Judgement Mortgage

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complicated

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I would like to buy out my ex-husband's half of the house which is jointly owned. It will just be a matter of signing it over to my name.

There is a judgement mortgage on the house in relation to debts he hasn't paid off and currently can't afford to repay. Is it possible to transfer his equity into my name without me being liable to any of the debts.

The bank have told me that I can afford to take over his half but that the judgement would have to be discharged first.

I'm not sure if some sort of agreement could be drawn up with a solicitor that he has no further or future interest in the house and that he will take full liability for the judgement?
 
I am not an expert in these matters but I don't think you can revisit a judgement on a house or property quite like that.

I think the judgement must be cleared before the house can be transferred into your sole name - this seems to be the point of registering judgements against properties.

However the normal course of events is that if a sale occurs the proceeds from the sale go to pay off the judgement.

There must be some mechanism for this to occur since the property is an asset which may have to be sold to clear the judgement mortgage.

So long as the amount you are paying your ex for his half exceeds the amount of the judgement, there should be some way of sorting this out.

I am happy to stand corrected on this matter.

ONQ.
 
"It will just be a matter of signing it over to my name."

It won't.

"Is it possible to transfer his equity into my name without me being liable to any of the debts."

No.

"The bank have told me that I can afford to take over his half but that the judgement would have to be discharged first."

They are telling you both to get rid of the judgment mortgage before they will deal with any transfer.

"I'm not sure if some sort of agreement could be drawn up with a solicitor that he has no further or future interest in the house and that he will take full liability for the judgement? "

There is no question of a creditor agreeing to remove a judgment mortgage from the property to enable you to have the house - unless they are paid. They have security - why would they let that go?

You can sell the house, discharge the judgment mortgage ( if there are sufficient funds) and take your share but without everyone's agreement or paying off the judgment mortgage, you cannot have the house without the judgment mortgage.

mf
 
Unfortunately the house is in negative equity so even if it was sold we would not have enough to pay back either the mortgage bank or the judgement.

It seems incredibly unfair that I am being held liable for a debt which has nothing to do with me and which I didn't even know was attached to our house.

Thanks for your help. It seems the only option is for him to cough up the money to pay off the debt which unfortunately I don't think is going to happen.
 
I'm sorry complicated, but at the start of this you stated:

"I would like to buy out my ex-husband's half of the house which is jointly owned."

I assumed this meant you had the money to buy him out and would be offering him half the price of the house.

Without getting into the whole negative equity amount, if you can afford to buy ime out and the money you pay him is more than the judgement, surely he can agree to discharge the debt as part of any deal?

Effectively, this means that your offer to him clears the judgement mortgage and you get the house unencumbered by the judgement mortgage.

Am I missing something here - is the judgement mortgage for MORE than hanlf the proce of the house?

Again, not looking for details, just ball parks - in this case, "yes" or "no".

:)

ONQ.
 
Apologies, when I said 'buy him out' what I really meant was for the bank to sign his half of the house over to my name and for me to take on the full remaining mortgage repayments and obviously taking his name off the title deeds. To this the bank has told me the judgements would have to be settled before they transfer the equity.

I don't think I could afford to 'buy him out'. At the moment the house is worth €250k but the mortgage remaining is €300k i.e. €50k negative equity plus there's the judgement mortgage attached of €30k.

ONQ - Is your suggestion saying that I should pay him €125k plus an extra €30k to clear the judgement?

How would I finance that?
 
Hi complicated.
I am just wondering how the judgement was put on the house without your knowledge?

A letter may have been intercepted by the ex-husband or ignored by the OP. Notification of the judgment mortgage would have gone out from the Land Registry to all joint owners.

Basically the judgment mortgage is registered as a mortgage on the property. If the husband gives you his share, you take it subject to the judgment mortgage. Equally, if it were to be sold, the buyer takes it subject to the judgment mortgage. The upshot is that anyone buying or lending on that property will insist on that judgment being released.

There is no question of there being a free way for you to take the property without the judgment. As is, the judgment creditor could seek an order from the court charging the property and then go for an order for possession and sale.

The only long term hope is relying on the Statute of Limitations (12 years).
 
Apologies, when I said 'buy him out' what I really meant was for the bank to sign his half of the house over to my name and for me to take on the full remaining mortgage repayments and obviously taking his name off the title deeds.

This is were I am puzzled....I presume you're officially seperated? and there is some official agreement in place signed off by solicitors? This agreement would cover things like the house share and yes, one ex-spouse can buy out the other one at any time if it's feasible. The separation agreement usually covers this part so I am surprised that you are surprised that regardless of his debt you think you could just sign the joint house over to your name without giving him any money for his share of the house :confused: please correct me if I got all this very wrong....
 
I wonder what is the procedure to have a Judgment Mortgage cancelled by relying on the Statute of Limitations..I think if the debt was due to theRevenue the period is 30 years.
 
Nope as the original judgement is only enforceable for 12 years, when the JM expires the judgement to which it relates will be unenforceable. No enforceable judgement means no JM.

You get 12 years to enforce the judgement. If you don't get your money back in those 12 years then tough the matter is dead as far as the law is concerned.
 
'This is were I am puzzled....I presume you're officially seperated?'

We are not yet officially separated, we are only starting the process but need to sort out what we're doing with the house before we can get the separation agreement drawn up.

'A letter may have been intercepted by the ex-husband or ignored by the OP. Notification of the judgment mortgage would have gone out from the Land Registry to all joint owners.'

Two letters were issued from the Land Registry, one addressed to me and the other addressed to him, however he intercepted my letter so I never saw it and knew nothing about it recently until the mortgage bank notified me.

'You get 12 years to enforce the judgement. If you don't get your money back in those 12 years then tough the matter is dead as far as the law is concerned. '

What are the chances of the bank not coming to enforce the judgement within 12 years or possession or sale of the house? Does this happen often? Does that mean if they don't come within 12 yrs that it will just go away?

If the debts are not paid off in the meantime I presume interest will build up on them and they could be a lot more in the long run??
 
What are the chances of the bank not coming to enforce the judgement within 12 years or possession or sale of the house? Does this happen often? Does that mean if they don't come within 12 yrs that it will just go away?
They get 12 years that is it. I know of a few cases that went very quiet after a judgement was gotten. One case is now in the 11th year so they only have 1 year to go and the whole debt is gone. Note if they started enforcing the judgement in say year 4 they still have only 8 years to play with.
 
I would have thought that certain steps must be taken to have the entry regarding the Judgmennt Mortgage cancelled say in the Land Registry.
 
It would be removed as part of the conveyancing process. Once it is dead that would be a formality.
 
Once it is statute barred, the registered owner can then apply to have it removed from the folio on giving an affidavit to the PRAI stating that they have not acknowledged the debt or paid in the interim and it is statute barred etc
 
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