Missed payments on a Secured Loan

xlinephil

As with most on going divorce's, there is a lot of history and hurt behind my story but I'd like advice on one particular area that has gone recently gone wrong with the mortgage (Nationwide) and secured loan (Freedom Finance through Barcleys).

I was turned down by halifax for a current account on saturday due to a poor credit score, this seemed unusual to me as last I checked my credit score was good. So i did an experian credit report and it showed missed or late payments to the secured loan provider since last july, and a few missed or late payments to the mortgage provider. My soon to be Ex-wife and her partner are ment to be making the payments on both these two accounts, as per the agreements to her taking on the home with her new partner. I pay CSA and have agreed to keep myself on the mortgage until she and her partner are in a strong enough position to be allowed to remove me from the accounts. This is only so that I know my children have a decent roof over their heads. We will generally only tolerate texting or speaking to eachother about the children so a civil conversation is off the cards. I'm very worried that my credit score is poor now through no fault of my own, is there any way I can recifiy this situation?

Dave_Ham

I fear you know the answer to this one and sadly here is the confirmation.

I am afraid there is nothing you can do regarding this affecting your credit score. I acknowledge this is not of your doing but whilst you are joint on the mortgage and secured loan, if it is late you will be marked as such.

The only thing I can think of and this is not my area of expertise is to see if you can speak with the CSA and apply your payment directly to the mortgage/secured loan?

To make matters worse, these late markers will also affect the chances your Ex will have at taking your name off of the mortgage at some point. Again, pretty sure you would have already got to this conclusion also..

Sorry it is not better news...

dunstonh

I'm very worried that my credit score is poor now through no fault of my own, is there any way I can recifiy this situation?

Sadly, a joint mortgage means that both parties suffer if the other does not pay the mortgage or makes late payments. You are jointly liable for the mortgage being paid (or not).

I will let the mortgage advisers here comment on your chances of getting a mortgage given arrears and late payments in the last 12 months. However, I suspect the answer is not going to be good. To help them, can you indicate what sort of amounts you would be borrowing, against value of property and your income plus any other debts. Sometimes, if your are weak in one area but have a lot of positives in other areas, you can get a mortgage. However, if you are pushing limits across the board then it is likely to be bad news.

xlinephil

Thank you for the swift reply. You are correct in your assumption, I did fear as much!
Perhaps a phone call to the secured loan providers and an explaination of the situation would help the situation - its a long shot but worth a go.
I dont pay through the CSA, we have a private agreement. I pay £340 per month (as I have them 4/5 days out of 7) but the loan and mortgage together total £695, so my csa money would near enough cover my half, but my ex would stop my access to the kids if I didnt pay her the money, despite the wripple effect that missed payments have on all of us.

Dave_Ham

Horrible situation - I do feel sympathy for you.

What about if you tried (and will depend on lender) to get onto interest only for a short period or lengthen the term if on repayment to bring down the repayments and therefore try and make it more affordable. That will be the only thing the lender may consider, they are duty bound to report the late payments I am afraid.

Its not like you are going to force a sale as you are not going to put your Kids through that, so no easy answer I am afraid..

xlinephil

Unfortunatley I gave my Ex control over the mortgage and she has since changed the terms of the mortgage without me knowing, significantly lowering the payments?? Therefore I would not be in a position to guess on her financial situation, nor would she tell me as we are not speaking.
Is it possible to pay the arrears and have the marks removed from my history, proving that I'm a capable debter. I will be looking to get a mortage with my partner within 2 years but this is looking unlikey, despite having an income of £58,000 between us.
My soliciter is looking into ways of helping this situation, and my ex has said she wants me to take her to court and let a judge decide on the outcome of the house, but this will cost £2300 just to get her to court, plus she has stated that if ordered to sell the property, she will not pay another dime until evicted or the house is sold. These are not empty threats.
I need a way to distance myself from her despite being joined by the house, but I appriciate that banks do not tend to be sympathetic. Would the banks take a different view once we are officially divorced?

Dave_Ham

Its a big no all round I am afraid, there is absolutely no way you can nail this without further affecting your fraight relationship and incurring more cost all round.

She quite literally has you over a barrel and sounds like she knows it.

Divorce makes no difference at all and any threats you can make will directly affect your kids unfortunately.

Even paying the arrears will not change the markers and just probably raise your Ex's awareness to the impact it can have on you and thus she will be less inclined to pay it in future months and you will start to saddle the burden.

I do not know if you want or are trying for shared or full time custody and as stated am not legally trained, but surely this sort of behaviour is unreasonable and potentially affects the safe keeping of your children and unsure if you could use this information, even if it is just as a lever for her to buck her ideas up financially.

If you had the kids full time, I would assume the necessity to provide a home will diminish and therefore a forced sale may be money well spent?

xlinephil

I'm not fully sure about the custordy situation but I have joint parental rights over each of my children. She claims family tax benefits etc as is the main cave giver despite my time with the children totaling more than hers. I have agreed to the situations just to keep in the peace in hope that it would help the situation resolve itself, or a least show the judge that I'm a decent person and not tried anything daft. I'm aware that I'm being played within some aspects of this divorce but go along with it anyway.
I would struggle to get full custordy as I work full time and my Ex only works a few hours per day at the local shop, therefore she has time to do the school and nursery runs, where as I would have to pay for fulltime childcare. I would prefer my kids to be looked after by her than an external source. But I guess full time custordy whilst allowing her access 3 nights a week would resolve my guilt about evicting her, but again not the main problem of paying the mortgages and rebuilding my credit score.

Dave_Ham

Just be mindful though, that a few late and missed payments can be fairly easily resolved through time and some other good behaviours if the house was sold and completed tomorrow (for example)

The longer it continues, the potentially more damaging it becomes to your credit score.

xlinephil

I'm going to speak to both lenders today and I'll post up their replies. Thanks for help so far.

alleycat`

This is more a question than an answer to your situation:-

Can any one individual change the mortgage / secured loan without the other parties signature?