Feel trapped, enslaved, cannot release equity from home

m33r4

Remortgaged my flat for a maximum £187000 around 2004 while still in a marriage, to invest this money in land being bought by husband at the time (now ex) and his brother.

The ex arranged all papers telling me this will be for our retirement. I have 3 children with him and wanted the best for our future. Forward a few years and I gave him a divorce on grounds of unreasonable behaviour. He had a few properties including this land so I went to the Land Registry and filed Beneficiary interest on 3 of his properties as the rest were getting repossessed when he deliberately stopped paying the mortgages. He fled the UK during the divorce so I attended court on my own, twice. Never took the financial matters to court as he wasn't around. The court attendances were purely for the divorce.

I wanted to start a new life in another part of the UK and expressed this to his brother (as the ex was still AWOL) . His brother agreed to sell the family house and told me to look for another house in the £200K price bracket. I found a house and his brother agreed to it. This was a chain sale so I had to get the family home sale funds to afford this new house. Sale of the family home went through, and as it was never on my name, the ex took £92000, without my knowledge, leaving me with only £150,000 towards purchase of a house for my 3 children and I - of course the house I had already agreed to buy cost £205,000 so this £150K money was not enough.

All my furniture was in the driveway of this new house but the estate agent would not release the key as they had not received the complete funds. When I phoned his brother to explain the problem, I was going to be homeless, he stepped in and lent me £57000 towards purchase of this new home but protected himself with a legal charge over this new family home, telling me that once his brother comes out of AWOL, he will get this £57000 from him and take his charge off the new home. I was homeless and desperate to get a home so I signed this loan agreement. I didn't even read it as all I wanted was a roof over the heads of my young children. Reading this loan agreement now, it says 8% interest accruing daily from 31 Aug 2007 to date. He's never asked me to pay this but in the clause it says he can ask me to pay this when it suits him. I don't have a mortgage on this house.

I never got the £187000 back I lent for the land purchase. I have no money to take them to court. In any case, the moment I did start a court case, the ex will go AWOL - it's his habit. He has  no fixed abode, lives in a bedsit and moves from place to place. The authorities will not find him and the court case will get pended. The brother has a home in London and also in India so he is not always here either.

What brings me here today is: I've applied to release equity from my home to pay off some debts and to invest the rest in a buy to let - this is kicking up dust with the brother as he currently has a 1st Lender Charge on the home; when the home gets remortgaged, this means the mortgage company gets 1st Lender charge leaving him with 2nd Lender Charge. He has refused to take his name off the house and wants to keep his name after the remortgage but these are his demands: 

1. I am to assign my Beneficiary interest over to him for the 3 properties (this includes the land I invested £187K in)
2. I am to put him as 2nd in Lending charge on the buy to let property I propose to buy (btw I've not even found this house to buy yet) as he will be losing 1st Lender charge on the home
3. In the event of my death, assets in my current home will to go to him or my 3 kids but not to my current husband (we've been married 11 years and he will be helping pay the mortgage on the family home when the remortgage goes through)
4. In the event of my death, assets in the future buy to let house will to go to him or my 3 kids but not to my  current husband (we've been married 11 years and he will be paying the mortgage on the buy to let too)

Any advice please on how I can release equity from my house in all this adversity?

I don't have any paperwork - how can I prove the £187 I pulled from the remortgage - via my bank?

My head is all over the place with his demands. He has put a spanner in the future plans I have for my family. I feel enslaved, trapped and can't see how I can get released from it. As I said above, they will flee the moment I start court proceedings,  and that's if I had the money to do so...

tacpot12

You need to separate yourself from your ex's brother. You do not need a Buy to Let investment.
I think the best option for you is to agree with the brother that you can go ahead with the Equity Release, but you will use the money to pay him back the £57,000 plus some interest, if you have enough equity to offer him some interest. I would offer him 2.5% interest in full and final settlement of the debt.  This solves the problem that he will not agree to losing his 1st Charge on YOUR home. 

TN1984

Is there anything in the loan agreement that allows you to pay the brother his capital plus 'some' interest and release the charge? Would he be willing to discuss buying out his charge? My first thought to be honest is why look at releasing equity to purchase a buy to let whilst he has this charge over the house. Is there anyway to release your equity to 'buy him out' instead?