A Friend of mine

thebullsback

A friend of mine wants me to ask about there situation. They were unmarried and bought a house together in joint names.The relationship fell apart and my friend left the jointly owened home .The partner who remained in the house then lost there job and refused/could not pay any Bills so my friend continued to pay mortage /and other housing assosiated bills all the time hoping to save the relationship.

My friend realised after several monthes that the relationship was over so he attempted to put property up for sale but ex partner refused to allow its sale and refused to leave.After another few monthes my friend decided to stop paying any bills on the property as they were strugling on a low wage.The partner in the house formed a new relationship with someone who was employed but still refused to pay any bills so my friend then sought legal action and the joint property was then sold at auction with a shortfall of £40000.

My friend has recieved a couple of letters implying he is responsibale for the shortfall as the ex does not work and my friend has now got a decent job with decent money.

My friend has also been informed by a "Friend" who worked in mortage debt department that if they basically ignore all correspondants for 7 year then debt will be wrote off !!

Any thoughts on this please.

sourcrates

Hi,

Both parties are equally liable here, as mortgage shortfall debts tend to be quite large amounts of money, they are not always pursued very vigorously, as not many people have 40k stashed down the back of the sofa, having said that, your freind needs to take proper advice, as the "friend in the mortgage dept" dosen`t know what they are talking about.

Any interest outstanding on the shortfall debt, can be chased for 6 years, capital debt can be chased for 12, these debts usually tend to consist of capital debt, so your looking at dodging the bullet for 12 years.

If they know they have disposable income, collection activity will continue, usually if you tell them you can`t afford to pay anything, they back off eventually, legal action in these circumstances is rare, but not impossible.

sharpe106

Is your friend, likely to be wanting another mortgage in the future?

thebullsback

My friend is quietly keeping there head down as far as any credit situations go obviously any application for any form of credit would set some sort of alarm off. 
Would they be ok to come out of hiding after 12 years or are they forever looking over there shoulder ?

fatbelly

It's just debt. Your friend needs to take advice specific to their situation. Tactics commonly used are:

Full and final settlement
https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/fullandfinalsettlementoffers/lumpsumoffers.aspx

Bankruptcy
https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/bankruptcy/how-to-go-bankrupt.aspx

Regardless of what strategy is chosen, with these debts I always recommend making the lender jump through the hoops in this factsheet
https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/mortgage-shortfalls/mortgage-debt.aspx

Edit: Personally I don't consider non-priority debt something important enough to go into hiding for 12 years for.  Genocide, maybe.