Partner had CCJ’s

KrisP87

Hi, 3-4 years ago my partner was using payday loans - I wasn’t aware of this but he recently had to tell me as he had three CCJ’s against him. I have paid off all three for him along with all other outstanding payday loan debt before those also went to court so everything is now settled (£5K). The CCJ’s also show as settled on his credit file.

He now lives with me but it is only my name on the mortgage. I’m due to remortgage in a couple of years and planned to add him onto the mortgage but should I now be doing this if it links us financially? I know the CCJ’s stay on his file for 6 years.. we also plan to get married in a few years but I’m wondering if these things would affect my credit as I’m in good shape financially. I have £10K in savings after I paid off his debt and have about £50K tied up in the property already. Would appreciate any advice.

Thanks

[Deleted User]

The mortgage will link you. Marriage won't.

You might want to keep at arm's length for now, if your credit file is important to you.

elsien

I’d be wanting to check how quickly he pays you back, why he got into debt and how he’s managing his money now before considering any financial links at all. 

KrisP87

elsien said:

I’d be wanting to check how quickly he pays you back, why he got into debt and how he’s managing his money now before considering any financial links at all. 

He was in a poorly paid job at the time with big parking fees for work and he was commuting to me all the time but now he doesn’t have any of that and has a much better job. We’ve worked out his finances and he pays me £400 per month which goes towards paying me back and other household bills. He’s never touched a payday loan for all these years but it finally crept up on him

gettingtheresometime

Can he be on the mortgage without being on the deeds?

Emmia

Deleted_User said:

The mortgage will link you. Marriage won't.

You might want to keep at arm's length for now, if your credit file is important to you.

Sorry to be a bit depressing, but marriage will make it easier to claim on the OPs assets / savings if they subsequently divorce... 

Personally I'd not have them associated with the property (mortgage or deeds) or get married until all debts are repaid and the overall credit file is in good shape.

TBagpuss

KrisP87 said:

Hi, 3-4 years ago my partner was using payday loans - I wasn’t aware of this but he recently had to tell me as he had three CCJ’s against him. I have paid off all three for him along with all other outstanding payday loan debt before those also went to court so everything is now settled (£5K). The CCJ’s also show as settled on his credit file.

He now lives with me but it is only my name on the mortgage. I’m due to remortgage in a couple of years and planned to add him onto the mortgage but should I now be doing this if it links us financially? I know the CCJ’s stay on his file for 6 years.. we also plan to get married in a few years but I’m wondering if these things would affect my credit as I’m in good shape financially. I have £10K in savings after I paid off his debt and have about £50K tied up in the property already. Would appreciate any advice.

Thanks

I would suggest that you talk to a mortgage broker in another year or so, they will be able to advise at that time if / how much his credit history will affect your joint borrowing capacity - it's likely that they will have an impact, but this should lessen over time, particularly if his records show good financial management in the meantime.

I agree that it's something to be aware of if you plan to marry and/or get any joint accounts or joint mortgage.

If you marry, that won't in itself mean his credit record will affect yours, but t foes alter the financial relationship between the two of you so you might want to give serious consideration to getting a pre-nup in place tp protect your equity, at least in the early years of any marriage. Similarly, if you do add him to the deeds and mortgage, I'd recommend that you get a declaration of trust drawn up at the same time to record your higher interest in the property. 

You can't normally have him on the mortgage but not on the deeds, but you an set out in a declaration of trust that you own the property in unequal shares. This would not prevent any bad credit he has from having an impact on your credit record, as having any accounts or assets in joint names mean that your records are linked, but it would give you some protection against his creditors.

I would not put anything into joint names until you are confident that he is sticking to your agreement about repaying you for the debts, and until you are sure that he is being open with you about his finances . Hopefully, things have stabilized now but it is concerning that he not only got into debt but that he hid it - it may be worth the teo of you thinking about whether it might be useful to the two of you to talk to Relate or a similar organistation to try to ensure that you have healthy and open lines of communication and can talk about any issues early, in future.