Splitting up and ex behaviour joint mortgage

Hello,

I am writing on behalf of my friend. She used to be in a relationship and bought a house with her ex boyfriend in 2007 for ca. 375K with a mortgage of 350K.

They separated a couple of years ago and decided to rent the property out. Both of them have now a family with children.

Her ex is now separating from current girlfriend and wants to move back into the house. Mortgage re-payments are 700 euro per month. Mortgage left is ca 350K and house is worth (maybe) 250K. The house is clearly in negative equity and both of them don't have money to pay each other out.

He said that he wants to go back to the house as it is the only option he has now because he needs to pay child support. He is happy to pay her ex 200 euro a month (which is what she gets today anyway from renting the house) plus the mortgage monthly repayments.

My friend is not happy about this situation and wants to get her name out of the mortgage (first wish) or avoids that he goes back into the house.

What options does she have?

1. if he insists to move back to the house, what can she do?
2. can she go to the bank and ask to remove her name from the mortgage?
3. can she ask the bank to reposess the house?

Thanks for your help

Kind Regards
Stella

1. if he insists to move back to the house, what can she do?
I don't see how he can insist if there are tenants there. As long as the tenants are there he can't move back in. Your friend should insist that she is not informing the tenants that they have to leave. Who has the Phone number for the tenants? Who deals with them primarily? If it's your friend then I suggest she refuse to hand over their Phone number or any contact details to him. If necessary she could change the locks on the house at her own expense and give the tenants the new keys but not him
2. can she go to the bank and ask to remove her name from the mortgage?
Only if she has 100k to pay them (the value of the negative equity) they won't change from a 2 person to a 1 person mortgage on a house in negative equity
3. can she ask the bank to reposess the house?
The way to get this to happen is to stop paying the mortgage. Eventually the bank will repossess (but could take a few years)

The OP is stuck and the best approach is to do what is best for everybody.

Option 2 is out of the question as he doesn't have the money.
Option 3 will happen if they stop paying the mortgage.
Option 1, how can she prevent him, it's his house too !

Stella needs to tell us the financial situatiuon of both her and the ex, and their marital status in particular and what assets (houses) they each have and what kind of jobs.

Also needs to clarify the tax on rent situation

Best option is to come to an arrangement that let's them both out of this mortgage as soon as possible. Even if one of them could pay the NE it does not mean the bank would allow a mortgage in only one name only.

Lucuma said:

3. can she ask the bank to reposess the house?
The way to get this to happen is to stop paying the mortgage. Eventually the bank will repossess (but could take a few years)

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and ruin her credit rating for ever more.

at €700/month mortgage it seems its on a tracker - so no need to sell.

I suggest that he rents it in a normal way (possibly at a small discount) and a seperate joint account is set up for him to pay the rent into and the mortgage paid from that account. Suggest to him to take in a lodger to bring in extra income.

Stella, I answered your 3 questions.
But apart from that, reading your post again - why doesn't your friend just let this house be your man's problem from now on? He lives there, he pays the mortgage in full, he maintains it, he pays the property tax, house Insurance and life assurance. She doesn't have to have anything to do with it. This will work as long as he pays the mortgage.
What could happen is that if he lets it go into arrears it will affect her credit rating. If she doesn't trust him to pay the mortgage or to keep up the other payments or maintain it, then she might be better off preventing him from moving back in (in so far as she can)

Was it an interest only tracker mortgage? You state the mortgage taken out was €350k in 2007 and it's still €350k in 2015.