Order for sale, now threat of repossession

woozle70

Hello, I hardly know where to start but am so worried.

My husband's ex got a CCJ against my husband resulting in a charging order and now order for sale on our property. The property is jointly owned between us and the charging order is on his share of the property.

Due to property prices falling we have been unable to sell for the price the court ordered. We are now in arrears with our mortgage and have the threat of repossession hanging over us. In order to reduce our asking price on the property to avoid repossession we would need to apply to the court for permission. There would then not be enough equity in the property to clear our mortgage and for the charging order to be cleared.

When we first put the property on the market there would have been enough equity for my husband's share to pay the charging order and my share to pay off our personal loans.

What is the likelihood of the court granting permission for us to reduce the price in order to sell to avoid repossession considering the above? Also if they did allow us to reduce the price would my husband's ex have any rights over my share of the remaining equity as my husband's share would not cover the debt?

Captain_Mainwaring_2

I didn't think that a charging order could be used to force a sale.

Not paying your mortgage certainly can though - why haven't you being paying the mortgage to avoid the BS who would have the first charge applying for possession?

I wouldn't have thought that the ex would have had a right to any of your share of the equity, though by the sounds of things you won't be holding on to that for too long.

Seems you really need to list out exactly what you assets and liabilities are.

Penelope_Penguin

Captain_Mainwaring wrote: »

I didn't think that a charging order could be used to force a sale.

Sadly it can :rolleyes: Lenders are increasingly using charging orders to turn non-priority (credit card / loan) debt into priority debt (mortgage) They then go back to court to force sale of the property to realise the debt.

woozle70

Yes it is rare but in our case it has be done. There is an order for sale on our property which his ex applied for within 3 months of securing the charging order.

We have not been paying our mortgage simply because we cannot afford it any longer. Child maintenance has increased dramatically and we had solicitors bills to pay and other unexpected massive bills landed on our doorstep. We quite simply cannot earn enough to live on.

Irregardless of the charging order we would have had to sell to get ourselves out of trouble but due to the order for sale we have an asking price on the property that is not going to sell it.

poppysarah

Can you rent a room out?

woozle70

poppysarah wrote: »

Can you rent a room out?

We have considered doing that in the short term to help pacify the mortgage lender but we would still need to sell as we are seriously short each month.

Penelope_Penguin

woozle70 wrote: »

We have not been paying our mortgage simply because we cannot afford it any longer. Child maintenance has increased dramatically and we had solicitors bills to pay and other unexpected massive bills landed on our doorstep. We quite simply cannot earn enough to live on.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but the fact is that you can't actually afford the house you're buying. You'd likely be repossessed by the mortage lender, irrespective of the order for sale.

Have you spoken to an advice agency such as CAB they may be able to negotiate on your behalf, and will be able to explain your rights and responsibilities.

Best wishes to you all and hope you can sort things out.

woozle70

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but the fact is that you can't actually afford the house you're buying. You'd likely be repossessed by the mortage lender, irrespective of the order for sale.

Have you spoken to an advice agency such as CAB they may be able to negotiate on your behalf, and will be able to explain your rights and responsibilities.

Best wishes to you all and hope you can sort things out.

It doesn't sound harsh at all it is a fact! We have an interest only mortgage and it cost us no more to buy than to rent a two bedroom flat hence why we bought as we thought we may then sell and make some money which we would have done were it not for the charging Order.

The CAB are out of their depth with our case and advised seeing a solicitor. This we did a long time ago and it has cost us dearly, not just in fees but the poor advice they gave us.

My question really is would the court allow us to reduce our price to a realistic price to sell it despite the fact that my husband's share of the equity would not cover his ex's debt. Obviously if they don't allow us we will end up getting repossessed in which case she is unlikely to get anything at all.

My concern is if the court would not allow this, we would end up getting repossessed and then cannot pay off our loans so cannot afford to rent anything.

pinkshoes

The first thing to do would be to try anything to pay your mortgage arrears. Are you both working the maximum number of hours you feasibly can?? Working 2 jobs each?? In situations like this, you need to do anything you can!

How much does the ex wife want, and why?? (the "why" bit is just me being nosy, you don't have to answer that!).

Do you have anything of value to sell?

What's the property priced at now? Rightmove link? and what do you see as being a reasonable price to sell it?

Do you have any relatives you could move in with?

Why has child support increased to dramatically?

woozle70

pinkshoes wrote: »

The first thing to do would be to try anything to pay your mortgage arrears. Are you both working the maximum number of hours you feasibly can?? Working 2 jobs each?? In situations like this, you need to do anything you can!

How much does the ex wife want, and why?? (the "why" bit is just me being nosy, you don't have to answer that!).

Do you have anything of value to sell?

What's the property priced at now? Rightmove link? and what do you see as being a reasonable price to sell it?

Do you have any relatives you could move in with?

Why has child support increased to dramatically?

The whole thing has been a nightmare to be honest. Before we married I was living in a one bedroomed flat on benefits. I have a serious and chronic illness making it impossible to work. We could not afford to get married or live together but naively thought 'love will find a way!'

My husband lived 60 miles away and could not find work that would pay my rent and keep us both so we moved closer to his work which is the best pay for the job he does. We looked at rental prices and to buy our house worked out about the same on an interest only mortgage as to rent a one bedroom flat. Buying also meant we would have a second bedroom for the my husband's kids when they stay.

Within weeks of moving into our house - his ex summonsed him to court over an alleged loan. I knew nothing of it, there was nothing in writing and my husband claims it was a settlement not a loan. Her story kept changing but the judgement ended up going against my husband. We could not afford an acceptable monthly repayment to her so after being ill-advised by a solicitor agreed to a charging order. Hence the order for sale.

My husband working hours are irregular sometimes excessively long so he cannot take a second job. I cannot work. Child maintenance rules have changed. He owed a few thousand in arrears, mainly due to CSA errors but they are now collecting arrears in two years so his arrears payments have gone up from £5 a week to £50 a week not negotiable. Additionally work went slack for a few months leaving a drop in income plus legal advice cost us dearly.

We don't have family locally that have any space for us. Our property is on the market for £159 but we would need to reduce it to nearer £140,000 to sell it.

I have seen this coming for a long time but feel helpless.

woozle70

In response to your other questions pinkshoes, the ex is now owed £20,000 - it started at £10,000 but with legal costs and interest has now doubled.

We also have started selling 'rubbish' on ebay to scratch a few pounds together but mostly what we own is second hand and we have nothing of much value. We are selling our car to pay next month's mortgage but that it is only worth about £600 so will only cover one month.