Help please Negative Equity, forcing sale of house i live in

loopylooks

Hi, i could really use some help it, but i am not that knowledgeable regarding my own mortgage. My ex dealt with that side of things

My ex and i broke up 2 years ago and we both pay the mortgage and the maintenance charges 50:50. We only had the mortgage about two years prior to the relationship ending, and bought when the market was high.

We bought at 143k
Current mortgage remaining is 135k (aprox)
House valued one year ago at £125k (at a push)

I love my house and want to remain living there, but don't earn enough to have the mortgage on my own. I have shared with someone before and letting the second room out would mean i could afford to pay all of it (things maybe tight but i would make that sacrifice to keep the house) and i do have some savings which could cover not having a tenant.

My ex would give me his share of the property just to be rid of it. But if he was to do this, are the mortgage company likely let me just takeover/him sign it over? How would i/we do this? Is it even possible? I am also concerned that even if taking it over would be a possible solution i would also be taking on his share of the debt too because of the negative equity. He also earns more.

He wants to sell and split the costs of selling/negative equity 50:50. Which will leave me in debt and effectively homeless
He has told me he is prepared to get a court order to force the sale but if he has to resort to this, they can also make me pa
his costs for doing this :eek:

I have only received this news this morning, it's a bit unexpected as we agreed to wait for the market to improve. I am at work so haven't phoned the mortgage company or am even sure of how much remains etc

I have no idea where to start, just trying to think about this is sending my stress levels through the roof, (doc's orders are to remain as stress free as possible). I'm not sure i can cope with the situation at all but it's a case of having to :(

Any advice appreciated, Thank you

Loopy

harvey115

A good starting point would be to give details of your Financial situation:

- Your income
- Your outgoings
- Any adverse credit history i.e. CCJ, defaults, late payments etc

I am pretty sure someone will be able to give you factual information upon getting your full financial details on this forum.

Best of luck

pinkteapot

He is effectively blackmailing you.

As there is debt at this moment, he should pay you half of it to take his half of the house! If there were positive equity and you wanted to take the whole property, he would expect you to pay him for his half. He should pay you to take half.

He's saying "take my half which I won't pay you for, otherwise I'll force a sale and you'll be broke and homeless".

If I were you, I'd try and get an initial free half hour with a local solicitor. Your ex is telling you how the law works and you have no idea if what he's saying is true or not.

JQ.

pinkteapot wrote: »

He is effectively blackmailing you.

As there is debt at this moment, he should pay you half of it to take his half of the house! If there were positive equity and you wanted to take the whole property, he would expect you to pay him for his half. He should pay you to take half.

He's saying "take my half which I won't pay you for, otherwise I'll force a sale and you'll be broke and homeless".

If I were you, I'd try and get an initial free half hour with a local solicitor. Your ex is telling you how the law works and you have no idea if what he's saying is true or not.

Really ???

The reality would appear to be that he has been paying for half of the costs of a house he does not live in and gains no benefit from for the last 2 years. I'll bet he can't get a mortgage now as he already has one outstanding. I'd imagine he just wants to get out of the situation so that the money he's currently spending on the OP's house can be put to better use. Is that really so unfair?

It seems you can't afford the house based on your income and it's unlikely any lender will take into account income from lodgers, so unfortunately I don't see how you can continue living there. It's a horrble position to be in, but the reality is that you need to face up to your responsibilities and I don't understand why you should expect your ex to continue paying half your living costs forever. Obviously, if there are kids involved that's a different matter. The fact is house prices are going nowhere and it could be years and years before you're out of the negative equity. Sell the house, move into rented and crystalise the loss - then start paying back the debt and saving for a deposit if you want another house.

Don't forget, there's no certainty that house prices won't drop again (what with all the uncertainty in Europe) - if that happens, you'll just be getting yourself further and further into debt, however, if you're in rented you'll not suffer.

Obviously, the ex also needs to face up to their responsibilities and they will have to pay half the costs of selling and will be responsible for half the debt created by the negative equity.

It would be useful if you posted your gross income, as you never know, some of the IFA's on here may know of a product that enables you to take over the whole of the mortgage. If that was the case your ex would need to pay you cash to extracate himself from the mortgage obligations with it being in Negative Equity.

loopylooks

harvey115 wrote: »

A good starting point would be to give details of your Financial situation:

- Your income
- Your outgoings
- Any adverse credit history i.e. CCJ, defaults, late payments etc

Thankyou for your response

Debts = NONE (never have) I have a credit card but pay this off in full every month, no late payments/defaults

Savings = 5k aprox

Earnings = £950 take home a month (but can top this up with some MSE related things and ebay)

Outgoings = £800 a month

Monthly Outgoings breakdown:
£320 my half of the mortgage & maintainence
£75 council tax
£20 sky
£100 petrol
£80 food
£65 phone (mobile, landline and broadband)
£20 electric
£20 gas
£20 water
£15 tv
£25 car insurance
£20 bits and bobs

This leaves me with about potentially £150 a month leftover.

The ex's share of the mortgage is £320
Rental from the second bedroom has previously made £400 (although bills etc would increase).

So i think i have the potential to make the numbers stack up.

Loopy

The_J

Lenders will generally not take lodger income into consideration, some will but having not been on the front end for a while I am not sure if they still do. Maybe one of the esteemed advisors on this board could confirm for you.

For that reason you will really struggle to take the mortgage over on your own because, in reality, you are stuck with your current lender (who is that?).

Have you considered making the proposition a touch more attractive for your ex? If you are getting £400 in rent will he expect £200 of that?

mrginge

when your ex forces a sale how is he expecting you to pay his costs and half the neg eq on those numbers?

he's clearly a bit dim as he's been subsidising you for two years anyway. just explain that you dont have the money to pay it and if he wants a sale then he has to cover all the shortfall.

ACG

Im really sorry, im going to put a few points here which for you are all negative but its just to show you the position your in...

Your partner can force the sale of the property.
You cant afford the mortgage alone.
Lenders wont take into account lodgers.
Based on what you have said you wont get a mortgage on your own.

So your options are quite limited:
Sell up and be stuck with a debt,
Find someone else to go on the mortgage with you (could be a parent, relative (guarantor mortgage) or you could move a mate in and get a joint mortgage).
Fight it in court - but i wouldnt like your chances.

Its not good news, just because you love it doesnt mean you can keep it. You could also argue what your partner would do if he were to force the sale with the rest of the money thats owed on the mortgage. However hes currently paying half - you need to be realisitic, if i were in his shoes i would be saying exactly the same thing as im sure you would. Why should i be subsidising your cost of living. I know the value would eventually go up, but he wants to move on with his life.