Stuck paying half mortgage after split up

richlatham

My daughter is going through a divorce after 6 years of marriage. No children. She now lives with her new boyfriend at his mum's.

She is still paying half the mortgage with her husband even though she doesn't live there. Their apartment is owned 50:50 with a housing association. The property is probably worth what they paid for it, perhaps a bit less. It is a bit of a tip now and her ex shows no signs of moving out or wanting to sell.

She has built up some debts which we have taken over, but the monthly mortgage is something she could do without.

What are her options? She is concerned she will get a bad credit rating if she stops paying her share of the mortgage.

ACG

She will get a bad credit rating if she stops paying - as will the husband.

She can go to court and force a sale, but she would need to speak to a solicitor for that. Alternatively if his income is enough then he could take over the mortgage but the lender would need to be spoken to about that.

Thrugelmir

The property needs to be dealt with as part of divorce process.

holly_hobby

As we stand, whilst she is party to the mge and Shared Ownership (SO) arrangment with her ex, she is legally reponsible both severally (singularly) and jointly to service both commitments - even if currently separated.

If she stops paying hubby her share, he may not be able (or choose) to maintain the mge and rental commitment, which means that both the lender and HA will pursue both of them for payment, and record the arrears and any subsequent default on both their credit records.

Firstly, I would ensure that both the lender and HA are aware of the marital breakdown, that she is no longer resident at the property, whilst providing them with her new contact address so that they can send her duplicates of statements/any arrears notices etc, so that she can remain firmly in the loop and in a position to manage this.

Until we have formal divorce/separation, she needs to put it to her ex for her removal from the mge/deeds and SO arrangment, this will be based on her ex's income being sufficient to service both elements.

If it isn't or he refuses to consider this, then her only other option, as ACG states, is to go down the court route - it'll be expensive and messy, but if thats what it takes, she may have little other alternative.

Legal advice is obv reqd if the split isn't amicable, I'm sorry she's found herself in this situ, but she needs to be proactive with this and get formal terms of separation/divorce in place.

Hope this helps

Holly xx