Husband tied to previous mortgage

Anniebs

Hi!
I'll try to summarise our situation. I met my 2nd husband over 5 years ago when he had already separated from his partner but they were still living in the same house. He moved out around 6 months later to a rented flat for a year then moved in with me. I am the sole home owner and mortgage free. We have now been married for 2 years.
He has 2 children (13 & 14) with his ex but they weren't married. He has a joint mortgage with his ex, they are beneficial joint tenants.

His ex didn't work but since their separation has a part time admin job. His ex lives in their 4 bed detached home. My husband pays a generous child allowance and although he no longer contributes directly to their mortgage, she doesn't earn enough to take it on herself so he is tied in with it. There have been conversations in the past about her moving to a more affordable home but these stalled a while ago and my husband doesn't want to rock the boat as far as the children are concerned. Which is fine on the surface, but he moved in to my original family home which was supposed to be short term as we wanted to move in to 'our' home and so that he could live nearer his children. We had accepted that wasn't going to happen but things have changed now as I have a new job which involves a long commute - so we would like to relocate. This move would also be nearer his children so win win! Expect he is tied in to the other mortgage.
My questions are:

* can we get a joint mortgage together in addition to the one he is already on?

* if he hasn't contributed directly to the mortgage recently could he be penalised when it comes to equity (IF that ever happens!). He was the sole contributer before. Should he maybe split the amount he gives his ex so she gets the same amount but is seen to contribute directly to their mortgage. Would this make a difference?

Thank you in advance - I'm sure there'll be more where this came from!

silvercar

You can get a joint mortgage while he is on the other one. A lender will look at affordability, so it could depend on whether he can afford both.

He pays maintenance to his ex to contribute to the costs of bringing up his children, that includes her providing a home for them. When that property is sold, they can agree a split if not a court could rule and the judge would look at the whole situation. When he lived with his ex and was the sole contributer to the mortgage, she presumable was doing the bulk of the child care and that has a value.
I doubt he could split his contribution to pay the mortgage unless the amount he gives to her is as least as much as the CSA calculate she is entitled to.

Anniebs

Thank you for your reply. He voluntarily pays more then he would need to from CSA calculations and wouldn't reduce that amount, just a different split so his ex would end up with exactly the same amount as she would then have less to pay towards the mortgage if that makes sense

yksi

As it stands, a lender will probably count his existing mortgage as your joint current expense - it doesn't make a difference that the ex is the one paying the mortgage, it's still his legal and financial responsibility to be paying that mortgage in the lender's eyes. So they might well say you can only afford a 50k mortgage because of that other repayment... you get the idea.

He should be seeing a solicitor about this. It's one thing not to want to upset the kids' existing home, but it's also technically his house, and he does have rights over it, including if he wants it sold. Adults do have a right to have a life, the ex really should have taken steps to move to a more affordable home by now and allow your husband to move on with you. The kids are not five years old. Kids cope, we all go through stuff in life and they'll survive moving to a new place imo.

silvercar

Anniebs wrote: »

Thank you for your reply. He voluntarily pays more then he would need to from CSA calculations and wouldn't reduce that amount, just a different split so his ex would end up with exactly the same amount as she would then have less to pay towards the mortgage if that makes sense

It may be that the amount he has to give to her needs to be at least the CSA guidelines. He can’t give less than that to her. Anything above that he could use towards the mortgage.

Anniebs

Yksi, I know, but there's nothing more I can say or do as I don't want to put more pressure on him. I have learnt to take a step back and accept what we have. It is only my job move that has made it more pressing but I feel we are in stale mate ��

[Deleted User]

silvercar wrote: »

You can get a joint mortgage while he is on the other one. A lender will look at affordability, so it could depend on whether he can afford both.

He pays maintenance to his ex to contribute to the costs of bringing up his children, that includes her providing a home for them. When that property is sold, they can agree a split if not a court could rule and the judge would look at the whole situation. When he lived with his ex and was the sole contributer to the mortgage, she presumable was doing the bulk of the child care and that has a value.
I doubt he could split his contribution to pay the mortgage unless the amount he gives to her is as least as much as the CSA calculate she is entitled to.

If the property is owned as joint tenants then legally the equity split is 50/50 when the property is sold.

[Deleted User]

OP, if your husband and his ex partner really are joint tenants rather than tenants in common that means that when one dies the surviving joint tenant automatically inherits the whole property. Your husband might want to consider severing the joint tenancy so that should he pre-decease his ex partner then he can leave his share of the property to whomever he likes such as his children.

You're in a bit of a Catch-22 situation. If your husband won't force the sale of the property and you don't want to press him on the matter then you are stuck with the current situation for the foreseeable future. Whilst I can understand your husband not wanting to rock the boat with the children, sooner or later that house will have to be sold unless he intends to continue subsiding his ex for the rest of his/her life, whichever ends sooner.

Anniebs

Thank you for all your good advice. I fully agree with the comments. Having being through it myself as well as witnessing many friend's experiences and know he is being more than generous and patient, especially as the split was her choice originally. I do try keep out of it. I know she is difficult to talk to and it has to be on her terms.

His priority is his children which I fully support. He misses the day-to-day with them so will go and visit them in the week when he can as well as having them every other weekend and for 3 weeks(ish) during school holidays. Until last year he was able to buy extra leave from work so he could have them for the whole of August.
He did once mention reducing the child maintenance to match the CSA recommendation but she threatened to reduce the time he had with the children as the amount is linked to this! Obviously this wasn't in the children's best interest so he still pays extra and continues to spend as much time as possible with them.

I had accepted the compromises as we are very happy and have a lovely home even though it isn't ideal as even though we have tried to make it our own, it is still the home I brought my children up in during my first marriage. So I do feel a bit selfish that I now want to push this to relocate as my new commute is not good.

I think I now need to park it for Christmas - and then maybe show him the replies as they reinforce what I have said. Your comments have reassured me and been very helpful.
Thank you