I can no longer afford my share of our mortgage

rob3770

I am going through a divorce and have been paying 50% of the monthly mortgage payments since moving out 2 years ago.
I can no longer afford my share due to my rent and living costs etc.
My soon to be ex wife has suddenly offered to pay the full amount.
How does this affect a share of the equity when the house is sold?

MovingForwards

There is no share of a mortgage, you are both joint and severally liable for it.

Your soon to be ex has offered to cover it so her credit history doesn't get messed up.

When is the house to be sold? Is there a buyer? Is it to go on the market?

dimbo61

Have you got children together ?
Can your EX afford to buy you out of the property.

gozaimasu

The soon to be ex wife should really get a legal agreement drawn up. Even though you're "jointly and severally liable" for it, surely you don't think it's fair for her to pay 100% of the mortgage from now on and still end up with 50/50 split? What would you like to happen? Pay nothing to the mortgage and still get 50/50?

comeandgo

You own half the house so your non payment of the mortgage has no baring on that.  If you want to agree with your soon to be ex that you would be "owe" the missing payments then that could be agreed and deducted from your share of equity.  

Thrugelmir

You have no share of the mortgage. How the equity is divided is subject to negotiation and subject to circumstances. The fact you are currently paying is potentially a factor too. 

gwynlas

You need to have a financial agreement drawn up as part of the divorce
In fairness as you have been paying half the mortgage until now you should be entitled to 50% of the equity at current valuation, easily obtained by either paying RICS surveyor, asking for valuations from 3 estate agents or going on the prices for similar houses in your postcode.
Can your ex wife pass affordability criteria to remortgage the property to release equity to buy you out?
Are there children involved which is why this hasn't been addressed already?
Without making assumptions it is difficult to advise further/

blue_max_3

Technically, she would be liable for half your rent too. Just saying.
There are only shared assets and expenses in reality. It all forms part of the financial agreement and the sooner it's sorted out the better. You should have a clean break agreement, where everything is documented and agreed. 

[Deleted User]

This happened to my partner. He paid half plus CMS for 18 months and there was no incentive to settle. In the end he just stopped paying to enable him to rent his own place and she found the money to pay ! all sorted in the end via divorce finances 

CheesyWiggles

gozaimasu said:

The soon to be ex wife should really get a legal agreement drawn up. Even though you're "jointly and severally liable" for it, surely you don't think it's fair for her to pay 100% of the mortgage from now on and still end up with 50/50 split? What would you like to happen? Pay nothing to the mortgage and still get 50/50?

Is the soon to be ex paying half of OPs rent? It’s not as straight forward as you say.

rob3770

Thanks for the comments...
I paid the 20K deposit and 65% of the monthly payments up till 1 year ago after paying that for 7 years, so i really don't feel any pain in stopping as i have my rent to find and some evenings actually go without an evening meal as i cant afford it.
I have been asking and asking her to sell the house for the past 2 years and its all delaying tactics, there are no dependants just her in our 3 bed house.
I served her with a divorce petition last week as i can no longer survive.