Mortgage Penalty Payments

denyse_marston

I separated from my husband in 2000, unfortunately he left me in a great deal of debt, I had to take over our mortgage because he went bankrupt and had I had to buy him out, after he left he only paid 3 payments I however carried on paying my share of the mortgage, but when I came to take over the mortgage wich originally was £43,000 they charged me over £23,000 penalty for his half missed payments and admin charges. Is this legal and can I do anything about it I took out the new mortgage three years ago and have never missed a payment but because of his bad record I had to take a sub-prime mortgage which is currently 9%. I dont think I can get a new mortgage because I am now unable to work throught being registered disabled.

dunstonh

A charge of £23000 on a £43000 mortgage is unlikely. Can you break the £23k down to explain how you came by that figure?

denyse_marston

Unlikely or not it is true and I have the papers to prove it, the penalities were made up of missed half payments by my ex-husband and administration charges leading to penalty costs.

dwsjarcmcd

Therefore the part of the 23k is made up of non-payments of interest, not any penalties, you can't blame your lender for including these

jamesd

Someone has to pay both the interest on his half and if it's a repayment mortgage the capital repayment part of the missed payments. That someone is him or you or both of you in some split.

You can usefully look at the interest rate charged on the missed payments to see if it is the same as the mortgage rate and at the amounts of any administrative charges. Posting the full breakdown of costs, charges and penalties here might help people to explain in more detail and suggest where you might be able to argue for some reduction.