Should I abandon all hope?

handymanny

Hi,

I am still on a mortgage with my ex-husband - there is negative equity in our house, and so it wasn't sold and divvied up in our divorce.

My ex-husband rents the house out, and pays the shortfall between the rent and the mortgage, as my children and myself moved away back home, so once the divorce was done we applied for a change of parties on the mortgage, which has so far been refused, appealed, refused, appealed, in all honesty, sometimes they copy me in on things, occasionally they reply to me, more often than not all correspondence to me stops, so I have no idea where I am

My solicitor during my divorce told me that there is no way of getting off of the mortgage unless the company take me off - does anyone have any advice on how to convince them to do so? They won't accept my ex-husbands parents being on the mortgage instead of me (not enough earning years / year to live, whichever) and I am a single parent, so I keep telling me if anything were to happen, I wouldn't be able to cover it.

My ex has managed to pull us out of the arrears he got us in before I left, and keeps the payments up to date - he's just not so good with the whole communication / providing information etc, hence why I have no idea where we're at, and they "can't" (or won't) tell me anything because of data protection etc etc.

Someone suggested possibly trying to get the mortgage changed to a Buy to Let? But that this would need equity in the house.

Has anyone else successfully gotten off of their mortgage? Any tips or advice, or just abandon all hope, wait for house prices to maybe go up, sell it and get rid when we break even....?

Cheers
HM

ETA: Mortgage company is Northern Rock by the way - or NRAM as they're calling themselves now

anselld

if you are named jointly on the mortgage account then you should be able to insist on receiving statements, communication, etc. You have equal rights to this as your ex. How can they claim data protection when you are the account holder?

Having said that it seems your current situation (no arears, expenses covered) is as good as it gets unless you can sell the house. That is probably the only way out of the mortgage, possibly with a loan to cover the neg equity.

handytips

You are caught between a rock and a hardplace at the moment. It would be wise to keep the house going until there is enough equity in there to atleast leave you both without any debt from the mortgage when sold.
NRAM are unlikely to approve a transfer of equity for you to be taken off the deeds.
It doesnt matter that the property is being rented.
Nram do not lend, therefore they will not approve a transfer
the lender also has to satisfy affordablity of the mortgage.

As long as you are on the mortgage you will be liable for any shortfalls etc.
I would be selling as soon as possible, as you are in a vulnerable position at the moment.

You can argue with NRAM or any other lender for that matter until you are blue in the face, but if they want you on the deeds then that is where you will remain until a sale is achieved.

handymanny

Thanks for the replies,

As far as I know, they claim data protection because for the change of parties they have to look into ex's income, which I'm not allowed to know about (fair enough)

The negative is around £15-20k so it's going to take a loooooong time to rebuild that. They keep giving us hassle over the consent to let - they refuse it, then grant it on appeal, then refuse it again. Last year they didn't even contact me over the CTL at all, and it turned out my ex had forged my signature on the application paperwork, I knew nothing until I got a random letter saying CTL was refused - I rang them because I was confused, I thought we applied for change of parties and not CTL, and they mentioned the application form I had signed.... so I got a copy and found the forgery

I'm not sure the CTL will go through again this year (it runs out in 2 weeks, and again I've had no paperwork!! Chasing that!) as my ex left his job last year and has a new company, so no financials for them to look into - hence why I wondered about buy-to-let mortgage - but would that mean having to re-apply and a remortgage, therefore no equity, no chance? They say we have to kick our tenants out with no CTL, but the estate agent say the tenants are protected, so I'm concerned if it's refused we will get repercussions from the estate agent or tenants (Should the tenancy have gone ahead without my signature on the tenancy agreement as the mortgage and house is in my name?? I never signed it last year, as I wouldn't have signed a 2 year tenant knowing there was only a few months CTL on the property!!)

So really, I suppose I can leave it muddling on in the disorganised mess its in at present, or sell it and accept half of the debt and move on. But even then, I've been told NRAM can refuse to sell it if there is no equity?

Gotta love hindsight...