The joys of selling with negative equity and joint mortgages (Help!)

Ryan_Williams

My partner has found herself in quite a sticky situation with a mortgage she got into several years ago with an ex who basically did his best to obscure information from her (holding bills hostage, etc). Even now she doesn't have any kind of references or paperwork.

She and her ex got a mortgage several years ago. The relationship broke down long ago and for the past three years she has neither lived there nor paid anything towards anything to do with the property.

The property was worth about £100,000 when the mortgage was taken out. It has since fallen into negative equity and is worth £90,000.

My partner's ex has put the property onto the market during the past few weeks, meaning the negative equity somehow needs to be covered. My partner is convinced he will try and have her pay a substantial part of this, based on her opinion of his character.

She has repeatedly asked over the last couple of years to be taken off the mortgage, or to go through the steps necessary to make it happen. The ex told her he'd do it immediately if she paid him £8,000 to "cover costs".

My partner wishes to talk to the ex about what exactly he's doing but he's routinely fobbed her off every time.

So what kind of options are we looking at here? Is my partner going to be left inevitably paying a significant chunk of this negative equity or is there something she or the ex can do to avoid it? From what I gather the ex isn't malicious so he won't go out of his way to have to pay negative equity, etc if lenders/etc can provide options — but if left with no choice he'll almost certainly aim to 'share the load'.

Hope someone can give some pointers. I know she needs to speak to solicitors and such but obviously there's cost involved. We're in the process of moving from rented property to rented property ATM so money is at an all-time low. Seeing this old house go on the market is not what we needed, but hey.

CloudCuckooLand

Being still on the deeds/mortgage, she is jointly and severally liable for any shortfall.

Which means he could do a runner (if his character is in question, who knows?) and have the lender come to her for the lot...

It may be better to compromise, to avoid that. Though it needs to be done legally to protect her from further complications.

See a solicitor. Half-hour consultation could be free. Even £50 is worth it, if it saves thousands later.

Thrugelmir

Try and ascertain extent of negative equity.

Speak to the lender direct. Explain the situation.

Once sale is concluded. Make a full and final formal offer to the lender for a % of the negative equity based upon a 50% share. There is a possibility that they will accept this as (a) rather tnan pursue you at some expense through the courts (b) receive the payments for your share of the negative equity over a protracted period.

Unfortunately you'll have to bite the bullet on the negative equity.