Trying to help out my brother but not sure what to advise

WorriedBro

My brother's in a bit of a financial mess at the moment.

He just came out of a 10 year relationship with a woman who was not very good with money. She managed to build up about £20,000 worth of debt and unfortunately he chose to help her out with it and took out a consolidation loan in his name to pay off both their debts, which I think was about £25,000.

They got a mortgage before the recession which is in both their names for £116,000 but now their flat is only worth about £100,000 and they are on interest only. This means that even if they sell the flat they will owe a lot of money.

My brother's ex-partner moved out a few months ago but she was continuing to contribute towards mortgage payments, but now she has said she won't pay any more. He's worried he won't be able to afford the payments and he can't even sell it.

So I'm wondering if there's anything he can do about the debts he took on for her. There must be a paper trail (bank transfers etc) and she verbally promised to pay him back, but she hasn't.

He realises he has been daft but there's not much he can do about it now. I want to help but I can't think of any solution that will be useful for him.

I think if he signed the flat and mortgage over to her (if that is possible) he could say they would call it quits. But then he'd be homeless and > £20,000 in debt. But realistically he's not going to get any money from her without involving the courts. I'm not even sure if he would be able to do that.

Any suggestions?

Edit: I almost forgot to mention. He paid off her debts before she defaulted so she managed to get more loans and store cards since her credit file wasn't affected. I also recently found out that she won £2,000 on a scratch card while they were together and didn't tell my brother until she'd spent it. Probably because he would want her to pay him back!

j8yba

Im sure a local court order would be in his favour, isnt there some rule that if you have a partner you live with for over 2 years, everything is halved? Im pretty sure it must work the other way round too??

RAS

j8yba wrote: »

Im sure a local court order would be in his favour, isnt there some rule that if you have a partner you live with for over 2 years, everything is halved? Im pretty sure it must work the other way round too??

No in England and Wales - unless they are married, he is stuffed.

if you are in a short marriage (less than 2 years) the divorce tries to return you to the same state as prior to the wedding, after that the starting point is 50:50.