Husband's debt - will it impact out joint mortgage?

S10275TP

I've recently discovered my husband has racked up £110k of unsecured debt, comprising of personal loans and credit cards. All in his name (I've checked via Experian for both his record and mine, mine is fine). 

At this stage I'm not considering a divorce, although this may be on the cards at a later date.

I need to financially secure our children's future and mine. I am a joint owner of the house we share and am on the mortgage. How can I ensure he cannot remortgage/take any loans or credit cards out that will affect our home? Can I take him off the deeds? Or the mortgage? Is there another way? I don't know if I will be eligible for either of these actions as I have taken a huge pay cut since having our children and now work part time. His salary was over twice mine. Is there any other way to secure my financial future other than divorce? I have my own bank accounts that are safe from him but we share a joint account where all the bills are paid. I've taken away his card but obviously he still has online banking and so could access the money in there if he wanted to. His salary will now be exclusively going into that account and I have taken away his cards. I've put him onto Gam Care and Step Change but it's his potential future behaviour I'm concerned with. I cannot risk him gambling our home out from under us. 

Grumpelstiltskin

Any joint accounts you have with him will affect you as you are linked to him.

born_again

While I can't advise about your main issue. Please speak to the bank about this. They might be able to put something in place to limit access to joint account & moving funds.

gwynlas

In short you cannot guarantee the future only plan to do your best. If you choose to go down the divorce route you would be entitled to half the equity in the home but you would need a decent salary in order to buy out his share and continue living there. Are your children old enough for you to increase working hours? If you sell up could you buy somewhere else or if not rent? Are all his debts related to gambling or are there items that might be sold to pay them down? Gambling is an addiction and he could relapse at any time so you need to consider whether this is a sufficiently large shock to stop him continuing?

Floss

S10275TP said:

....  I have my own bank accounts that are safe from him but we share a joint account where all the bills are paid. I've taken away his card but obviously he still has online banking and so could access the money in there if he wanted to. His salary will now be exclusively going into that account and I have taken away his cards. I've put him onto Gam Care and Step Change but it's his potential future behaviour I'm concerned with. I cannot risk him gambling our home out from under us. 

I appreciate that this has come as a shock and that you feel betrayed & deceived, but please give your husband some respect and allow him to surrender his cards rather than confiscating them as if he is a child.

You may benefit from speaking to https://www.begambleaware.org/ngsn in your own right, to gain support & advice for your personal situation.

enthusiasticsaver

I can imagine how deceived you must feel and we see people on here all the time worried about how their partners will react when they find out they have racked up huge amounts of unsecured debt.  I second @Floss suggestion to check out https://www.begambleaware.org/ngsn.  Set aside some time when you are not  angry to discuss with him a plan going forward.  I do think he needs to limit access to funds for both your sakes until he has sorted out his gambling addiction but he needs to be on board or it will not work.  

First let me reassure you that unsecured loans and credit cards will have no impact on your house or mortgage.  You can even remortgage on to a fixed deal when yours expires as long as you stick with your current lender. If you do not have sufficient income to service the mortgage on your own then your lender will not agree to remove your husband.  Any remortgage would need your signature as the house and mortgage is in joint names.  

It is good that you have put him on to stepchange and maybe defaulting will be his best option as that will freeze the interest, set an affordable monthly repayment towards the debt (you can split finances and apportion bills in proportion to income). It also stops him taking out further credit.  I would split finances from now  simply to protect yourself so good you have your own bank account.  I think I would continue with the joint account for bills so you can keep track of it and make a plan going forward for him to manage money once the gambling addiction and debt is addressed. 

 If you decide you can no longer trust him and decide to divorce the starting point is 50/50 although if you have young children and you are the primary carer and only work part time that would be taken into account. 

Stateofart

If you are married, in terms of business you're a unit so any joint assets will be taken into consideration.  If you start removing him from joint assets I would imagine if they were so inclined they would dig to find out when, as shifting property to avoid debts liability is not really allowed.

Hoenir

Stateofart said:

, as shifting property to avoid debts liability is not really allowed.

Creditors can pursue and have transactions made overturned under the Insolvency Acts. 

mnkone

Hi, 

Just thought I would add a little on this, I caused a similar situation to this, albeit a different amount. But the amount may be relative to income. 

So I ended up getting myself into around 18k of debt, this was a mixture of a previous relationship and trying to fund a lifestyle I knew we couldn't afford, which was entirely my fault, as my wife didn't know what I was earning. 

So when she found out, I kept my card, with my salary going into my account, but I transferred that to hers on payday, I then had £100 sent back to me to use as disposable income. Once that was gone, that was it. That was a lot about creating my self control but also having some freedom, whilst being transparent with my wife. 
The wage that went to my wife, ended up on the bills for the house, debt payments, then anything left over was split 50% into a home saver she had control over for emergencies and 50% for overpayments on debts. 

I was lucky in regards to a complaint to my bank, who I had the main loan with, which went to the ombudsman, but wiped out 85% of the debt, I know a lot of people criticise about complaining, but I would recommend to get some of the debt paid off, send at least the large debts affordability/irresponsible lending complaints. This can be quick if the lender agrees, but if not, send to the ombudsman and from my experience it can take anything from 3 to 6 months for a decision. It could really help in the long run.