Advice for pensioner losing his home

ddebski_us

Hi everyone

This could be a long one so bear with me. In short, my husband's uncle is 66 and lives in a home that is owned (mortgaged) by his son who has got hugely in debt and is selling it, thus making his dad homeless.

In length -
The uncle got divorced around 15 years ago and had managed to get in debt and so he and his son remortgaged the house together and paid the mortgage together (not equal splits).

A few years later, they remortgaged again, this time to release some equity to pay off the son's large gambling debts. This time, as the son was becoming a dad and was unable to contribute to the mortgage, they went for an interest only. And, as uncle was over 60 and unable to go on the mortgage, solely in the son's name but uncle was paying the mortgage in full. At this point, son was living with his dad.

Fast forward a few years and son moved out and has racked up huge gambling debts again. This time, he has decided to sell the house as he doesn't want to remortgage (wants to be mortgage free). This renders his dad homeless, although he has agreed(?) to give his dad a cash lump sum from the sale once the mortgage has been repaid and he has what he needs for his gambling debts.

The house is on the market for £300k, the mortgage is roughly £165k and the lump sum uncle expects to get is £100k. Not enough buy a property outright in the SE.

I know uncle has been foolish trusting his son and that son is technically within his rights to sell the house but the morals are severely lacking here - basically making his dad homeless because of his own gambling habits.

My husband and I can't settle about this, the uncle has been more of a dad to him and we are so upset and desperate to come up with a solution so his doesn't lose his family home of 40 years.

My husband and I have our own mortgage, just one income and modest savings of £15k. His uncle has a private pension of £25k roughly but is a higher rate taxpayer and so would suffer tax at 40% if he withdrew it, so I think this scuppers any ideas of us getting a BTL to help him out.

Can I mortgage be transferred to us though if we stumped up £35k for son, put the mortgage in our name and allow uncle to continue to make payments?

Are there any laws to safeguard people who have lived in a property for so long? Anything regarding someone paying the mortgage in another's name? Seems so wrong that uncle has always made the huge majority of payments and yet son can take all equity if he wanted.

I know uncle got himself in this mess, but he has always trusted his son and helped him out financially when he can. It just seems so wrong and am desperate for a solution for him.

Well done if you got this far and thanks in advance for any words of wisdom.

xDx

ossie

£100K will buy a flat on South Coast in some towns if he is prepared to move.

ddebski_us

Thing is, he has other family and a lifetime's worth of friends here, a good job at Heathrow airport which isn't really transferable. I think moving area would be the end of him.

theGrinch

You cant trust a gambler. Your uncle must be certain in law that he will get £100k

ddebski_us

theGrinch wrote: »

You cant trust a gambler. Your uncle must be certain in law that he will get £100k

I know. That's our biggest worry.

amnblog

You've lost me.


Why is Uncle a H R Tax payer?


Is he still working as well as receiving a £25K pension?

ddebski_us

He's not drawing his pension and works full time still.

I know he could afford to rent somewhere but it's not the point that he must lose his family home.

amnblog

I get it now pension of £25K fund value not income.


(The first time I have seen a pension figure quoted as a fund value rather than an income - and I suspect it wont be the last)


It sounds like the son is coming away with just £35,000 less costs?


However, if he does not get his son away from the property he will bring the whole pack of cards down anyway.


The reality is that your Uncle has £100,000 of asset which, if the property were sold would at least be safe from the son's lifestyle.

Keep_pedalling

What an earth does this uncle do with all his money? A HR taxpayer in his sixties should be sitting on a pile of it by now.

He is not going to be homeless, he can comfortable rent somewhere nice and at the same time build up his savings to buy something in the short term.

It does not sound like you can afford to get financially involved here especially as it seems that his son's gambling habits are likely to come calling on his assets again.

ddebski_us

I guess the thing we are struggling with is that he's pretty much paid for the whole equity but is getting only £100k. The son is getting £35k for nothing more than putting his name on a piece of paper.

I'm now wondering if we could BTL a new property for him once he has his lump sum. Not sure where I'd stand with a BTL mortgage with our finances (one income, existing mortgage but no other debts). But at least he'd have a decent property to live in.

Thanks for your advice

ddebski_us

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

What an earth does this uncle do with all his money? A HR taxpayer in his sixties should be sitting on a pile of it by now.

He is not going to be homeless, he can comfortable rent somewhere nice and at the same time build up his savings to buy something in the short term.

It does not sound like you can afford to get financially involved here especially as it seems that his son's gambling habits are likely to come calling on his assets again.

He's a spender I'm afraid. Helps his family out with cash big time. Including his gambling son.

I know it's his own doing but it just galls me that his son is pulling this on him after all those years of calling on dad to help out. Just doesn't seem right.