Mortgage after divorce

holly12345_2

I am recently divorced and looking to buy a new property. The issue I have is that I am still on the old mortgage with my ex, as he cannot afford to buy out my stake in the property (little or no equity and he does not have any earned income of his own).

However, via benefits, maintenance payments etc. he can actually comfortably afford the current mortgage payment himself. But this of course makes no difference to our current lender who will not remove my name from the mortgage as they deem it unaffordable for him (despite the fact he has been paying it for the last two years).

Are there any lenders who will take a common sense approach to this? That is to say, not count that mortgage commitment against my name as I am no longer paying it. I know we are jointly and severally responsible for it. But if we could prove to a lender that he has been paying it himself for 2 years?

My income is not sufficient to justify another mortgage on top of this one.

TrickyDicky101

holly12345 wrote: »

Are there any lenders who will take a common sense approach to this? That is to say, not count that mortgage commitment against my name as I am no longer paying it. I know we are jointly and severally responsible for it. But if we could prove to a lender that he has been paying it himself for 2 years?

My income is not sufficient to justify another mortgage on top of this one.

There are no mainstream lenders that will provide you with a mortgage if you fail affordability (which is what you are implying above).

I am afraid I don't believe you understand what Joint & Several means - it would be very remiss of a lender not to take your existing mortgage commitment into account if approached for any new lending.

Can you/your ex sell?

holly12345_2

I know exactly what it means. However, as I have pointed out, my ex can pay that mortgage without any issue whatsoever and can prove 2 years' worth of payments.

I did not think for a minute that a Halifax or a Santander would entertain me, thus why I asked if there were any lenders who would take a common sense approach.

Selling isn't really an option.

kingstreet

I don't think so.

Best you'll get is a lender which treats the monthly mortgage payments like a loan and reduce what you can borrow; rather than another which will calculate what you can borrow then deduct the outstanding mortgage balance from that.

holly12345_2

Yes, plenty who will just treat the mortgage payment as a monthly commitment. Won't work unfortunately

holly12345_2

Or let me put another spin on it. Will anyone accept an application from an applicant who's only income is from benefits and maintenance?

Thrugelmir

You mention maintenance. Is this in relation to your children. Who I assume live with your ex.

Annisele

When you say the property has "little or no equity", what exactly do you mean?

If there's no equity at all (and no extra money to reduce the mortgage balance) then you couldn't move lender even if your ex was earning a fortune. A new lender will want to make sure it isn't lending more than the property is worth.