Advice needed for unique situation..!

TheArcher_2

I'm desperate for some advice on a unique (and somewhat unpleasant) situation regarding a mortgage. The mortgage account in question belongs to my wife (we married July 2011) and her previous partner.

I’ll try my best to relate the circumstances, and ask for your patience:

Over 5 years ago my wife and her previous partner ended their relationship, and some months after she became my partner (now wife). She asked "Mr X" to remove her name from all joint bills etc and from the mortgage they had together. Mr X could not afford to re-mortgage on his own and therefore agreed to sell the property to remove her name. The property was put for sale with an estate agent, but as far as we know no offers were made. As her two children would still regularly visit Mr X we were more than patient, and did not push this point, until early 2012. As I started my own mortgage last year we insisted Mr X’s property was sold before February 2014, which he agreed to. During the last 5+ years my wife has had no dealings with Mr X other than the above.

Now for the sour part, most of which we recounted in branch with the mortgage lender,with the only help available being that of reducing the monthly payments. Mr X was arrested December 2012 and sentenced June 2013 for 13 years for the repeated sexual assault of my wife's daughter over a 3 year period from the ages of 11 to 13 (occuring after their split). I’ll leave out the details, but I’m sure you can imagine the emotional strain our family is going through. On top of this my wife has found herself liable for all debts built up by Mr X where he had not removed her name from accounts. This included the mortgage, council tax, a joint debit account (in debt), life insurance and utility bills, most of which was only realised when finding jointly named mail at his property. We have been doing everything possible to deal with the emotional and financial burden of all this, including making several mortgage payments earlier this year. This recently ended as our resources have been exhausted.

The lender is now trying to reclaim the arrears from this account, and has sent a letter outlining potential legal action.

With the fact that we used our own savings last year as a deposit for our new home, we have been more than struggling with all this. The property of Mr X was put to sale as soon as possible, but as he only had an interest only mortgage there is no equity to draw upon. The property had an offer recently to which an agreement was made, but for slightly less than the value of the mortgage. (This offer however is now being delayed by Mr X taking several weeks to sign and return important documents from prison!) The fees associated with the sale should be covered by the sale of Mr X’s car/belongings etc. There is however the difference in mortgage to make up with no help available from his family (we've asked). We believe the money we’ve spent so far will be also irrecoverable.

I’m writing this post knowing that legally my wife is still jointly liable with Mr X for this mortgage. My family has however found itself being the victim of Mr X’s original crimes, but on top of this also a victim of his financial debts.

We are now at the end of our tethers, and desperately need some advice on how we can deal with this. We've recently written to our local M.P. but are yet to receive a reply.

Dave_Ham

Absolutely sickening, sure you will get as much help as you can from a forum like this.

Would I be right in assuming that only you are on the mortgage/deeds for your current property?

amnblog

I think the press would be interested in a lender playing 'hardball' on a case like this.

TheArcher_2

Yes, just me on the mortgage for our home. My wife couldn't join my mortgage as she was still named on his house.

Forgot to mention, we were informed by the utility company that he could send a letter asking them to remove my wifes name from the gas/electric bills. We sent a pre-formatted letted, and stamped envelope to him to sign 2 months ago, which has never been sent out. He must feel he hasn't hurt us enough. We're still in contact with the utility company trying to prove she wasn't living at his address.

Dave_Ham

My opinion and I suggest you get more formal advice, is to sell all of this assets for cash to cover what you have spent.

Then subject to the amounts involved, would even consider bankruptcy for your Wife. Not my area of knowledge, so as said get formal advice.

Will at least provide some form of formal separation...

As I stressed though, more formal advice required but likely to cost and I do appreciate your situation..

Let_Us_See

That is a harrowing story. However, mortgagewise, it just re-inforces the fact that a person party to a mortgage has legal and financial responsibilities that time or distance does not alter.

If there are still considerable costs pending after the sale of the joint property, then as DH suggested, bankruptcy may well be a practical solution.

TheArcher_2

I wish this were just a story. You always tell the children about 'the bad people' in the world with the hope they'll never meet any.

I was trying to avoid the bankruptcy route, as the intention was to get both of us named on my mortgage etc. Looks like I'll have to look into it though...

ValHaller

Just a tiny detail in a bigger picture - I believe that your wife is not liable for Council Tax from the time she moved out. There is a hierarchy of liability in which Occupier is listed above Owner.

The council may tell you differently over the phone, but I think what I say above is correct. So one less bill to be concerned about.

With regard to the mortgage, is it possible to fund this out of equity in your present home? I know it sort of sticks in the throat. But if the equity is there, you might have bargaining to offer together with wife not going bankrupt which could induce the lender on the FMH to call this one quits and let your wife go with a clean credit sheet?

TheArcher_2

It does kind of stick in the throat. We believe he's just going to sit there waiting for everyone else to fix his problems for him.

As the person who has caused us all these emotional and financial problems I'm not too inclined to pay off all this money to help him out.

We've contacted the council tax, and yes they've taken her name off the bill (one less to worry about, but not the big one).

hallowitch

please get it in writing from the council that her name has been removed from all liability orders relating to the address in question



you don't want bailiffs appearing years down the line and you have no proof to provide the council that you had already dealt with this believe me it does happen

TheArcher_2

Thanks, I'll get back in touch with the council and check that.

Does anyone know a contact email address for the customer services dept. at Cheltenham & Gloucester? I've been through the website and it's not very helpful.