Joint mortgage

User_100621

Hi, I am on the deeds and have a joint mortgage with an ex. I didn’t put any money in and haven’t paid the mortgage as I paid the bills. I left years ago and he has defaulted on the mortgage making my credit rating plunge and I am now unable to get help from benefits as having to go part time to look after my SEN daughter.  I want to be taken off the mortgage so the debt is out my name.

Am I entitled to any money from the house if he remortgaged to get the house in just his name seeing as he has messed my credit rating up?

SeanG79

If the mortgage has defaulted, he will likely be unable to get a mortgage to buy you out. more knowledgeable posters will likely be along soon, but I expect you would need to get your ex to agree to sell the house. If he won't agree, you would need to seek legal advise to try and get a court order forcing the sale. 

Or if the mortgage has defaulted, at some point the bank will repossess and then you will have that negative impact on your profile, but likely also not have any equity remaining in the property.

lonibra

If he hasn't been able to keep up with payments, the likelihood of him being able to buy you out is zero. Hopefully there is sufficient equity to absorb a repossession without having to chase the borrowers (ex and you) for the balance.

Annisele

Do you know how much the mortgage debt is compared to the value of the house if you were to sell? In other words, is there any equity in the house to split? If the house is in negative equity, then it doesn't matter if you'd be entitled to money from the house because there isn't any money in it.

I have more questions, but of course you don't have to answer them. Were you ever married to this ex? If you were but haven't yet sorted out the divorce, then the house will likely go into the pot along with any other marital assets/debts.

Assuming you were never married,are you named on the Land Registry as an owner of thes house? (If you don't know, it's likely worth you paying them £3 to find out: https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry .) If you are an owner, are you joint tenants or tenants in common - and if the latter, is there a deed of trust?

If you own as joint tenants, then the starting position is that each of you is entitled to half the equity. If you were tenants in common with a deed of trust, then the starting position is that you each get whatever the deed of trust says. But it's possible for the court to move a fairly long way from that starting position if doing so seems fair.

Unfortunately, from the bank's perspective it's not that he has messed up your credit rating. From the bank's perspective, the two of you were jointly responsible for the mortgage, and neither of you paid. So whilst your ex did default, so did you - and the bank can go after either of you for that money.

User_100621

Hi, thank you, we were never married. I only signed on the joint mortgage to help him get a good deal as he didn't earn enough and he was going to take me off it as soon as possible. This hasn't happened and I am angry as I can't get another place of my own now and he blanks my calls etc. I am on the LAnd Registry as joint owner of the property.  The house is worth over £250k and the mortgage is £110k. We did remortgage from his original mortgage as the payment was increasing and at the time he paid £7k off my credit card which has since been cut up. It's a nightmare and I want out but I was stupid to agree to it in the first place but felt I couldn't say no

User_100621

He is now only a small bit in arrears and at 6 months of paying on time so the bank may allow him to take over the mortgage but I feel like I am entitled to something for the total aggro he has given me and the not being able to get any credit or financial help for my son as I am classed as a homeowner yet he won;t take my calls and tells me its none of my business as its his house. IT has got nasty and I just dont know where I stand. Thanks for the advice so far 

Annisele

I'm not so sure that you were stupid to agree to this in the first place. It's clearly been a huge amount of hassle to you. But also, you're named as a joint owner of a property with £140k ish of equity. Given what you've said, it might be that a court wouldn't award you £70k of that equity - but I also think it's unlikely you'd get nothing.

Your ex is certainly wrong to say this is none of your business! If you own the house, then you can move right back into it (though I wouldn't suggest you did that without taking legal advice, and it'd likely make life very miserable for everyone). It very much is your business.

With those sorts of figures, in your shoes I think I'd be trying to get myself some proper legal advice from a solicitor. You can probably find one who'll give you an initial half hour for free (or you might have legal advice attached to your home insurance, or to an EAP from your employer or something like that). It might be that a letter from a solicitor telling your ex that you believe you're entitled to £70k but you'll settle for £50k if he buys you out within the next four months would cause your ex to get his skates on. But it also might be that sending a letter like that would be a very bad idea - these sums are definitely big enough for legal advice to be sensible. (Mostly because if I suggest you do something and the something is stupid, you won't win if you sue me; I don't have a duty of care towards you. But you can absolutely sue a stupid solicitor - and they'll have insurance to pay for their mistakes.)

User_100621

Thank you