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Divorce - problems with mortgage payments
ikkleosu
Posts: 546 Forumite
This is a complicated situation my friend is in, (I'm helping her out with asking these publicly on her request, not just sticking my nose in).
She has been separated a year so moving towards divorce. Her husband was the wage earner, she never worked but stayed at home to raise the 3 children (youngest now 5).
On separation, the husband agreed to pay CSA and to continue to make the mortgage payments on the marital home instead of maintenance (in Scottish law i believe he must support the wife until the divorce, for up to 3 years, until she can be reasonably expected to adjust to the financial difference).(this agreement to pay the mortgage was written and agreed to by both parties via the solicitors)
They are planning to sell the marital home, splitting the profit 50/50.
However, she noticed in the latest statements that the mortgage total owing was going up instead of down. |It turns out that for the past few months the husband has NOt been paying the mortgage, but instead has been covering the monthly payments using a large overpayment reserve they had made on the mortgage some years previously.
So what this means is in essence the mortgage total is going up every month, because the overpayments are being "taken out" again by being used to make the mandatory monthly payments. This means that my friend is losing out as she is not actually receiving the "maintenance" (or rather the benefit of it as it should be covering the monthly mortgage payments, but isn't) and at the same time he's ALSO eating into the profits they will make from the house so she gets less when it sells.
He has admitted he is doing this deliberately to punish her as he feels it was all HIS money as he worked and she didn't.
Does anyone know legally if there's a way to prevent him doing this? Her solicitor doesn't seem to grasp the full implications of this and says they can't force him to pay any of this, but surely deliberately lowering the assets that will be divided up in the mortgage is frowned upon?
Can she stop him via the building society from using this reserve to make payments?
Any info gratefully received, thank you.
She has been separated a year so moving towards divorce. Her husband was the wage earner, she never worked but stayed at home to raise the 3 children (youngest now 5).
On separation, the husband agreed to pay CSA and to continue to make the mortgage payments on the marital home instead of maintenance (in Scottish law i believe he must support the wife until the divorce, for up to 3 years, until she can be reasonably expected to adjust to the financial difference).(this agreement to pay the mortgage was written and agreed to by both parties via the solicitors)
They are planning to sell the marital home, splitting the profit 50/50.
However, she noticed in the latest statements that the mortgage total owing was going up instead of down. |It turns out that for the past few months the husband has NOt been paying the mortgage, but instead has been covering the monthly payments using a large overpayment reserve they had made on the mortgage some years previously.
So what this means is in essence the mortgage total is going up every month, because the overpayments are being "taken out" again by being used to make the mandatory monthly payments. This means that my friend is losing out as she is not actually receiving the "maintenance" (or rather the benefit of it as it should be covering the monthly mortgage payments, but isn't) and at the same time he's ALSO eating into the profits they will make from the house so she gets less when it sells.
He has admitted he is doing this deliberately to punish her as he feels it was all HIS money as he worked and she didn't.
Does anyone know legally if there's a way to prevent him doing this? Her solicitor doesn't seem to grasp the full implications of this and says they can't force him to pay any of this, but surely deliberately lowering the assets that will be divided up in the mortgage is frowned upon?
Can she stop him via the building society from using this reserve to make payments?
Any info gratefully received, thank you.
0
Comments
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If its a joint mortgage why cant she ask for the overpayment back instead of him using it?0
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Sorry, I can't help other than to suggest you go to wikivorce, you'll get an informed answer there specific to the law in Scotland.If I cut you out of my life I can guarantee you handed me the scissors0
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