Messy divorce - awkward husband

Stevieoconnell

Hi I’ve never posted before so not sure how this works but I’m needing a bit of advice/seeing if anyone else has been through something similar.

I’ve been going through my divorce now for 4 years. I left the relationship for various reasons and he made it impossible for me to live at our marital home, so I had to move out and rent.  During that time he lived in the house but then went to live abroad for 12 months and rented the property to a friend, which I didn’t know about at the time.  The first 2 years my husband refused to sign the divorce papers...reasons unknown. He quickly moved on and got a new partner within 3 months of our separation.  We have around £100k equity in our home. For the past 12 months he has not paid the mortgage stating he couldn’t afford it...even though I know he can as his business is making good money and his new partner is working full time.  I have offered to move in and take over the mortgage, I’ve offered to pay him out but he has point blank refused and I aren’t in a position to afford to pay for the mortgage and rent at the same time.  I have now had to go to court to force him to sell the house...it is now on the market.  He has basically lived at our property for free for a year!  The mortgage company has threatened legal proceedings but because of covid they haven’t been able to commence them as yet.

Now my credit score is shot! Through no fault of my own...I was wondering whether I could appeal the missed payments paid against my name because of the nature of my predicament?  I know it’s a joint mortgage but I physically couldn’t of paid the mortgage not living there and he has made it very difficult for me to do anything else but rent. 

Has anyone got any advice on this or been in a similar position?

Thank you.

RAS

Is the house held in joint names?
Who is currently living there? 

TBagpuss

You can't appeal against the records the mortgage company has made. You had joint and several liability for the mortgage and it wasn't paid.

You could (subject to your solicitor's advice) apply for maintenance pending suit, to get an order for him to pay you interim maintenance at a level which would allow you to start paying the mortgage.

You can also talk to your solicitor about whether it would be appropriate to raise his behavior as an issue of conduct which the court should take into account in deciding who gets what (probably not, the bar is pretty high, but it is a possibility) and you can make enquiries about your mortgage capacity taking into account the poor credit and use this to argue that you need a larger deposit, if you mortgage capacity is lower than it would otherwise have been. Most divorce cases re decided on the basis of 'need' but if you can show that your needs have increased as a direct result of his choices then a court may well be prepared to take that into account. 

If you would be in a position to afford the mortgage yourself you might also look at whether you want to to move into the house and pay the mortgage and delay any sale for a year or two, to enable your credit record to start to be be repaired, and to make it eaiser to move on in due course. 

sassyblue

Sadly you can’t appeal because you were jointly liable for the debt and you should have made sure the mortgage was being paid because, as you are now aware, non payment has ramifications for you.

I don’t understand why you didn’t get your husband personally served with the divorce petition which would have then not required his signature, but would have no doubt forced him to become involved in the divorce so he didn’t lose out in the financial deal.  He then went abroad but you didn’t know that he’d rented the house out?  This is a house that is half yours?  I also don’t understand how you can say you have offered to pay him out but can’t afford to rent at the same time, surely you will then live in the home so won’t be renting? 

Sorry to be blunt but this is also your fault for letting your husband get away with all this.  The best thing you can do is see the court case through and get the house sold to pay off the debts.  

Very sad but it’s a cautionary tale, in future don’t take any sh*t 

Stevieoconnell

I haven’t included all the details because it would take far too long and I thought the post was long enough lol.
I had issues with my first solicitor.  I agreed and signed many paperwork for the papers to be personally served to him, but each time my solicitor ‘forgot’ about me or my husband would say he’s signed them and then said they must of got lost in the post.  I then got a new solicitor as soon as my husband started to miss the mortgage payments.
So yes it’s true I didn’t know he had gone abroad until a friend had told me he was living abroad and had been for a few months. I don’t speak to my ex at all due to reasons I can’t and won’t go into. By this time my old solicitor said I couldn’t ask the tenants to move out or approach them as they could file an harassment case against me...to them the rental was legitimate from my husband.  

Before my credit had been affected I was in a position to remortgage the house in my name and pay him out by lending more than the current value of mortgage...but now this isn’t a possibility. Hope that makes sense.
My husband is still living at the property with his new partner.

sassyblue

Thanks for the update but it doesn’t change your question of can you appeal in relation to the missed mortgage payments ruining your credit score. The best thing to do is still to see the court case through, pay off the debts when the house sells and start anew.

Just to clarify, it sounds like you signed the divorce petition and your solicitor probably sent them to your husband to take to a solicitor and get his own legal advice prior to issuing the divorce petition?  If you ever got your divorce petition issued at the court at that point the court would have sent the petition to your husband.

as soon as the court issues the petition, if your husband did not return the Acknowledgment of service form THAT was when you could have had him personally served. This would have meant a court approved process server would have physically handed him the Petition and if he refused to accept them they would have dropped them at his feet - this process would NOT have required your husband’s signature. 

The reason I explaining is because you said your husband kept saying the documents he signed must have 'got lost in the post' - you’d be surprised how much this happens.... not     It doesn’t sound like he was ‘personally served' rather just received a copy of the petition either by your solicitor or the court.

I think if your solicitor had only suggested personal service and you’d got it done you’d not be in this position now.  As I said, it’s a very sad cautionary tale.