My mortgage payments will double as my ex partner who doesn't pay the mortgage refuses cheaper rate

wanting_a_break

Please can anyone help with any constructive advise?
My ex-husband left 6.5years ago taking our business and vehicles with him and leaving me to pay the mortgage on my own. When I divorced him, we looked at our assets and realised that what he had already taken was the equivalent value to the equity in the family home, so we decided to formalise this arrangement in a consent order which was passed through the courts. In return for removing his name off the deeds of the property I agreed not to make a claim against his pension and he agreed to stay on the mortgage in name only until I was financially able to take over the mortgage in my sole name. This arrangement left him free to run his business without my interference and allowed myself and our child to continue to live in our family home.
I have a large interest only mortgage which is fast approaching the end of a fixed term rate. My lender Santander have offered me a further 5year fixed rate deal at a low rate of 1.99% with no fees BUT to benefit from this deal I need to gain a signature from my ex-husband to agree the lower rate. He has refused to sign on the grounds that he wants his name to be immediately removed from the mortgage. As much as I would love to get his name off and be completely independent, I have failed the Santander affordability test so they won’t allow this change to happen, despite me having made every payment on my own for 6.5 years and having paid £36,500 off the capital also on my own. Without his signature Santander will put me onto the standard variable rate of 4.49% which increases my payments by £4000.00 per year. I am a single mother working 3 jobs and have a lodger to make ends meet and really don’t have the capacity to find a £4k annual increase. My income is too low to afford a smaller property or to be considered by any other lender, so I would have to go into rented accommodation which would use up my property equity very quickly, and with no pension I will have financial problems later on in life. If I am allowed the lower rate I can save to pay off further capital which increases my chances of taking him off the mortgage, I would then be fulfilling my undertaking on the consent order.
Although I can understand my ex-husband no longer wanting to stay on the mortgage, he has agreed on the consent order to the courts that he would, and I have sacrificed other things in return for this deal. I am not asking for any commitment from him financially or otherwise, his own financial circumstances prevent him from getting an alternative mortgage, so I am not holding back any of his future plans. The only risk to him would be if I default which hasn’t happened yet, definitely won’t happen on the cheaper rate, but we are at significant risk on the higher rate. No timescale was given for him to come off the mortgage so he can’t legally force a sale, but he has seen the opportunity to price me out of my home as a means of getting the result that he wants and has been putting pressure on me to sell.
I have contacted Santander to ask firstly to take him off the mortgage which they have refused, and secondly to ask them to accept my authority as the bill payer to agree the cheaper deal, but they tell me that he has legal rights over the mortgage therefore he can refuse my deal.
Myself and my daughter love our home and don’t want to leave, but we are at significant risk of repossession. Technically Santander can also look to him for money in the event of my default, but he is self-employed and hides income and as he doesn’t live in the house he has nothing to lose if it goes, but we lose our home. Sadly for us, my ex is fully aware of the risks this situation poses for me and our child but still refuses. He is also threatening to go bankrupt and I am financially linked to him. What can we do???

ACG

Can you not do it online without any signatures?

If not, can you not take him to court for half the payments?
If not, can you not threaten that the mortgage will go unpaid and eventually mean the property gets repossessed and hammers both of your credit files?

Failing all of the above, I do not think there is a magic solution. You could make a formal complaint to Santander and then the ombudsman but that could take a couple of months.

csgohan4

Sell the house and move on financially. You can't afford it alone and your ex isn't go to contribute, why keep it?


you can try can and go through the courts, but you have already agreed to a settlement?

MovingForwards

Can I check something?

You say it's an interest only mortgage, but then make reference to paying capital off. Do you mean you have been paying the interest only mortgage and made overpayments towards the capital? Or do you mean you have been making the contractual interest only payments?

What is your yearly income for each job and how long have you been employed for each job?

How much is the outstanding mortgage?

What's the present value of your house?

How old is your daughter?

It still may not be viable to remortgage to another company, ditching your ex from the deeds in the process, but facts and figures are a lot easier for brokers to offer advice.

diggingdude

Do you need to sell that house

wanting_a_break

Thanks for your comments everyone.
The point is that I CAN and DO afford my house at my current rate,
I can afford it AND pay some capital if he agrees to the cheaper rate
BUT I can't afford it if he refuses this deal and pushes me onto the standard variable rate.
He doesn't lose out in any way if I have a cheaper rate, he just doesn't want me to have a cheaper rate.
I could cope with losing my house if it was un-affordable but I don't want to lose it as a result of someone else's spite.

silvercar

There was an article about a similar case in the Sunday Times this week.

Article link.

In case it is behind a paywall, here are a couple of sentences from it:

Basic story is a woman paying a mortgage alone after ex-husband left due to domestic violence. She can't make contact with him and can't force a sale, has been paying the mortgage alone but can't move to a cheaper rate without his signature...

After being contacted by The Sunday Times, Santander moved Isabelle to a cheaper deal. The lender also offered her compensation in recognition of the delay in helping with her situation.

Last autumn, the trade body UK Finance launched a voluntary code of conduct for members designed to support victims and ensure staff recognise them and treat them sympathetically.

MortgageMamma

Have you gone back to your original solicitor and taken some legal advice on this matter?

Were you advised correctly to begin with before you agreed to this financial settlement? Did anybody tell you that you would require his consent to change mortgage products?

Have santander looked at the financial settlement documents that were issued as part of your separation?

I think that your ex is behaving very unreasonably and his intentions are clear, that he is trying to force a sale on your home whilst your child still lives there for his own financial gain. You could write a letter to that affect to the complaints department at Santander, and put in it that you are being forced into a situation which could lead to reposession if they don't take action and let you have a lower mortgage rate. If you do this now it will strengthen your case considerably if it went to court for repo. You need to evidence every single correspondence you have with them from this point and also see if you can get your original solicitor to write to your ex.

I would take this all that way up the complaints process if I was you, and if you still get no joy, go to the press and your local MP to highlight what is happening as I'm sure there will be lots of other people in the same situation as you in the country, inbetweeners that nobody seems to want to help. You have to fight not to let this happen.

Reading this its quite clear why he is your ex - no bloody integrity or consideration for his own child!

wanting_a_break

Thank you very much for this info, that could be really useful and I will definitely follow up these leads.
My ex is not doing this for his own financial gain as he has already received his financial settlement, and will not gain financially from the sale of the property. I gave up a lot of my rights and benefits in the settlement in exchange for his agreement to stay on the mortgage. He can't legally change his mind about this and remains committed to my mortgage regardless of whether or not he agrees this lower rate deal or not.
Basically he has the power to chose if I have a cheap rate or an expensive rate and he has chosen the later to force me into a bad situation, Santander are aware of this but are still allowing it to happen.