Ex-partner is wanting to sell the house.

Droolinggimp said:
Just spoke to nram. I can't take her off the mortgage as I cant afford repayments going by a income expenditure form even though I have been paying it.
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How long is the mortgage for? I mean you've been paying for 15 years so what do you plan to do in say 5 or 10 years when it comes to an end and all you've done is pay off the interest?

If you've been living there then it is perhaps right you have been covering the interest payments. Have you had a valuation recently? Why not get a third party to come and value it, perhaps get her to arrange this rather than you so it isn't just you fobbing her off and she can get someone else giving her an opinion on what it is worth and in turn what her share of the equity is. You might then be able to postpone selling it for a bit.

You mention your wife is "fingers crossed going to uni later this year"? Why not postpone that for a year and solve your problem. If you can't remortgage now because you don't earn enough then get two incomes and re-mortgage. You could pay off your ex's share of the equity (if there is any) and perhaps more importantly for her, if the whole reason for this was for money towards a deposit because she intends to buy, she gets taken off the mortgage and it is then down to you and your wife.

You still need to figure out what to do re: repayment but at least you've got this immediate problem solved.
 
AndyT said:
Ouch. OP's ex seems to have made a very bad decision not selling her share here.
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She can't just sell her share. Who would buy it? The only person who would (OP) can't afford to.
AndyT said:
She has been betting for 12 years that house prices will go up, so hasn't sold. The property value has not increased, therefore there will be no equity due to her from a sale. The cash with which to start a new life is a fantasy...
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Her only option to get out of it is to try and get OP to sell the house. I doubt it's a 12 year bet that she makes a few thousand.
And maybe she isn't looking for the cash to start a new life, just freedom? She probably can't buy a house. She's been stuck renting for 12 years because OP doesn't want to sell his house. If I was in that situation, i'd happily take a loss of several thousand on the house sale to get out of it and have the chance to buy my own house.

She will be entitled to 50% of any proceeds from the house sale despite not having paid the mortgage payments because OP has had sole occupancy of the house without paying any rent for living in her "half" of the house.
 
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She's morally entitled to her share of the money. If it's making the difference of whether or not she can buy her own house, that's a pretty big deal to her. And she sounds like she's been more than fair in letting you keep the house uncontested, you paying into it or not.

I'd look at re-mortgaging in order to give her her share by buying her out.
 
You both made a mistake not selling the house when you divorced. Now you've moved on with your life (new wife and kids), she just wants to be able to do the same. I think you should swallow your pride and sell the house. She probably knows there's little to no equity, but she wants to be allowed to move on with her life and not let a mistake made 15 years ago stop her.

You're both in dire straits anyway if after about 15 years you have nothing in place to pay off the capital when the mortgage term is up. What you gonna do when the BIG payment comes due ?

I can totally understand how the house value hasn't gone up - around here I've seen houses go for many thousands less last year than they sold for in the early 2000's. Add to that people used to get 100% and over mortgages for little to no deposit, and a lot of people are taking a big financial hit. You and your new wife are probably also going to be better off without a useless interest only mortgage around your neck.

Sell it - suck up any loss (or celebrate a small profit) and move on, let the ex do the same.
 
h4rm0ny said:
She's morally entitled to her share of the money. If it's making the difference of whether or not she can buy her own house, that's a pretty big deal to her. And she sounds like she's been more than fair in letting you keep the house uncontested, you paying into it or not.

I'd look at re-mortgaging in order to give her her share by buying her out.
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What money, that's the question. The only reasonable measure is the equity in the house, and if as OP says there isn't any, then she's SOL.
 
dl8860 said:
What money, that's the question. The only reasonable measure is the equity in the house, and if as OP says there isn't any, then she's SOL.
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Yep. Fool me for posting after reading the OP and not the rest of the thread.

Feel sorry for all involved but kind of feel the OP is most to blame. Perhaps she should have forced a sale but sounds like the parting was amicable and she didn't want to kick him out. I too would like to know how the house hasn't increased in value. Has the OP let it deteriorate? Is it in Hartlepool or something? Just seems strange.

And I really hope she does know it's been Interest Only since she moved out. If the OP has somehow managed to do that without her realising, I'd call that fraud.
 
dl8860 said:
What money, that's the question. The only reasonable measure is the equity in the house, and if as OP says there isn't any, then she's SOL.
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That isn't the whole story. At the moment the Ex is liable under the mortgage and will find it impossible to get a mortgage on a home for herself. She'd also be liable for the 3% stamp duty on additional properties if she did manage to get a mortgage on another property because she retains a beneficial interest in the OPs home.

She would be quite able to persuade a judge that she should not be financially hamstrung in this way because of the OP, and obtain an order for sale, even if she does not get a cash sum at the end of it. The OPs children would be a factor but would certainly not be determinative.
 
Plus, there's every chance this is a very one-sided retelling of the true reality. The picture that has been painted doesn't quite add up as it is.

From what I have understood, selling up would involve short term pain, but is the right thing to do. An interest-only mortgage on a property that hasn't appreciated in value since purchase in 2003/2004 is a ticking time bomb. And any attempt to avoid selling up will wreck any positive relationship with the ex, all over something that the courts may force anyway (after considerable expense on both sides).
 
Well to be fair, I don't think it is unreasonable for her to force a sale if the OP doesn't solve this.

The solution is obvious IMO - he's not able to get her off the mortgage by himself so his wife perhaps needs to get herself a job so they can re-mortgage and take the ex off the mortgage/pay her share of the equity (if any). No point letting it get dragged through court and also no point in pretending there is nothing that can be done either.
 
Droolinggimp said:
This is where it gets complicated. Sort of.

We originally got a mortgage with Northern Rock. They ****** everyone. It was a repayment mortgage (cap and int) at first but once they did what they did the % went up and I couldn't remortgage with anyone as I didnt have a deposit. So i was stuck with them (now Nram) paying interest only. Yep it's a **** way to do it but I cannot afford the repayment mortgage on my wages at the time and certainly not now.
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For goodness sake man, get some overtime done or a higher paid job and convert to repayment ASAP.

Stop playing video games, world of war craft and vaping. You will find the time to earn more with a second job or overtime. And procrastinating with games, come on man!! You have responsibilities....like paying your house off so your wife and child are secure. Do not play world of Warcraft! That thing sucks so many hours out of your life. Seriously mate get yourself a good money book e.g Meaningful Money on amazon.

Hopefully this is a good kick up the arse for you. Best wishes.
 
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Azza said:
He says his wife is at college, so presumably no income?
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..yet. I assume she won't be there till she retired...

One of the most common questions on those debt shows is what is the return on going to college. Work that out before spending money on it.
 
Slam62 said:
She obviously thinks there's a load of equity in the house. There's absolutely no point in her selling as she won't get any money, in fact she'll owe money due to fees etc.

She should just leave it as it is , she's getting the interest paid anyway.

If there was a divorce, there must have been a ruling on the house, if you were not married then she can't force you to sell, you don't owe her any money and you made most of the mortgage payments.

For those who say she could force a sale, she would have to go through the courts and it would be very difficult, I suspect they would just say tough.
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If there's little to no equity in the house then I agree forcing a sale won't benefit either of them.

She might be less interested about the money and more interested in having her name off the mortgage. I'm not sure how the courts could stop that, they can't insist she stays on a mortgage that she has no financial or personal interest in.

So I'm not sure what the banks can do about this. The OP clearly cannot afford the house on his own, so how do they put something in place to protect themselves from the OP defaulting but also allowing him to carry on paying a mortgage.

Also OP can't your wife work whilst she's at uni? That'll help boost the income a bit.
 
satchef1 said:
May not be just an equity thing.

Maybe the debt is affecting her ability to get a mortgage on another property?

Additional rate stamp duty could also be a consideration.
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I think this has to be the underlying factor, not that she wants a tiny bit of cash.

I don't see how this gets resolved without selling. OP, what's the issue with renting? If the house is only 125k I would guess local rent can't be too high?
 
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Not sure we've been looking at this correctly.

Where people live in common law like the OP was then isn't it whats been paid into the household which determines the split?

It was 4 years equal and then 12 years on his own meaning a 75% split in favour of the OP of what ever is left after fees. If it is as little as £2k there will be basically nothing after legal fees.

That doesn't change the problem that he probably can't afford the house with the new mortgage rules but renting is likely even more expensive. I have heard of ex Northern Rock customers being stuck on high interest rates but under the new rules cant meet the affordability criteria and are essentially trapped on interest only until it expires or something else changes.

Yes, I thought so:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/busin...ges-homeowners-trapped-on-high-interest-rates
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money...ity-firm-owns-debts-refuses-pass-cuts-on.html
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money...thern-Rock-home-loans-crippling-rates-13.html

:eek: I did't realise you could even get a 125% mortgage back then. **** **** no wonder we had a financial cash.
 
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