Property in divorce

monty-doggy

My oh will receive his decree absolute in a few weeks, the divorce has been done without solicitors. Before this is finalised we just want to clarify what options there is for the family home.

His ex wife is living there with three children, she has been for five years and she pays the mortgage now. (Interest only)

The house is joint owned and joint mortgaged.

She cannot apply for a new mortgage on her own.

He is happy for her to have the house and equity which was built up before she switched to interest only.

Can he apply to the courts for the mortgage and property to be transferred to her?

We contacted the mortgage company but they said they can't remove him from the mortgage.

Any ideas what we can do?

clearingout

has he sorted the financial side of his divorce or is this the start of it? it is essential that the finances are signed off by the courts, even if he and his ex are able to come to an agreement amongst themselves, to prevent problems further a long.

a court cannot compel a mortgage company to remove someone from a mortgage. It doesn't work like that. The court could, potentially, order the house sold but the likelihood of this depends on their various incomes, the age of the children etc. Assuming the children are your partners, how will they be housed if the house is sold?

duchy

Odds are with children involved the courts will want to know the financial arrangements . At present he could at any time force the wife into selling to demand his half in theory which wouldn't be acceptable to the court obviously.
What is the long term plan with the house - for it to be sold later when the kids have left home ? If so what sort of distribution of any equity has been agreed (especially as he is no longer contributing to the mortgage). What would happen if the wife needed to move before the youngest reached 18 for work or family reasons. These are the sort of things that it's worth getting a faimily solicitor involved at this point so you can go to court with a mutual agreement in place and avoid delays. They will tell you what options are available that are likely to be satisfactory to the court and gives both of them the chance to decided between themselves a mutual compromise to give to the court. So long as the court feels it is a fair agreement that should be that.

monty-doggy

There are no financials to be sorted, she has a larger income than him through benefits , her new partner and a part time job, however we live together and are financially ok. They share the children she has them 4 nights, he has them 3. He pays her £250 a month maintenance for the children. They don't have any savings or pensions to split, just the house.

He also provides all school uniforms, coats and shoes, plus maintains a home where they have a bedroom each and nice clothes, toys etc. he also pays for school trips and half of school meals.

Up until her new partner moved in he provided extra money to cover mortgage payments but stopped when he moved in which I think is fair?

She doesn't want to sell the house however on the divorce papers when it asked about arrangements for financials he put that she will remain in the family home and assume the mortgage payments, until the children reach 18 at which point the house will be sold and she can have the equity, or at any point she can buy him out. He did stipulate though that if she defaults on the mortgage (as she did 9 times 2 years ago and wrecked his credit rating) that any equity would then be split, as it will ruin his chances of home owning or getting credit in the future.

He doesn't want the children to loose their home, and we just need to make sure she keeps up with the payments now

We had a free half hour with a solicitor who said something about a consent order for all of the above, but I've forgotten the details.
Do you think a court would accept the above?

Also if for any reason she wanted to leave the home earlier he would either agree to a sale or try to buy her out and keep the house himself.

Hope that all makes sense!

FBaby

Does she new partner lives with her in the house then?

monty-doggy

Yes, they had a new baby on Xmas eve.

ALI1973

The likelyhood is that unless the ex wife can support the mortgage on her own (this will depend on what the mortgage provider considers income - most likely part time job only) then they will not accept your OH to be removed from the responsibility of the mortgage. So if she doesn't make payment he will have to.

However, you have said there is a new partner, is it possible for new partner and ex wife to get a remortgage in their own names, thus removing your OH from his financial obligation to the family home?

As regards to the wording of the divorce financial settlement, it may just be me, but it doesn't make sense. He says - she can have the house and equity, then says she can buy him out?.

monty-doggy

No I meant if she wants to leave the house, he would buy her out not the other way round.

She has the most horrendous credit rating, no way she can remortgage.

Looks like nothing else to be done than hope she keeps up with payments.
If she doesn't my oh cannot afford to pay for 2 houses and so it would end up repossessed.

RAS

Please get your partner to get an hour with a decent divorce lawyer with experience of financial settlements and consent orders NOW.

Leaving this to fester is going to cause problems iun the future. The ex needs to know her responsibilities as well as your OH.

The logical thing is for the ex and her new bloke to "buy the house" form ex and OH. The downside is that if her credit rating is pants she will have to let the new bloke have sole tenancy and be the only one of the mortgage. Unless she marries him, he would end up with all the equity if they split up.

The downside of the current situation is that she can keep wrecking OH's credit record for the next 20 years.

Tigsteroonie

I found an interesting snippet on Experian's website recently regarding divorce & joint mortgages:

Can I get my former partner's details removed from my report if we share a joint account?

Unfortunately not. As you have a current financial connection, the details relating to your partner remain on your report until all joint financial commitments have ended. You can, however, add a short explanatory statement to your report (explaining the details or circumstances around the connection). This is called a 'Notice of Correction'.

If the only financial connection you have is a joint mortgage, we can create a disassociation between you and your ex-partner, providing you no longer live together.

That still doesn't help if the other person defaults on payment though. Just make sure that he advises the mortgage company that he has moved out, and provide an alternative correspondence address ready for their Secured Collections department if necessary so that he gets a letter when she defaults.

LittleMrsThrifty

As others have said, your partner really does need to seek legal advice asap. It's great that things are amicable and that they have been able to make arrangements between themselves, however he needs to pay a solicitor now to avoid more costly problems later.

There are any number of possibilities that could happen - a family law solicitor will know all of them and be able to properly advise your partner of his options.