarding your house, what's it's value and how much is the mortgage for? Is the mortgage in joint names? And who is living in the house now? Him? Right now I want to say chuck him out and move back in but I know that is so much easier said than done!

Just thinking your moving out was pointless as he's not paid the mortgage anyway. If the mortgage is in his name only then he's only really shooting himself in the foot but if it's joint names, he's damaging your financial future too. So he's already causing problems for you and your new partner, you may soon have nothing to lose in going for maintenance from him.

Sorry, this is fighting talk, but when kids are involved, I really hate that partners can be so cruel as to threaten to give up everything to get out of paying for their kids just to harm their estranged partner. Makes my blood boil!

Hope some of this helps.

Good luck

Poo

savingmummy

I would involve the solicitor. Sorting it out after a divorce is not good imo!

You say the loan was joint did you both sign? is it in both your names?

worriedsinglemom

The car loan is in joint names...apparently the loan has been built up to that amount as we had outstanding finance on another car when we sold it but I wasnt aware of that I always let him deal with it. Thats the reason I thought the loan was for about £6000 cos that was the value of the car when we bought it. Its prob only worth about £4000 now I would think. He has the car and its registered in his name.

With regards to the house we are about £10k in negative equity. It was a new build property that we purchased b4 we split. The mortgage outstanding is approx £160000 and we have been told would fetch approx £150000. Thats what my ex said when he had someone out in the Summer last year.

I wouldnt want to move back in as he has caused me so many problems here for me. He'd be round all the time as its also his house wanting to know who was there etc.

Oneday77

Sorry to hear about all the hardship.
Your ex sounds like a right $%£$%&.
A few questions, Is the mortgage joint?
Is the car loan secured against the car? If so how many years has it been running? You might have the choice to voluntarily hand the car back and the debt gets cleared. You need to check the paperwork.
CSA needs to get involved, he is doing nothing he agreed to and it is causing you grief. As far as he is concerned you have nothing to lose.
Finally the solicitor you have needs to sort things before the completion of the divorce, afterwards there will be less legal bonds between you.

worriedsinglemom

Hi

The mortgage is joint unfortunately and the lenders wont take my name off or even let me just give him the house as he doesnt earn enough to take it over.

The car isnt secured on the loan. Its probably only worth about £4000.

I'm just scared of what he'll do if I go to the CSA. He's already said if I do he'll cause trouble so my new partner will leave me and pack his job in and get house repo'd anyway. I've already had to have police involvement 3 times since the split

Oneday77

worriedsinglemom wrote: »

Hi

The mortgage is joint unfortunately and the lenders wont take my name off or even let me just give him the house as he doesnt earn enough to take it over.

The car isnt secured on the loan. Its probably only worth about £4000.

I'm just scared of what he'll do if I go to the CSA. He's already said if I do he'll cause trouble so my new partner will leave me and pack his job in and get house repo'd anyway. I've already had to have police involvement 3 times since the split

All the more reason to make sure the solicitor sorts it all out. Not sure if it's possible but even if you walk away with nothing, it's better than less than nothing.
I would also try and get proof of his threats. They might be useful for CSA, police, courts and custody purposes later.

Poosmate

Thanks Worried.

I would suggest (as others have done) to get your solicitor involved in the financial side of your divorce before you settle.

Although the car is registered in his name, it does not mean he is the owner - only the registered keeper, if he's no longer paying his share of the loan on it then it's actually more yours than his.

I can understand you not wanting to move back into the house but if you still have keys to get in I would arrange for a valuation of your own (obviously while he is out or if that's not possible then arrange a time to suit him). To be honest I wouldn't believe a word he says and house prices have risen (supposedly) slightly since summer last year.

Divorces are always tough and you have to decide what is worth fighting for. From what you've said, it sounds like he'd go the full ten rounds and sometimes the win turns out not to be worth the hell that preceded it.

I'm not suggesting you roll over and accept all of his debt, your solicitor is working for you and they should be negotiating the best outcome for you and your children, you can bet your bottom dollar his solicitor will be acting on his best interests, use your solicitor, that's what they're there for and should reach a reasonable settlement for you.

Once again good luck

Poo

worriedsinglemom

Thanks for all of your advice. I'm going to be contacting my solicitor again to ask about the finances to be sorted before hand then as she is adamant that it should be done after the divorce.

Also with me having frozen interest on my credit cards and making lower payments than I should be will that affect my credit rating in a bad way as I'm making a payment every month?? It looks though as though my credit rating is going to be damaged anyway but just wanted to find out

worriedsinglemom

Just bumping this back up to see if anyone knows the answer to my last question.

Thanks

worriedsinglemom

Had a chat with my ex yesterday and he has said he's going to act like a man for once and try and take responsibility for some of the debt. He said he's going to ask his family to help him clear it and take the pressure off me or get Black Horse to put it just in his name.

Does anyone know if he does speak to Black Horse and request my name to come off will they allow it? Secondly with me being on reduced interest on Barclaycard and having a managed loan with HSBC will this have affected my credit rating??