Divorced but can't remove exes name from mortgage

Bikersam78

Hi everyone! I would really appreciate some advice if anyone knows about my situation:

I was married in 2003 to Simon and we already owned a house together, we then moved in 2008 to a new build house and put the £50,000 equity from our first house down as a deposit. Sadly we split up at the start of 2009 although everything has thankfully been fairly amicable. I have stayed in our house and he is renting and we share care of our children 50/50.

I work full time and earn a good salary while Simon was always self employed and earned less than I did. This meant that our mortgages were always based mostly on my income as it was greater and more stable. Together we had never missed any mortgage payments and since splitting I have also never missed a payment and have also over paid some months.

In the autumn of last year I went to the Halifax to ask to have Simon's name removed from the mortgage. The mortgage advisor said this was fine and that I could borrow more money if I wanted to. I said no thanks but was pleased it was all going to be sorted and she had put me in contact with a solicitor who could deal with everything for me. I then spent the last of my savings on a few home improvements. About 6 weeks later I got a phone call from the mortgage advisor who told me she had made a mistake and I now couldn't remove Simon's name. As the house prices had fallen since we bought the house, she had failed to enter this into the computer and so now with the new index linked value of the house, it was saying that I couldn't afford the property on my own. The new value of the house is about the same as my mortgage so I now have no equity in the house and have lost the £50,000 deposit which we put into it. (The index linked value of the property they have used is not massively wrong as I did have the house valued when Simon left.)

The mortgage advisor has told me that the only thing that I can do is to find a 10% deposit for the value of the house and do a re-mortgage to get Simon off the mortgage. I do not have that sort of money lying around and do not want to re-mortgage, I just need to do a transfer of equity I think!?!

I am now pretty angry that I was given the wrong information by the mortgage advisor and have blown the savings I had remaining which I could have put towards a 10% deposit. I am working as much as I can and over paying my mortgage to try to increase the equity in it but I am nowhere near finding the massive 10% deposit that the Halifax are asking for. I am currently on a variable rate which is low and if I have to re-mortgage with a 10% deposit this will probably push up the interest rate that I will have to pay. I am also concerned that the house prices may drop further which will just make the situation worse and so I really don't know what to do now. I don't want to sell the house as the prices may eventually go back up and I can afford to live here I just need to get Simon's name removed from the mortgage and deeds.

Simon and I have both moved on and have new partners. Simon is considering buying a new house with his girlfriend but is unable to do that at the moment while he is still attached to my mortgage and liable for payments if I default. My boyfriend has moved in with me and so I have 2 full time incomes so it seems ridiculous that I can't take Simon's name off the mortgage. I have an impeccable record of paying the mortgage and have always been a good customer. I have proved that I can pay the mortgage on my own quite comfortably for over a year so surely there must be a way out of this ridiculous situation?

I am going to write some letters to the Halifax to try to appeal against their decision and to complain about their mortgage advisors poor advice. Do you think that this will be enough to get Simon's name removed? Does anyone know of anything else that I could do to resolve it?

Thanks ever so much for any help. I am really stressed out about this and incredibly frustrated. I haven't done anything wrong and it's just rubbish that the house prices have slumped and left so many of us in such predicaments!

Cheers,
Sam.

Thrugelmir

Bikersam78 wrote: »

I am going to write some letters to the Halifax to try to appeal against their decision and to complain about their mortgage advisors poor advice. Do you think that this will be enough to get Simon's name removed? Does anyone know of anything else that I could do to resolve it?

The mortgage advisor didn't suggest that you spend the last of your savings on "home improvements". Thats was your decision. Lending criteria constantly changes to reflect current circumstances.

Easiest solution is that your ex husband waits until sufficent equity is built up in the property to enable you to remortgage with your new partner. Presumably your new partner is able to make a contribution in reducing the mortgage balance.

In the meantime your ex will have to continue to rent.

GuidoT

This is a real problem with no easy solution. Wait until interest rates start to increase and your current SVR becomes less attractive and then look around at other lenders - change broker too. I realise that when this happens mortgage deals with also be less attractive than they presently are.

Do not forget it is not just about getting his name off the mortgage, you must also get him off the deeds too.

XXXGemXXX_2

I am in the same situation apart from myself and my ex-partner wasn't married. Skipton have said the same thing to me, that they want me to find them a further 10%, we have already lost nearly 15% of the house value, which was our deposit. People always advice you to buy and never rent, but non of us could have seen the market dropping to what it has.

I have got to sell and loss our money, my ex wants his name off the property, which i do understand. Speak to simon and see if he will give you time to try and find a solution. Maybe this time next year you will be able to take his name off the property. I really hope you manage to get things sorted, its not nice situation to loss everything you saved for. Take care :-)

themull1

Can you put your new boyfriend on the mortgage instead of simon? or is he too new?

Bikersam78

Thanks for all the replies! I would be happy to put my new boyfriend on the mortgage if it would help but it would still be a re-mortgage and we would therefore need at least a 10% deposit which we don't have. Simon is ok with staying on the mortgage until they have found somewhere else to buy which they can afford. I do worry that the house prices may fall further in the meantime which will make my situation worse. If the prices drop too far and I am forced to sell I could then be in a position where the mortgage is higher than what I can get for the house and I'd then owe the Halifax even more. :-(

catieeb06

You can ask them to get Colley's to revalue the property. If this updates the index valuation then provided there is sufficient you can just do the transfer of equity.

Give them a ring, might cost you £200 or so and of course it could always come back with news that you don't want but equally it might come back and give you the news that you need to move on with life.