Ex racking up CCJ’s on my behalf!

pinkshoes

You don't need a solicitor yet. You need to go and visit him and arrange to meet in person to sort this out.

You cannot just sign over your share to him. If the house is worth say £150k and the mortgage is still £130k between you, then he will need to raise this mortgage on his own to be able to buy you out. Would he earn enough to do this? You will need to ask... There would then be solicitors fees involved to change the deeds.

(Obviously you cannot demand half the equity as he could demand half the mortgage payments...).

You are both grown ups so need to deal with this in a grown up manner. I suggest sending him a letter offering to come up to Manchester to meet him, and could he suggest a suitable date to do this. I would also email him the same thing. Give him a deadline to reply by (leaving your phone number too). Make it friendly.

If he doesn't reply within the deadline, then you will need to send a firmer letter saying that you need a resolution to this, so unless he replies within 28 days, you will be seeking legal advice to force the sale of the house. Make it clear that this will only be done if he doesn't cooperate, and perhaps indicate that if he does fail to cooperate he will be liable for all legal fees for forcing the sale which will wipe out any equity. Or was it a100% mortgage???

Jodtay

pinkshoes said:

You don't need a solicitor yet. You need to go and visit him and arrange to meet in person to sort this out.

You cannot just sign over your share to him. If the house is worth say £150k and the mortgage is still £130k between you, then he will need to raise this mortgage on his own to be able to buy you out. Would he earn enough to do this? You will need to ask... There would then be solicitors fees involved to change the deeds.

(Obviously you cannot demand half the equity as he could demand half the mortgage payments...).

You are both grown ups so need to deal with this in a grown up manner. I suggest sending him a letter offering to come up to Manchester to meet him, and could he suggest a suitable date to do this. I would also email him the same thing. Give him a deadline to reply by (leaving your phone number too). Make it friendly.

If he doesn't reply within the deadline, then you will need to send a firmer letter saying that you need a resolution to this, so unless he replies within 28 days, you will be seeking legal advice to force the sale of the house. Make it clear that this will only be done if he doesn't cooperate, and perhaps indicate that if he does fail to cooperate he will be liable for all legal fees for forcing the sale which will wipe out any equity. Or was it a100% mortgage???

Thank you. I don’t actually want anything out of the house, I just want nothing more to do with it. We are on good terms, unfortunately for us we bought the house the week the credit crunch hit and the house lost more than half what we paid for it over night (around -£100k!!!).....should’ve known then it was a disaster! The house has been in negative equity for this long, hence why we made a mutual agreement for him to stay in it.

I have spoken to the courts and am going to appeal the CCJ as can prove I haven’t lived there for 10 years and had no way of knowing about this debt.....the worst part is the debt for only £98, but now with court fees and papers I have to pay to file it’s going to cost almost £1000! My ex missed the bills as he works away a lot and said he must have just binned them by mistake 🤦🏻‍♀️ I have as the ground maintenance company to also send me any correspondence to do with the property which they have said no to?! “They issue the documents and papers where they are legally obliged to” when I explained the situation and that I live over 200miles away he said “you situation does not concern me!”....anyway all this information will stand in my favour when I appeal to the courts I’m hoping 🤞🏻  

theoretica

I think there are two different issues about addresses needed - sending the initial ground maintenance bills to the house may be very sensible.  But don't the court documents need to be sent to what they know is the person's address?

Did your ex miss seeing the bill, the letter before action and the court paperwork?  If they did not file the paperwork properly, that is a strong defence.

TBagpuss

I don't think that you will get very far trying to appeal the CCJ. They sent the paperwork to your last known address- if you notified them when you moved out, or at any time before the debt arose, telling them of you new address and asking them to copy documents there, then you might be able to , but if you never notified them then they've done nothing wrong. Your beef is with your ex, not with the ground rent company.

As between you and him, if he can get a mortgage in has sole name sufficient to clear the existing one, then you could sign the property over to him on the basis that he effectively buys the house from you and him. He would pay off the old mortgage with the new one, and then the house would be his. 

If there's now some equity you could ask for 50% of that.

If there's no equity or he can't r won't remortgage then you could still force a sale - if he doesn't cooperate then you may be entitled to claim your costs back from him, although of course that may not do you much god if he has no money to pay them. 

Jodtay

TBagpuss said:

I don't think that you will get very far trying to appeal the CCJ. 

They sent the paperwork to your last known address- if you notified them when you moved out, or at any time before the debt arose, telling them of you new address and asking them to copy documents there, then you might be able to , but if you never notified them then they've done nothing wrong. Your beef is with your ex, not with the ground rent company.

As between you and him, if he can get a mortgage in has sole name sufficient to clear the existing one, then you could sign the property over to him on the basis that he effectively buys the house from you and him. He would pay off the old mortgage with the new one, and then the house would be his. 

If there's now some equity you could ask for 50% of that.

If there's no equity or he can't r won't remortgage then you could still force a sale - if he doesn't cooperate then you may be entitled to claim your costs back from him, although of course that may not do you much god if he has no money to pay them. 

I told the maintenance people I didn’t live there in 2019, they knew that. They never asked for forwarding address and they have my phone number and email address. 

I have taken legal advice and according to them I have an externally strong case so I will be appealing to remove the CCJ from my file. 

Thank you

elsien

Why is it going to cost nearly 1K when the set aside fee is only £255? What are the other costs for - are you using a solicitor, because you don’t need to? 

https://www.stepchange.org/debt-info/ccj/set-aside-ccj.aspx

Jodtay

elsien said:

Why is it going to cost nearly 1K when the set aside fee is only £255? What are the other costs for - are you using a solicitor, because you don’t need to? 

https://www.stepchange.org/debt-info/ccj/set-aside-ccj.aspx

The original ground maintenance charge is £98. The maintenance company sending letters and filing court papers take this to £450. To pay this and the £255 EACH for myself and my ex just to file the N244 form to court (there’s no guarantee it will be removed) to have this removed takes the grand total to £960! Ridiculous 🙄

elsien

Why are you filing to have it removed from your ex? Given that he has no chance of having it overturned - he was there, he got the letter, he chose not to pay. That’s just £255 wasted. 

Jodtay

elsien said:

Why are you filing to have it removed from your ex? Given that he has no chance of having it overturned - he was there, he got the letter, he chose not to pay. That’s just £255 wasted. 

I’m not filing it for him. I’m simply saying that because of £98 the it is going to cost a lot to resolve. 

It appears the maintenance company have not followed the proper process, it was agreed in 2019 (we both have email proof of this) that statements/correspondence would be emailed as my ex travels a lot for work (probably out of the country 9 months of the year even during COVID!). They have not emailed anything and have no proof that any letter or demands were ever sent to the property. No names, dates, times of any letters hand delivers and no tracking details or anything recorded post. In the emails from 2019 I also have proof that I told them I do not live there and they never asked for a forwarding address. 

We have both taken legal advise and been told there is 99% chance they will be removed 

elsien

Playing Devil’s advocate a little here: 
you were never asked for a forwarding address - that didn’t stop you from providing one.
Does your ex not make arrangements to have his post checked while he is away? Given that there would have been some sort of notice of the court case, if nothing else. 

Not having a go, but these are questions you might expect to be asked.