can he make me sell?

thisismehere

i bought my house in 2005, my boyfriend moved in with me and my children (youngest now 17) in 2007. He was away 9 months of the year and never paid anything towards mortgage, bills etc (although he did pay for food and leisure when he was home and Sky!!)
In 2010 I couldn't afford my mortgage payments anymore and needed to remortgage with a better deal but my wages were not enough so we got a joint mortgage and he was added to the deeds, 5% which was the minimum i was allowed. 3 months after signing a 20 year mortgage he left me. he now wants his name off my mortgage. i have been paying it myself for 6 years (altogether) have a perfect credit rating, no debts and just qualified gaining me a £4000 a year pay rise. However i am still unable to secure a big enough mortgage on my wages. The property is valued at about £200,000 with outstanding mortgage of £152,000.
I have offered to sell the house when my youngest son goes to Uni, (another 10 months) although i desperately don't want to loose my home, but he says that's too long to wait and he wants off NOW.
Can he make me sell the house as this is the only way to remove his name from the mortgage?
I am so upset about this. It was bad enough he left but to loose my home too, i don't think i can go through that yet!

suki1001

That's cruel timing on his part and an awful thing to happen. Have you sought any legal advice?

thisismehere

I have to be honest i have not. I have buried my head in the sand as i am scared of what they might say.

suki1001

Well, I think if you get some advice at least you'll have an idea of what you need to do. Is he being amicable at all?

chewmylegoff

Go and see a solicitor. I think the answer is yes he can force you, but he will need to take you to court in order for that to happen, which will cost him £££.

Emmzi

In 2010 he did you a favour that sounds like it let you keep your home as you couldn't afford the repayments. In effect helping you commit fraud with the bank as there was no intention of him ever actually paying anything, hence the 5% on the deeds, yes?

Your relationship didn't work out and as his reward for this favour he is now locked in to your mortgage so can't buy a home of his own. And if you defaulted, the bank could come after him. A bad position to be in.

Can you see how you are "forcing" him into a situation too? Do you have a parent who could guarantee the loan perhaps? How much do you need to pay the mortgage down to become eligible for the mortgage on your own?

poppy10_2

Emmzi wrote: »

In 2010 he did you a favour that sounds like it let you keep your home as you couldn't afford the repayments. In effect helping you commit fraud with the bank as there was no intention of him ever actually paying anything

That doesn't sound anything like fraud to me.

[Deleted User]

10 months will fly by, he'd be a fool to take you to court (it would probably take just as long plus lots of ££).

sonastin

Maybe point out to him that forcing you to sell will require going to court and that is going to take him many months and cost him a load of money. If he waits until your youngest moves out you can do an amicable deal, he gets off the mortgage in a similar timescale and it saves him all the legal fees of forcing the issue.

What is the shortfall between what it'll cost to get him off the mortgage and what you can currently afford? Is there any realistic way of raising that sort of money in the interim (working extra hours/second job, eating dry-bread-and-water and sitting in the dark with the heating off, selling all your worldly goods on e-bay etc)? OK, so they may be extreme examples but if you could scrimp and save and live really frugally over the next 10 months, would it be possible to save up enough that you don't have to sell the house to remortgage?

Strapped

If you can't afford the mortgage it's probably best if you sell anyway.

thisismehere

thank you
will get some legal advice