Morgage and divorce

dizzybuff

My ex is insisting i provide him indemnity from the morgage by mid august , the last letter my solicitor sent to him it took him 6 weeks to reply to .

i have paid the morgage solely for two years I am now very reluctant to provide this unless something happened and I couldnt afford to keep the roof over the kids heads.

I know he cant force me to sell . I have offered him "best endevours to buy the house " im just at my wits end , any advise is welcome.

BigAunty

What is 'indemnity from the mortgage'? Is he a joint owner seeking that he isn't liable to pay towards the mortgage or something?

Are you finalising your divorce/marital settlement? Is he paying child support? How much equity is in the property? Can you take over sole ownership on the strength of your salary?

See the Shelter website's relationship breakdown section. This includes information on how you might get an occupation order that obliges him to let you live there until your youngest turns 18.

dizzybuff

Hi big aunty , thanks for the response.

He is joint owner seeking a letter saying he isnt liable. But until I can take over the morgage ( redeployment hasnt helped) he wont be getting this out of me . He has been told I do not have the capacity to take over the morgage, but because of my benefits can afford to pay it.

Finalising the divorce we are supposed to be , but after a year of mediation we arew back to square one and he is being a pain.

Equity , very little , maybe a few thousand. he seems to think the price of the house is worth is far greater than the valuations I have had.

I have yet to go to court but this is my next step I have been reassured that as I have the children living with me the court is likely to tell him it cant be sold in the interim.

No matter what I have offered him , he has demanded more. He walked out , I had to pick up the pieces , not that that matters. All I want is a stable home for my children which I am providing ( hiding all the stress. )

BigAunty

I would post a new thread or cross post to this one in the housing forum. I know it's a relationship issue but the nub is to do with housing legalities so perhaps the posters there may come up with more info or options for you to consider.

I am not a legal expert. I'm perplexed as to how an indemnity letter would let him sidestep payments from a lender's perspective as your personal agreements cannot superceded the 'joint and several' liability of your contract. If you were to get into arrears, the lender will seek redress from either or both of you.

Is he paying you 20% of his gross income, as per the guidelines by the CMS (successor to CSA?).

Perhaps you need to look at an occupation order - see the shelter website or ask the housing forum members how this works. This would mean you can live in the property until your youngest turns 18. As a joint owner without an OO, he can take up occupation whenever he likes, even if he's not paying a penny towards the mortgage. I don't believe that OOs will demand the joint owner who has left the property will have to pay towards the mortgage but other people can clarify.

Do you have a realistic prospect of taking over the mortgage (if he gives consent) in your sole name? Will you ever earn enough in the near future to satisfy current lending requirements? This isn't about whether or not you can make the payments with your existing level of income, it's about having the right ratio, according to lenders - x amount of salary to x amount of lending.

If I remember rightly, according to a thread on this forum by TWM, he may gain an interest in the capital that you gain over time from your earnings or equity in the property, hence perhaps the need to get divorced sooner than later. In TWM case, she was separated for a long time and bought a new property, only to find that her ex (who didn't cough up enough to support his daughter) may use this as part of the settlement.

People who can't afford to buy a property with their salary are generally in rented accommodation. Have you thought about consenting to a sale and moving into rented accommodation? Lone parents on low incomes/benefits may have an entitlement to housing benefit in rented accommodation for around 6 months (can be extended) so long as the matrimonial home is up for sale.

My understanding is that it is expensive and long-winded for a joint owner to try and force the sale of the property through the courts. So perhaps it's not realistic for him to go down to that route.

So don't sign anything until you've got more advice. And also, I guess you need to look into the feasibility (or not) of having him sign an indemnity that he's not entitled to any future equity in the property since he's not contributing. Not sure if there's any such thing but you can enquire on the housing forum.

For all you know, it may well be the case that the OO expects you to pay all the mortgage and the ex get 50% share of the eventual sale profits.

dizzybuff

he wont get 50% of the equity even if we sell , Im not applying for the absolute until finances are sorted , there was no equity when he left and now hes peed about for ling enough there is minimal, but the house is our childrens homes. the indemnity will include no equity for him , but at the moment he seems to think he is entitled to everything I have, which I have been advised is not the case.

pleasedelete

dizzybuff wrote: »

he wont get 50% of the equity even if we sell , Im not applying for the absolute until finances are sorted , there was no equity when he left and now hes peed about for ling enough there is minimal, but the house is our childrens homes. the indemnity will include no equity for him , but at the moment he seems to think he is entitled to everything I have, which I have been advised is not the case.

Why wont he get 50%

FBaby

Could this indemnity be a requirement from a lender so that he can himself get another mortgage for another property?

In any case, it sounds like you need to draw some kind of legal document if he is going to remain on the mortgage but not contribute anything so that you can claim all the equity gained after he stopped paying when selling the property. The difficulty might be though that you don't agree on the value of the house at the time he stopped paying. Ideally, you would have got it valued there and then.

GobbledyGook

pleasedelete wrote: »

Why wont he get 50%

Because dizzybuff is the one providing the roof over the children's heads presumably.

TBagpuss

an indemnity is perfectly normal in these circumstances. Basically, it is saying that you are going to be responsbible for paying the mortgage, and that until such time as you can get his name removed, you agree that if you default and he ends up making payments to the mortgage lender, he is entitled to recover those payments from you.

The normal wording you would expect to find in an order would be along the lines of "the husband/wife Undertaking to use his/her best endeavours to secure the release of the wife/husband from all liability under the mortgage secured on [address] in favour of [lender] and to indemnify him/her on respect of the same" This would be coupled with details of what beneficial shares you will each have in the property and when/if any lump sum will be paid.

Once you can get his name off the mortgage, he no longer *needs* an indemnity as he no longer has any liability to the lender.

Talk to your solicitor about the wording of the order/agreement.

Have they advised about whether / why it would be appropriate to agree?

dizzybuff

they have advised it is appropriate to agree , im fine in agreeing hes just messing about with very thing else now and frankly doing my head in , he wouldnt get 50% as there are children involved and i have been paying the morgage solely for 3 years when the house had 0% equity