X-WIFE and Mortgage.

Beanbag46

Hello, learned people of MSE.
Will try and keep question short.
Ok, May 2011 filed for divorce as Ex had an affair and still with and subsequently married him. They have been living together with my young daughters since. 2012 divorced.
As part of divorce settlement, ex would take 35% of net profits when I sold the house. As a knee jerk reaction to the affair and ghosts of my ex I wanted to sell the property and agreed. It's in a court order. I'm still living here 3 years on. So the ghosts have disappeared and I'm happy to stay. 2013 ex in writing said she wanted no more to do with the house and as long as I would get her off the mortgage that would be the end of it. I spent many meetings with the C&G only to be told that I don't qualify to pay the mortgage so she will have to remain on it!! Although I've been paying the mortgage on my own throughout our relationship and since on my own.
2014 she completely u-turned and asked for me to buy her out or she will threaten action from her solicitors to sell the house!! After many emails meetings with her and disgusted by her our ping pong went like:
She asked for £10k, I offered £2.5k.....no deal
She asked for £7.5k I offered £5k.....no deal
Now because I can't afford anymore (don't think I should give her £1 let alone thousands!) she replied with "fine I will stay on the mortgage"
Now my question is, as we are on a joint mortgage and she won't budge couldn't I ask her to pay half or 35% of the mortgage every month? Surely it's not fair that she stays on the mortgage and not contribute, waiting for the day I sell up? Being on the mortgage surely makes her have a liability??
Just doesn't seem at all fair. Her life is sorted.....oh and I forgot to say she left me with £30000 of family debt that I'm still paying off!
Please your help would be most appreciated.
Kind Regards,
Gerard.

Thrugelmir

Your ex doesn't have to contribute to the mortgage. If you cannot remortgage the property in your own name then you do have a potential problem. As your ex could force a sale of the property through the courts. An expensive option, however if there's equity in the property the costs could be awarded against you and paid from your share of the proceeds.

There's no easy answer. Other than perhaps you selling up and downsizing.

Beanbag46

Thanks thrugelmir,
I now live in the house with my girlfriend and her 2 lads. My solicitor has said it will be a struggle if we don't agree a figure. What's the point of paying her off if I can't get her off the mortgage anyway?
I was hoping that just mentioning to her that she may be liable would force her hand and not be so greedy.

Thrugelmir

If I was your ex and I wanted to move on with my life. I would enforce the Court Order. Simple as that.