Relationship split with house in negative equity!

pinkybluelu

Please help!

My partner has recently walked out on me and our 17 month old daughter

We bought our first house together in November 2007 and the house is now currently in about £30k of negative equity! He is happy for me and my daughter to stay in the house and take over the mortgage - which i can just about do working part time with a young child! But his name will have to remain on the mortgage itself for a while as there is no way I would get a mortgage on my own. Due to the house being in negative equity shouldn't the debt be split, with him having to buy me out with £15k approx?

Surely I shouldn't be left with all this debt being a part time single mother now? I have been to a solicitor and they have told me that they can do the paperwork for me but he has also been to one who has told him that he does not have to pay his half of the negative equity!

What is going on here?! What should I do? I do not see how it is fair that he chose to walk out on us and is able to leave all this debt behind... he has two jobs and earns a lot more than me but I need to try and keep the roof over mine and my daughters head.

Any advice would be much appreciated please, I don't know what to do and what my legal rights are? I am planning to see my solicitor again next week as originally he agreed to pay his half of the debt but he is now going back on his word having seen a solicitor.

If we sell it we will both be in so much debt so surely it is better for me and my daughter to keep the house, I just don't see how he is allowed to walk away from the negative equity? If the house had made £20k i very much doubt that he would walk away without his share of the profits!! HELP!

ACG

I wouldnt have thought he would have to give you £15k.
That would only happen if you were to sell the property for £30k less than what you owe.

As it currently stands he owns half the property and would need to be paying half the mortgage. That way when you sell it, he will be able to get half of any profits or pay half of any losses.

bigadaj

He can't walk away is the simple answer, which is why he will have to stay on the mortgage. Negative equity won't be triggered until you sell the house, so you are currently jointly liable.

You need to sort a settlement whereby he is paying maintenance for your child, which will in part eb a contribution to the mortgage. This si always best done amicably, but you may need to lush things and go legal with it.

dimbo61

He needs to pay for his child which would be 15% of his net take home pay under CSA rules.
He will not be able to get his name off the mortgage.
You wont get a mortgage in your own name and he wont to able to force a sale as no court in the land will kick you out of your home with a young child.
He therefore needs to pay his share of the mortgage and CSA
If he does not pay then the property will be repossed and both of you will end up with HUGE debts which will take years to clear.
Now you need to make an appointment with the benefits people asap and see what you can claim as a single parent.
If you did sell the property you are BOTH liable for all the negative equity.
I would pay half the mortgage each month and tell him he needs to pay the other half.
If you manage to save any money then perhaps your sister,mum, brother might be able to look after it for you until the divorce is sorted

DVardysShadow

dimbo61 wrote: »

I would pay half the mortgage each month and tell him he needs to pay the other half.

While I can see why you have said that, it is not a course to be recommended without thinking through the consequences.

When more than one person is on the mortgage, they are responsible 'jointly and severally' to pay the mortgage, which means that the lender may come after either partner for the whole amount. So, OP would damage her credit rating as the cost of this course of action. if she stops paying half, there will be very little more damage from not paying anything.

DUTR

pinkybluelu wrote: »

Please help!

My partner has recently walked out on me and our 17 month old daughter

We bought our first house together in November 2007 and the house is now currently in about £30k of negative equity! He is happy for me and my daughter to stay in the house and take over the mortgage - which i can just about do working part time with a young child! But his name will have to remain on the mortgage itself for a while as there is no way I would get a mortgage on my own. Due to the house being in negative equity shouldn't the debt be split, with him having to buy me out with £15k approx?

Surely I shouldn't be left with all this debt being a part time single mother now? I have been to a solicitor and they have told me that they can do the paperwork for me but he has also been to one who has told him that he does not have to pay his half of the negative equity!

What is going on here?! What should I do? I do not see how it is fair that he chose to walk out on us and is able to leave all this debt behind... he has two jobs and earns a lot more than me but I need to try and keep the roof over mine and my daughters head.

Any advice would be much appreciated please, I don't know what to do and what my legal rights are? I am planning to see my solicitor again next week as originally he agreed to pay his half of the debt but he is now going back on his word having seen a solicitor.

If we sell it we will both be in so much debt so surely it is better for me and my daughter to keep the house, I just don't see how he is allowed to walk away from the negative equity? If the house had made £20k i very much doubt that he would walk away without his share of the profits!! HELP!

Sorry to learn of your situation, there are lots of topics to be resolved, as others have mentioned around 15% net pay for child support, realistically he does not have to pay the mortgage and you are not entitled to stay (child or not) the lender will want their money as agreed or the house will be repossesed and any shortfall will be down to the two of you. You say he walked out, I'm sure having a new addition to the family has brought extra strain on the relationship (life is more than just about raising children) he may just walk back in, so if/when he does be able to talk about the relationship, hopefully you all can re-unite and sort out finances etc
Good Luck.

pinkybluelu

Thanks for all the advice - even though some is conflicting lol.
We were engaged but not married so I know this doesn't help the situation.

So are people saying that we should jointly keep paying the mortgage until the house is back in equity? We still have 136k owing on the mortgage and with the current market as it is, we would be looking at selling around 105k (had an estate agent confirm this) which is why i was asking what to do. Its a mess! We bought at the worst possible time with interest rates at 7.34 i believe

To me, this is a huge debt so you can see why I am worried :think:

ACG

I did a remortgage for someone who was on 7.49% with halifax. Even after repaying the early repayment charges AND knocking about 5 years off his mortgage they were still paying less.

If your still tied in to that rate and you will be for a couple of years, it might be worth seeing if you can remortgage to a better rate.

HappyMJ

pinkybluelu wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice - even though some is conflicting lol.
We were engaged but not married so I know this doesn't help the situation.

So are people saying that we should jointly keep paying the mortgage until the house is back in equity? We still have 136k owing on the mortgage and with the current market as it is, we would be looking at selling around 105k (had an estate agent confirm this) which is why i was asking what to do. Its a mess! We bought at the worst possible time with interest rates at 7.34 i believe

To me, this is a huge debt so you can see why I am worried :think:

Personally....my opinion...walk away and declare bankruptcy. £31,000 of debt (plus sale costs of usually 10%) is a huge amount of debt. If you walked away from it you can rent elsewhere and still have a roof over your head and probably for much less than continuing to pay the mortgage.

I have no sympathy for banks who lent on properties which were never worth what they were valued at so you should have no qualms about doing it.

harvey115

With negative equity remortgaging to another lender would be not possible.

I would suggest you call your lender and ask for any other products available to you for a remortgage and mention that you would also look at paying the Early repayment charges if needs be. Although the lender may not provide you with any option, no harm in asking though.

Otherwise, you have two options:

- If you can pay the mortgage keep paying
- If you cannot pay the mortgage, sell and arrange for the shortfall to be paid to the lender in some sort of payment plan

Declaring bankruptcy should be the last resort because of the consequences you will find afterwards. I would not even consider this as an option for the amount mentioned above...

pinkybluelu

thanks everyone!

the current interest rate we now pay is 1.49 above the base rate i believe, so I can manage this alone. I just would like to remove him from the mortgage but I don't think this can happen due to the negative equity.

I am stuck!! As I don't want to sell and cause all the disruption to my daughter etc... its just hard to sort this kind of situation when bad feelings are also involved. I would love to have nothing more to do with him financially but it is easier said than done