Mortgage liabilities

scrabble690

I'm separated from my husband.  We have a joint mortgage on the family home that I live in with my mum and 2 of our daughters.  I have recently been retired due to ill health and received a lump sum. I have used the lump sum to pay off some of the mortgage.  As a result,  the monthly payments have reduced. Prior to this lump sum payment my ex was paying half the monthly mortgage payment and I paid the other half.  He is now saying that he should now be paying half of the new amount( the reduced amount due to my payment of £20,000 off the mortgage.) I was under the impression that he would continue to pay the amount he was paying before and I would benefit from a reduced monthly payment as I paid the lump sum off the mortgage. 
Can anyone help?

RAS

This could get very messy.

Your husband is expected to pay maintenance if your daughters are in school or college (under 20). He is not expected to pay half the mortgage.

He is also entitled to half the equity in the house unless you have an alternative agreement that is enforceable in law.

You've potentially gifted half your lump sum and the monthly savings to your (ex)husband. Check below to see how much maintenance he should be paying. Is that more or less than he's currently contributing?

Calculate your child maintenance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

And even if you do not want to divorce, book a session with a good divorce lawyer so you understand the likely situation when the youngest ceases to be eligible for child maintenance. Can you afford to pay the mortgage on your pension, or to buy your ex out?

swingaloo2

As RAS says your husband should only be paying child support (if your children are still at an age where it is payable). 

You are beneifting from living in the house as is your mother while your ex has to pay to live elsewhere. While he has been paying haf the mortgage payments have you been paying him rent for his half of the property?

74jax

scrabble690 said:

I'm separated from my husband.  We have a joint mortgage on the family home that I live in with my mum and 2 of our daughters.  I have recently been retired due to ill health and received a lump sum. I have used the lump sum to pay off some of the mortgage.  As a result,  the monthly payments have reduced. Prior to this lump sum payment my ex was paying half the monthly mortgage payment and I paid the other half.  He is now saying that he should now be paying half of the new amount( the reduced amount due to my payment of £20,000 off the mortgage.) I was under the impression that he would continue to pay the amount he was paying before and I would benefit from a reduced monthly payment as I paid the lump sum off the mortgage. 
Can anyone help?

I agree with your husband unfortunately. 

pinkshoes

I think you have been rather foolish using the £20k to lower the mortgage as unless you put anything in writing before doing this to say it was yours and the payments were to stay the same, then you have essentially gifted £20k to your husband.

I'm assuming the mortgage is in joint names?

How old are the children?

Your ex will have his own expenses to keep a roof over his head too.

I think you need to get a solicitor and make an agreement with him. Agree an amount of equity that he is entitled to from the house (not including the £20k - look at the equity BEFORE you put that money in) then also agree with him a monthly amount he will be paying you. This should be based on his earnings and not how big the mortgage is. You then need a plan for when the children are all 18+ as you cannot expect your ex to then keep paying half the mortgage.

Can your mum not help?

sheramber

I assume this is a private arrangement between you, rather than a by a legal agreement?

Does you mother pay towards the mortgage since she lives there also?

Malthusian

pinkshoes said:

I think you have been rather foolish using the £20k to lower the mortgage as unless you put anything in writing before doing this to say it was yours and the payments were to stay the same, then you have essentially gifted £20k to your husband.

£10k, to be fair (as RAS said).

And it's possible that the £20k lump sum may eventually have formed part of the marriage assets whether the OP used it to repay the mortgage or not, if we assume there will eventually be a divorce down the line.

The OP and her husband are still married and their finances are still intertwined. The pension lump sum was an asset of the marriage even before it was drawn. The husband paying less into the mortgage each month may leave more in his bank account, which is also a marriage asset.

If the OP is happy to continue intertwining their finances with their husband (i.e. not divorce) I don't see much point in crying over spilt milk. Using a marriage asset to pay a marriage liability isn't even spilling milk.

As others have said the husband is being very fair and within his rights to continue paying half of the mortgage costs.

Exodi

Ignoring the equity situation, I don't even really understand what you wanted to happen with the regular payments?

You overpaid the mortgage, the monthly payment and interest payable goes down... but your ex-husband carries on paying 'pretend' interest? Even disregarding the initial oddities, what would then happen when the mortgage ends early? Would you then send him your bank details and ask that he then sends 'pretend' mortgage payments with 'pretend' interest directly to you?

But as others have said, why is he even paying the mortgage in the first place? Not only are you living there, you've also moved your mother in?

maman

I wondered @Exodi whether the OP's husband was giving her the equivalent of the mortgage payment each month rather than paying directly? That way she'd be paying even less than her 'half' in future as he'd be overpaying IYSWIM. 🤔 It would be interesting to know.

It could cut down her monthly expenditure in the short term which is maybe what she was trying to achieve.

I'm assuming that as OP has been given early retirement on health grounds then she must be old enough to access a pension so perhaps children aren't very young. Although the husband maintains his ongoing financial interest in the house by paying, it's not a long term solution.

Feedback from OP would be useful.

Exodi

maman said:

I wondered @Exodi whether the OP's husband was giving her the equivalent of the mortgage payment each month rather than paying directly? That way she'd be paying even less than her 'half' in future as he'd be overpaying IYSWIM. 🤔 It would be interesting to know.

It could cut down her monthly expenditure in the short term which is maybe what she was trying to achieve.

I'm assuming that as OP has been given early retirement on health grounds then she must be old enough to access a pension so perhaps children aren't very young. Although the husband maintains his ongoing financial interest in the house by paying, it's not a long term solution.

Feedback from OP would be useful.

I intitally thought this but then I wondered why, if the OP was convinced of the fact he should pay the same amount, she would tell him the new mortgage monthly payment amount.

Unless the direct debit is linked to his account and she sends him the money... and she sent him the 'less than less' amount you referred to - e.g. monthly payment was £400 - £200 each. Her overpayment reduced the monthly payment to £300 - she expected him to pay £200 still so sent him £100 instead of £150 and he queried this?

Or perhaps, he's set up as a secondary address so communications sent about the mortgage would also be sent to him - so the letter about the big overpayment and reduced monthly payment went to him spurring this conversation?

All a fun theoretical exercise, but probably losing the point of this thread so I'll leave it there.

Complex situation regardless of how this has been done, I don't think he should be expected pay interest that no longer exists though.

TBagpuss

OP, generally, where your husband has moved ou and is not getting the benefit of living in the house, there would be no expectation that he would pay anything  towards the mortgage, so if he is willing to continue to pay half the current amount you are doing pretty well.

Ideally, you would not have used the lump sum to reduce the mortgage but would have kept it separate from any joint assets, until financial settlement was agreed. 

I would recommend that you get some legal advice and start to move towards getting an financial settlement sorted out sooner rather than later, so that you and your husband can both move forward knowing where you each stand financially.

It may well be that you will be able to argue that the lump sum contribution should be taken into account n splitting the equity, but it is more difficult than if you had kept it wholly separate from the joint assets. 

Is ypur mum paying rent, and if so, are you accounting to your husband for half of that?