Partner left and wants off mortgage

davejones1983

Hi all,

My partner and I have owned our house for nearly 2 and half years - joint mortgage. She has now told me she has been seeing someone else and has left permanently. At the moment she has agreed to pay half the mortgage each month for now because neither of us can afford solicitors and if we sell the house we are likely to owe thousands. I really need some advice.

1) Does it make it difference that i was paying over £1200 a month and her only £300
2) All of the bills including every single mortgage repayment was paid by me from my personal single account - could i claim any money back from her?
3) My parents paid £12,000 for deposit and solicitors fees that we would pay back over time. Can my parents make us pay it back half each now we have split if they want?

Could i get her to sign an agreement that she pays half the mortgage for a period of months and then i will agree to take over the mortgage and she can be removed? Everything i have read about it on forums suggests that despite me paying 4 times what she did and that its her that wants to break a 40 year mortgage agreement that she signed, that she has all the power and its me that its gonna cost a fortune through solicitors?

mgdavid

do you have any children?
how much equity is there in the house (or is it negative)?

Dave_Ham

Not good and I feel for you...

Would you be able to "afford" the mortgage on your own. This is from a banks affordability model mind you.

This will be your first hurdle in removing your Ex. You paying etc. etc. is emotive and I do think you sound like you have been hard done by, although you need to think practically.

You can get your Ex to do and sign anything, but if she stops the only enforceable action you have is to employ solicitors and go legal.

Do what you can now and try for closure.

Time is a healer...

All the best

davejones1983

thanks both,

it certainly is a crap time at the moment. the house will certainly be in negative equity. no children. she has said that she is willing to pay half mortgage for now but im pretty sure this wont happen for long when she wants the money for her new relationship. thats why im wondering wether i should get a solicitor to put together an agreement that she pays for x number of months and i will then agree to taking her name off. basically hope she signs it without seeing a solicitor who encourages her to fight for money or contents and really kick me where it hurts.

Thrugelmir

Too late to start drawing up legal agreements I'm sorry to say.

What's the likely shortfall if the property is sold?

star4876

This sounds tough, sorry to hear about your bad time

No it doesn't make a difference how much each of you have been paying, if its a joint mortgage. She could have been paying £0 for the past 2.5 years and she would still ultimately have the same financial entitlement / bind as you.

The only way you can sort this out is to have somebody take over her half of the mortgage and re apply with you as a new joint application. This is assuming you haven't got the finances to remortgage on your own. You would then both have to pay a solicitor to handle the Transfer Of Equity. Probably costing about £500 to £600.

When your parents lent you the money did you have it legally drawn up as a loan? If not and they gave it to you as a gift they can't "make" you do anything. Whats more, if your ex partner wasn't mentioned as part of the deal [i.e. if its between you and your parents] then she doesn't technically owe them a penny.

If your ex decides to stop paying you half then you've only really got one option, if you want to keep the house, stump up the full amount yourself. If you start falling into arrears the lender will come after the house and you'll be heading down the route of bad credit and a pending repo... not good for either of you. Can you come up with a temp solution for the time being? Get a lodger to cover her half of the payments so you can tell her she doesn't need to keep contributing? It doesn't get her off the mortgage immediately but if you're prepared to relieve her of the financial responsibility it might sweeten the deal and discourage her from making things hard.

getmore4less

davejones1983 wrote: »

thanks both,

it certainly is a crap time at the moment. the house will certainly be in negative equity. no children. she has said that she is willing to pay half mortgage for now but im pretty sure this wont happen for long when she wants the money for her new relationship. thats why im wondering wether i should get a solicitor to put together an agreement that she pays for x number of months and i will then agree to taking her name off. basically hope she signs it without seeing a solicitor who encourages her to fight for money or contents and really kick me where it hurts.

You also need the lenders agreement.

Without that you are a both stuck unless you can remortgage or sell.

As the place is in negative(no) equity,

If you stay and just keep paying then she is the one with the problem.

davejones1983

thanks for all the advice. my head is all over the place at the moment. she was meant to give me half the mortgage amount friday but didnt. she is now ignoring me completely so i dont know what her plan is or if she has seen a solicitor herself.

where does this leave me? has she got to pay half the mortgage? if i pay the full amount this month im definately not going to get half back even if i go to a solicitor. if i go to see one, can they make her pay half the mortgage whilst her name is on it?

as its in negative equity can i simply make her pay all fees to remove her name. the problem i see is if i leave her name on it and pay everything, she will be in a stronger position when the house becomes worth something.

sharpy2010

I think that what you don't seem to be grasping is that it isn't firstly your decision to just take her name off the mortgage, it is actually the mortgage companies.

Once they have agreed (by determining if they think that you personally will be able to keep up repayments) THEN you can start bandying about with ideas of removing her, but for now you need to ensure that payments are met and kept up to date.

getmore4less

As above not your decision.

Also it is going to be some time before you see any value.

Technicaly if she owns 1/2 the house she could insist you rent the 1/2 off her at the market rate.

Then you insist on 1/2 the mortgage.

probably a waist of time you break even.

Froggitt

And 1/2 the shortfall