Help Please.

paint

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

That's of no relevance.

When you sign a mortgage, you become liable for the debt. Whether you live in the house or not. Whether you rent somewhere else or not.

Yes it is. There may have been an agreement for one party to stay at the property and pay the mortgage whilst there, and for the other to leave and stop paying the mortgage. The ex partner also has a right to live there, but presumably they came to an arrangement that one party would need to leave. I'm not saying she's not equally liable, but it's unlikely that things are as black and white as portrayed by the OP in something as messy as a relationship breakdown.

shortbread

Paint....its not just a woman annoyed here and spouting off.....ie Me.....She wanted out, she had a new man and a house lined up.....with pound signs as her guide she set off trying to be as hostile as possible. She cleared the house when my partner was at work, took his car and expected him to keep paying the Insurance, left massive debts on the utility bills she had meant to have been paying the last 6 months she was still with him......so YES things are as black and white as Im portraying......

Again, no denying she is entitled to some cash from house........and quite rightly ,thats the nature of the beast when you get a mortgage with someone. My point again is she is playing dirty and using Legal aid to fund her games for 2 years when things could have been easier had she signed the contract she actually demanded way back in 2009. She wanted out and demanded he sell or take over the mortgage and pay her 5k towards the 10k loan. So he had a contract drawn up in 2009 and she waited till 2010 when she knew he couldn't complete it to sign it................so tell me thats not her playing games. It wasn't costing her a penny, just us poor tax payers.....

shortbread

Such chaos......trying tosort it out.....anyone with similar experience please tell me how you got on.

shortbread

I know that many agree that his ex should get cash out the house.............no dispute here at all.Fair is fair etc. My partner has mediation tomorrow.............as ex has had her solicitor demand this....even though she is stillgoing to court for forced sale, I thought mediation was to try sort things out without court, so more useless waste of public funds by her again..............

Anyhow, regardless of opinion.............of what people may feel is right or wrong, Id love some accurate knowledge for my partner to go armed with tomorrow. His ex has laid down so many laws,my ex needs something on his side , even if just to make him feel better....

IS HE LEGALLY ENTITLED TO GET HER TO PAY CASH FOR MISSED MORTGAGE AND LOAN PAYMENTS??? FROM ANY SHARE SHE WOULD GET FROM SALE?? I would appreciate accurate information here regardless of peoples views on it being right or wrong.........its just knowledge hed like to have...??

Much obliged x

zzzLazyDaisy

shortbread wrote: »

IS HE LEGALLY ENTITLED TO GET HER TO PAY CASH FOR MISSED MORTGAGE AND LOAN PAYMENTS??? FROM ANY SHARE SHE WOULD GET FROM SALE??

NO.

Why?

Quick background - most houses owned jointly are owned as 'joint tenants' which means each person owns all the house. Sometimes a house is bought as 'tenants in common' which means each has a legally defined share of the house which may be 50/50, 25/75 or whatever. If they had bought as TiCs they would know this as it is less common and decisions would have had to be made. So for these purposes I am assuming it is JT

That means when the house is sold the solicitor is legally obliged to pay off the mortgage and any secured debts, and remit the net proceeds to the joint owners in equal shares.

As far as the mortgage is concerned, again they are both wholly responsible for the full debt. They don't owe a share of the mortgage, and it doesn't matter to the lender (or in law) who actually pays the mortgage. If one doesn't contribute to the deposit or the monthly repayments that doesn't change the share they are entitled to received out of the net equity, on the sale of the house.

The £10k loan is also a separate issue.

As between the two people, your OH could take his ex to court for her share of the mortgage payments over the years, and the court would look at all the circumstances - including the fact that he has had sole and exclusive use of the house over the years, and that she has had to pay for alternative accommodation. So yes, he may get an order for a contribution from her, but it is unlikely to be half of the mortgage payments. In the meantime he will incur costs (unless the total amount 'owed' is under £5 in which case he can go to the small claims court which is cheaper and quicker). The court claim would be for an unpaid debt that she owes to him, and the court would decide whether she does in fact owe him the money. Of course if she is on legal aid, that suggests she has no money anyway.

The only way the solicitor can hold money back from the sale proceeds would be if he has already gone to court, got a judgement against her, and then got a court order freezing the money owed to her from the sale of the house, so the solicitor has to pay the money for the judgement debt from her share of the net proceeds.

Or he can just stop paying the mortgage, let the house be repossessed, and trash both of their credit ratings for years to come (and yours too, if you have any joint loans, bank accounts etc)

shortbread

Thanks Lazy.........much appreciated. Just that there is always varying information and really wanted to have something for him to be concrete about. As I say, Im not sure what the point of mediation is now after 2 years as she has started the ball rolling to get the court to force a sale.

He just wanted to have something of a ball in his court as she is the one making all the demands after 2 years of him trying to sort it. he wont let house be repossessed.............Im paying the mortgage right now....even if house was sold, after the loan is repaid shed only get about 1k anyway..........

Hoping he gets a job and its sorted before it gets anywhere near a court.

ILW

What would happen if the ex insisted on moving back into the house?

zzzLazyDaisy

ILW wrote: »

What would happen if the ex insisted on moving back into the house?

There is nothing to stop her. She is a joint owner and perfectly entitled to live in her house. The only way OP's OH could stop her would be to get a court order barring her from the house, which is really very unlikely in the absence of a real fear of violence.

It is for these reasons that it is very often the case that the best way forward when a relationship breaks down is to sell the house and each party to go their separate ways - even though it doesn't always feel like it at the time.

shortbread

If she did............then she did, she has every right to, but then shed have to start paying towards the mortgage and the joint loan ............

My OH went to mediation yesterday and asked the question if my ex is applying to courts for sale of house,whats point in medation? the answer " A court wont entertain a case until mediation has been tried...its a new law as of 6th April

It angers me that she is wasting public funds to assist her with this when she has already wasted 2 years worth already.............so basically by agreeing to mediation, he is assisting in her taking him to court................would anyone agree with this???

BitterAndTwisted

It really doesn't matter whether anyone agrees with it or not. That is what is happening and the sooner an end is brought to this the better for everyone concerned. Focusing on who did what wrong won't get anyone anywhere.

For court I think you partner should write down and present to the court the following information:

The unpaid bills left behind for OH to sort.
The loan
The potential costs of achieving a sale (EA's fees)

One these costs have been accepted and deducted from the estimated equity in the property it's possible that she will not be entitled to a brass farthing.

In the meantime your OH should get three different estate agents round to give their valuations of what they estimate the current sale-value to be in writing.