Joint mortgage woes - how to get free?

Nitrowing

Hi, I got a joint mortgage with a mate back in 1998 and we pretty much fell out within months. He left the country (to Northern Ireland) and I've lived in the house and paid the mortgage ever since.
The mortgage was with Abbey National Mortgage & Finance.

Now, seeing as I put the deposit on the house and have all the repayments come out of my account - how do I get his name off the mortgage?

I went to see a lawyer who said it would cost £5000 to do this! Really?
I can't go over to find him to get him to sign papers. What do married people do on 'abandonment'?

I'm loathe to pay £5k to get his name off as there's only £10k outstanding now!

Excited13

Do you know where he is now? Are there some mutual friends who might know his current address. If you can get his address I'd suggest you write to him directly and see what response you get before involving the solicitor.

Regards legally I'm not sure but if he fights it for whatever reason expect the legal costs to be more than £5k as costs quickly escalate.

Nitrowing

I know he's in Northern Ireland but I don't know anyone over there

Calfuray

F@aceb00k?

Excited13

Have you googled him? Facebook, Linkedin, 192 etc may help.

Thrugelmir

Nitrowing wrote: »

What do married people do on 'abandonment'?

Force a sale. Its the only option.

Use a tracking agency to find him. NI is part of the UK so shouldn't be that difficult.

Dal_Whinnie

I assume that the property is also in joint names in which case (if you only have £10k mortgage outstanding) there will be a significant amount of equity. Getting your former mate off the deeds might therefore be a more important issue since he may be able to claim part of the value

I appreciate this may not seem fair but I have a son, whose former partner moved out 5 years ago leaving him to continue to pay the mortgage but now that the property value has picked up she wants the property sold and her 50% of the equity despite not having paid any mortgage for the last 5 years and when it was in negative equity. As I understand the legal position, the question of who paid the mortgage is irrelevant.

Nitrowing

Dal_Whinnie wrote: »

I assume that the property is also in joint names in which case (if you only have £10k mortgage outstanding) there will be a significant amount of equity. Getting your former mate off the deeds might therefore be a more important issue since he may be able to claim part of the value

I appreciate this may not seem fair but I have a son, whose former partner moved out 5 years ago leaving him to continue to pay the mortgage but now that the property value has picked up she wants the property sold and her 50% of the equity despite not having paid any mortgage for the last 5 years and when it was in negative equity. As I understand the legal position, the question of who paid the mortgage is irrelevant.

I spoke to the CAB and they told me that my mate would have to take me to court to force me to sell the house and that he would only be entitled to the money he could prove he put it during the time of his residency. Which, in my case - is none.

The problem with 'hunting him down' is that I still would have to get him to sign the documentation - I don't even know what documents he would have to sign?

Thrugelmir

Nitrowing wrote: »

I spoke to the CAB and they told me that my mate would have to take me to court to force me to sell the house and that he would only be entitled to the money he could prove he put it during the time of his residency. Which, in my case - is none.

The problem with 'hunting him down' is that I still would have to get him to sign the documentation - I don't even know what documents he would have to sign?

Or your ex mate could simply do nothing. If he was to outlive you then by default he would inherit 50% of the equity.

You'll need to remortgage in your name for starters.

Suggest you track him down first then go from there.

Nitrowing

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Suggest you track him down first then go from there.

...and do what exactly?:huh:

mr-bob_2

Nitrowing wrote: »

...and do what exactly?:huh:

Discuss the situation. Tell him his name is still on the mortage and you want to transfer it in to your name. Then send him the documents etc..