Charging order

Mechele

My ex husband has a charge on my property in 2009 in his name only. We seperated in 2005 and divorced 2014 the house was solely given to me by court order on my absolute. I have supported the mortgage ever since. I want to remove his name from land registry and mortgage. As he has no claim to my house. But will his debt stop this as it’s my house I want to remove the charge as I don’t believe I should have to pay it

chanz4

you need proper legal advice

DullGreyGuy

Was there also a Clean Break Financial Order or just the Decree Absolute?

As above, need to get formal legal advice

Land_Registry

As others post it’s legal advice you need here as it reads as if the charge is still in play/enforceable and you ‘don’t believe you should pay it”. 

I assume the property is registered in your sole name now with a registered legal charge re the original mortgage when you both bought. 

There’s then a second legal charge registered in your ex’s name. So you are the sole legal owner with two registered charges against the title/property. 

If his legal charge has been paid off or it needs to now be removed then he’s going to need to ‘discharge’ it. Forms DS1 and DS2 plus evidence of identity in form ID1 or ID3. 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mortgage-cancellation-of-entries-for-lenders-ds1

But the issue seems to be whether he still has an actual charge on the property so some form of secured debt which you are either still liable for or not. That’s where your legal advice needs to come into play for you 

kjt1960

Hi looking for guidance, we have a charging order of South staffs water from over 12 years ago it is in my name only will it have to be paid in full? The house is jointly owned with my Husband who isn't on the debt? Thank you we have just sold and waiting to complete

theartfullodger

Go see a solicitor who specialises in both property & family disputes like this.

gazfocus

kjt1960 said:

Hi looking for guidance, we have a charging order of South staffs water from over 12 years ago it is in my name only will it have to be paid in full? The house is jointly owned with my Husband who isn't on the debt? Thank you we have just sold and waiting to complete

Depends entirely on the wording of the charge/restriction on the deeds. If it's in your name, chances are you don't legally need to pay the debt when you sell the house, however, getting your solicitor and the buyers solicitor to understand/accept this is not an easy task as they will want the easy option of paying it.

housebuyer143

If you post a copy of the restriction/charge people can advise better

RHemmings

I thought that if there is a charge on a house, then it needs to be paid off before selling the house or remortgaging? Under what situations can a house with a charge on it be remortgaged or sold? Without the agreement of the person or organisation that the charge was lodged by. 

housebuyer143

RHemmings said:

I thought that if there is a charge on a house, then it needs to be paid off before selling the house or remortgaging? Under what situations can a house with a charge on it be remortgaged or sold? Without the agreement of the person or organisation that the charge was lodged by. 

When it's an interim charge (form K) for one. If you own a property jointly, any charge that only affects one owner won't be able to be claimed from sale proceeds. 
You can't remortgage with these charges on there, but selling is entirely possible. 

gazfocus

RHemmings said:

I thought that if there is a charge on a house, then it needs to be paid off before selling the house or remortgaging? Under what situations can a house with a charge on it be remortgaged or sold? Without the agreement of the person or organisation that the charge was lodged by. 

As housebuyer142 says, if it's an interim charging order, it cannot be be enforced. We went through this when we were selling our house. There was an interim charging order on there in my name even though the house is owned jointly with my wife. The charging order related to a personal guarantee for my old company that went bust and I'd forgotten all about it.

It took me some persuading but I eventually got our solictitor to understand that the charge didn't actually need to be paid to enable the sale of the house and instead the buyers solicitor (iirc) just needs to send a form/certificate to have the charge removed. I was then in a much better place to negotiate a settlement with the creditor as they had no 'security' for the debt they had bought for pennies in the pound. In my case, the debt was only just below £4k but still got a good chunk offered as a reduction.

An interim/form k charge is different to a charge relating to a secured loan though. A secured loan would need to be paid to enable the sale to complete.