Morgage advice required

July2017

Hi everyone I am hoping someone can give me some advice.
My parents are married and they have joint ownership of the house. In the last few years my father up and left for another woman. He has been paying back the morgage on the house. My mother is a housewife (no income) and automatically didn't get involved with any payments/bills etc.
My mother has been living in the house with her children who have been supporting her financially.

My father is now refusing to pay the morgage and is threatening his children to pay and if we don't the house will be repossessed eventually. We have told him to transfer the house to my mothers name and we will continue payments on behalf of my mother but he refused even though he said he would after the morgage has been paid. I have texts from him as proof of blackmail. He has so many debts where we have had to lend him almost 10000 to stop them repossessing the belongings in our home.
We have tried to settle the ownership of the house through a solicitor but he does not respond he wants to keep control of the house and we are now fed up of living in fear.

Please could anyone offer some advice if we pay for the morgage how can we show that the payments have come from us and not him? Also once the morgage has been paid how can we stop him from remorgaging the house and leaving us to pay again?
We tried calling the lender but they said they can't help.
Any help at all will be appreciated.

Lilla_D

I'm no solicitor, but sounds like you'll have a legal battle on your hands I don't think you need mortgage advice - I think you need legal advice.

Just some thoughts though: if it's a joint mortgage, then your father can't really remortgage without your mother's approval, so I wouldn't be worried about that. Even if the mortgage is repaid in full, he can't just take out a new mortgage, because the solicitor would notice your mother's name on the deeds and would contact your mother.
However, from a lender's point of view, it doesn't matter who pays the mortgage as long as it's paid.

Just a question: why doesn't your mother work? If there is no husband to be a housewife to, why doesn't she work?

tlc678910

Is it correct to assume the children are adults that are in work?

Is the mortgage more/less than the cost of renting another property suitable for you all? This might affect what you choose to do.

If your father has continued to pay the mortgage to keep a roof over everyone's heads but now his children are working adults thinks you should pay your way this is not too unreasonable if the cost is proportionate to a room rental and affordable?

How many years has your dad paid the mortgage? I understand you are angry that your dad left your mum but that doesn't mean he has no right to equity in his joint property - although he may choose to give it away.

If you are working adult children and the mortgage is not outrageous could you view the mortgage payments as rent to your parents (that they will receive later in equity?)

sulphate

I'm not defending your father's actions but look at it from his perspective:

he has supported his family up until the children are of working age
he no longer wants to pay the mortgage of a house that he has not been living in for some time
he now wishes to benefit from his share of equity in the house that he has paid for for x years

Surely the best thing to do would be to sell the house and have a clean break. A settlement for both parties would be agreed and hopefully your mother's share would be enough to put towards another property. I realise she is not currently working, but unfortunately she cannot expect the same lifestyle that she might have if she was still married to your father, especially as it seems the children are now adults.

ViolaLass

Are your parents divorced? Was there a financial settlement? (I'm assuming not)

Your mother can't take on the mortgage with no income.

Thrugelmir

You need to separate your emotions from the raw facts. In summary. You father has a right to his share of the equity in the property. You and your siblings need to consider the best way of supporting your mother in the future.

The issue that first needs resolving is the split of the equity in the property between your father and mother. Also how your father gets paid his share. Whether it's selling the property. Or buying him out by the remainder of the family obtaining a mortgage between you all. .

July2017

Yes the children are adults now and all working however when our father left he left behind a whole load of debt on our heads for utility bills etc. There have been many times we have had to lend him money to pay the morgage.
My mother is at a retired age and unable to find work.

We are not refusing to pay the morgage, fair enough we live in the house however he took the money by remorgaging and used up the money elsewhere. Surely if he took it he should pay it back right? The house was fully paid and my mother contributed to it when she was working.

The morgage finishes at the end of the year. If we do pay the remainder how do we make the lender aware that the payment has come from us and not him?

We have tried the legal route to try and resolve the ownership of the house he does not respond to our solicitors. Also he is still using our address as his permanent address when he no longer lives there. He is in so much debt with his businesses that the first place the bailiffs come looking is our address. We are then constantly being pestered by the debt collectors threatening to take our belongings.

Number75

And what has your solicitor told you is the next step if he doesn't respond?
You can have papers served to him by a courier who also offer a witnessing service to confirm he has been served. Then you progress.

getmore4less

Debt collectors cannot take your belongings.

How did he remortgage the house without your mothers approval?

How much is left on the mortgage?

How much is the house worth?

There are a few things to consider.

If he no longer lives at the place start addressing that issue, make sure he is off the electoral register, returning posts etc.
if you know where he does live pass that information on.

Make sure all utilities and council tax are in the names of occupants


Review the mortgage situation, it may be that just paying it off over the year may be the simple solution to avoiding repossession.

you then need to look at how you stop any further lending, with some restriction on the land registry.

ultimately if he owns part of the house then the creditors can come after that share and that is going to be a much harder situation to resolve.

ViolaLass

If you pay off the mortgage, the lender will not care that you paid it rather than him. They just want their money.

July2017

It has come to light that he forged my mums signature to remorgage the house a long time ago. My dad dealt with all of the finances so my mum was oblivious to what he has been doing but he has been paying back the morgage until recently because he is in financial trouble himself. Do we report him for fraud or will my mum get in trouble because she was so naive in trusting him with the finances for over 20 years.

There are only 6 instalments left approx £10,000 in total on the morgage. We are now getting threatening texts from my dad that we have to pay or the house will be repossessed. At the same time he is also saying he will transfer his share of the house to us only if we finish paying the mortgage but when we ask we want it in writing as proof he then backtracks and says he's going to sell his share of the house instead to scare us into paying.

My mum contacted the lender to explain the situation and to try to reduce the payments left but because she doesn't work they told her seek financial advice and she will have to find a way to pay the1400 amounts each month.

Can anyone please clarify if he can sell his share of the property without my mums consent as the ownership of the house is joint.
Can he remorgage his share of the property without my mums consent? How can we stop him?
We have texts from him saying he will transfer his share of the house, can we use this as evidence as a binding contract? Will it stand up in court?

Any advice would be appreciated