Ex has stopped paying his half of mortgage

gerfus

Hi

I split up with my ex a couple of years ago. For the last few months he has stopped paying his half of the mortgage. I have had to switch to interest only in order to pay this myself. I have tried going through solicitors but they have not helped much, seem to send out letters asking for payment to be made and response from his solicitor saying that he will but nothing has happened. I don't want solicitor bills to continue to run up with no final outcome.

Are there alternative ways in which I can claim back this money and ensure that he starts paying his half of the mortgage? Small claims court?

Any advice would be most helpful.

Thanks

peachyprice

Are either of you living in the house?

Emmzi

this will continue until you sell the house, rent it out or put it in one name.

Pick one of those.

VfM4meplse

Emmzi wrote: »

this will continue until you sell the house, rent it out or put it in one name.

Pick one of those.

What a nightmare. It makes me thankful that I have chosen to never pool resources, I'm much better off as an old maid.

princeofpounds

If there is no co-operation you will likely need to go to court for an order for sale or something similar. It won't be small claims, it will be proper court.

Make him aware (through solicitor perhaps) that he faces the possibility of court costs if he is found to be obstructive in mediation.

dirtysexymonkey

if youre living in the house and hes not, why arent you paying him rent for his half?

gerfus

Neither of us are living in the house. He won't agree to rent. He wants me to take house from him but as it is in negative equity I am not prepared to do that.

Marisco

So you are both paying for a house that neither of you are living in, as well as the place you do live at? Best all round to sell and sort something out re negative equity. Does he pay child maintenance (assuming you have kids that is!!)

caeler

I was always scared this would happen to me, but thankfully ex-OH kept paying half of the mortgage. As part of the content order I included property profit/debt to be shared 50:50 after debts repaid (ie. estate agent, selling costs) and for me to be reimbursed any full mortgage payments I made in lieu of his contribution. Thankfully he agreed to sell the house as it was the only sensible option. I ended up in rented for a while but eventually got back on the property ladder. Good luck.

mountainofdebt

gerfus wrote: »

Neither of us are living in the house. He won't agree to rent. He wants me to take house from him but as it is in negative equity I am not prepared to do that.

Why is the house empty? Sounds like complete madness.

Unless there is a major turnaround in the housing market, the negative equity is going to remain there for a very long time so someone needs to be the adult and either buy the other one out (though if there is negative equity wouldn't it just be a case of taking the other party's name off the mortgage) or sell the property, cutting the losses and each contribute to the negative equity.

I do have to say that whilst you're paying the interest, your ex has no incentive to do anything (presumably you're making the interest payments so in effect protecting his investment in the property) - so you could always call his bluff and stop the payments - although this will mess up your credit rating and ptoentially force a repossession.

dirtysexymonkey

im confused op. if you split up a few years ago and you say neither of you live in it and he wont rent it - has it really been empty since your split up?