Threat of home repossession

A_Northern_Girl

Apologies for the length of this post but it's a long story which has come back to bite me.

I fled my marital home around 4 years ago. The ex-husband dragged his feet over the divorce but when I finally got it all agreed, he was in a position to buy me out of the property as he received an inheritance. However he was not in a position to take me off the joint mortgage.

The court papers for that divorce including an indemnification against any debts regarding the property.

When I went in to the building society to change name/address for myself, I discovered the mortgage had been changed to interest only. There was an investigation, building society apologised and said it should never have happened without my signature.

Three years have now passed without an issue since. However, after doing one of those free credit reports in April this year, I discovered the last 3 mortgage payments had been missed. I immediately contacted the building society to ask why it was that I was discovering this from a credit check and not official letter from them.

They investigated and apologised, stating that when I changed my name/address they only updated one system and they should have updated all their systems. I asked them what could be done to sort the situation out - they said they were in discussion with my ex-husband about a payment plan.

One month later I received my first letter from the building society which stated they had been trying to contact me without success and they were now handing the debt to a solicitor to start repossession proceedings.

I contacted them and asked what they had done to contact me. the answer was nothing, it was a standard letter. I told them this was not good enough, this was their first correspondence with me.

They said my options were: I could pay the debt off but couldn't do anything about taking myself off the mortgage/avoiding future defaults on payments from my ex. Or I could do nothing and the repossession proceeding would continue. In short, I'm a sitting duck. They won't accept the court indemnification against debts and are holding me jointly responsibile for paying it. however if I pay it, my ex could default again and I will be forever paying off a debt that is not my fault.

I have been to see a solicitor and asked if I pay the arrears, could I force the sale of the house so that I am not liable in the future. He said I can't force the sale of the house because the divorce settlement gave him the house.

What can I do? I just cannot believe I have to just wait this out and have my credit obliterated in this way. I have not had any issues with my credit before and it scares me that I could have this repossession held against me and my only option being to pay the mortgage forever on a property that has nothing to do with me any more.

Can anyone give me any advice on any lines of action I can take either against the building society's mismanagement of their records or this property?

Thanks - I'm at my wits' end

antrobus

A_Northern_Girl wrote: »

....
I fled my marital home around 4 years ago. The ex-husband dragged his feet over the divorce but when I finally got it all agreed, he was in a position to buy me out of the property as he received an inheritance. However he was not in a position to take me off the joint mortgage.

The court papers for that divorce including an indemnification against any debts regarding the property....

As far as I understand it, one thing a court can't do is order a lender to take someone's name off a joint mortgage (they're not a party to the dispute for one thing) so you remain liable for the mortgage. The court can however do the next best thing, which is order your ex-husband to indemnify you against any monies that you might be obliged to pay to the lender. So that's why building society "won't accept the court indemnification" because it's nothing to do with them.

A_Northern_Girl wrote: »

....They said my options were: I could pay the debt off but couldn't do anything about taking myself off the mortgage/avoiding future defaults on payments from my ex. Or I could do nothing and the repossession proceeding would continue.

Yes, that's about it I think.

As you've been advised, paying off the arrears to stop the repo will leave you open to doing the same thing again and again. Your ex-husband would be obliged by virtue of the indemnity to repay those amounts to you, but if the building society can't get him to pay you're not likely to find it any easier.

The real questions would be what's the property worth and how big is the mortgage, and thus what are the chances of there being a mortgage shortfall if it is repo'd?

A_Northern_Girl wrote: »

....
Can anyone give me any advice on any lines of action I can take either against the building society's mismanagement of their records or this property?

You can certainly put in a formal complaint to the building society about their failure to communicate with you and demand some compensation, and you could take it to the FOS if you're not satisfied with their response.

A_Northern_Girl

So with regards to:

antrobus wrote: »

As far as I understand it, one thing a court can't do is order a lender to take someone's name off a joint mortgage (they're not a party to the dispute for one thing) so you remain liable for the mortgage. The court can however do the next best thing, which is order your ex-husband to indemnify you against any monies that you might be obliged to pay to the lender. So that's why building society "won't accept the court indemnification" because it's nothing to do with them.

What does that indemnification mean? I have that in place so my ex-husband has indemnified me against money. But the building society still want the money - so what is that indemnification worth? How do I do any enforcement of it at all?

antrobus wrote: »

AThe real questions would be what's the property worth and how big is the mortgage, and thus what are the chances of there being a mortgage shortfall if it is repo'd?

The house is worth around £120k and the mortgage has £77k outstanding, so I'm confident a repo should cover that (or at least I hope so). But that of course means I will have a really bad credit score - how long would that remain on my file?

Thanks for your thoughts on it, appreciate your time.

CAB_Swansea_Bay_representative

Hi Northern Girl, thanks for your query regarding repossession threat.
I can understand how frustrated you must be by this situation but unfortunately when you enter into a credit agreement on a joint basis you are liable for the full amount under that agreement until the other party has paid off the full balance. I would not suggest you make any payments to the mortgage account unless it is with the agreement of your solicitor and on a short term basis. As you have said even if the property is repossessed there should not be a shortfall that you would be liable for so the main problem would be the affect on your credit reference. A default will stay on your credit reference for 6 years but I would suggest as soon as property is repossessed that you apply to disassociate you and your ex's credit references and put a notice of correction on your credit reference to explain situation and the indemnity agreement. You can find more information on credit references at https://www.adviceguide.org.uk.
Hope this is of some assistance.