Need some mortgage advice.

AdamPD

Hi all, new user here, so thank you in advance for any advice you can give me.

The situation, in brief, is this.

I am a joint owner of a property valued at 215,000

The other two owners are my father and my uncle.

Originally it was myself, my brother and my father, but my brother decided he wanted out, so he moved out

We offered his share to my uncle, who accepted

The condition was, he would pay off his share of the mortgage (70k, roughly) so that I could afford to keep paying my share.

My share is paid by the government (SMI - support for mortgage interest) as I'm on long term sickness.

The uncle decided NOT to pay off his share when moving in, so has had a relatively high mortgage amount ever since, but was ok with it and has paid on time, for about 3 years.

That was until October, he started acting weird (more so than usual) and made a point of intercepting the post before anyone could get to it, then we started getting debt collection companies calling the house, asking for him.

Fast forward to January 2011, he was out when the post arrived and to our shock, a letter from the mortgage company addressed to all three of us, was part of the mail.

Every letter before this, had been intercepted by him and either thrown away or hidden.

Basically, he stopped paying the mortgage in October and hasn't paid it since, he's racked up £3000 worth of arrears and is refusing to pay the mortgage again.

Because he didn't pay off his share, as agreed, the mortgage amount per month is nearly £700 (138k mortgage), something my father and I, can't afford.

I was wondering if anyone here had any thoughts, or advice?

kingstreet

All the owners named on the mortgage are jointly and severally liable for the full mortgage payment. Arrears by one means arrears by all.

Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do. The lender will get its money from those who can pay.

AdamPD

Thanks Kingstreet, appreciate the reply

Yes we do know we're all liable for the debt and payments

Is there anyway we can switch the mortgage to an interest only one? and/or, have the uncle leave the house, so we can rent the room out to help pay for it?

We asked about the interest only option, but Santander said they no longer offer them.

GMS

With missed payments you will not be able to remortgage elsewhere and as kingstreet has said it is not yoru uncle missing payments it is all of you.

If antander will not switch to Interest Only you are stuck unfortunately. If you cannot afford the mortgage you may need to look at selling.

Removing your uncle from the mortgage would be difficult whilst in arrears.

AdamPD

Thanks, yea that's what we suspected.
Ah well.