Reposession questions- need advice badly!!

Hi
As the title of the post suggest i need advice regarding a very difficult situation.

I bought a house about 2 and a half years ago with my then girlfriend ( we all know where this is going dont we?).
We got a loan for the deposit and she had a credit card bill that she was paying monthly. because of this i told her that the mortgage and house bills can be taken from my account and the deposit loan and her credit card bill be taken from her account. we kept this arrangement and then when we broke up we kept the arrangement going.
A few weeks after we broke up i started a new job and we agreed that we would wait 6 months until i was permanent in this job and i could apply for the mortgage in my own name and the loan we would arrange something else afterwards.
I was told at the time by broker ( it may have been a lie) that i would just about qualify for the mortgage in my own name. My salary is 30,000 the mortgage is 218,000 and the loan which we would have sorted later is about 17,000. anyway in those 6 months the banking crises occured, banks started tightening up their criteria for lending and low and behold when i applied for the mortgage in my own name i was told that i didnt qualify for the mortgage.
Meanwhile during those 6 months i recieved a few letters from the bank that we had the loan with saying my ex hadnt payed the loan that month. i rang her and everytime she told me that it was just a delay with the money going into her account and sure enough a few days later i would ring the bank and they told me that they had recieved thier money...until the last 2-3 months when she decided/couldnt pay the monthly repayments.

obviously this meant that my credit rating was affected. about 2 months after i applied for the mortgage and was refused my ex's father rang me to tell me that she would not be paying anything more towards the loan. i have had to deal with her father throughout this as she is burying her head in the sand and refusing to discuss anything relating to the mortgage and loans with me. Her father told me taht since we broke up she has applied and was amazingly given thousands in loans and not paid anything back!! (You have to love the irish banking system in the good times dont you?)

Anyway i have argued with the bank that i can albeit with a bit of a struggle each month i can afford the repaynments and have done for the previous 2 years but the dont agree and will not let me transfer the mortgage in my own name. my ex has signed a document saying she wants to turn the house over to me and wants nothing more to do with it.

Since my credit rating is already down the toilet and i have been refused the right to own the property in my own name i have stopped paying the mortgage for the past few months.

I dont want this situation but as you can see since i have a crap credit rating due to the fact that my ex has reneged on a loan with my name on it and the bank have refused to let me qualify for the mortgage i dont want to pay 100% for something i only own 50% for the next 33 years of my life.

I have been in constant contact with the bank and they know my standpoint and situation. on the other hand she has ignored the banks calls and letters at every turn to the point where she has actually got her mother to close the door in the face of a banks representitive when he showed up to talk to her.

I am tempted to just pay the mortgage myself but i honestly dont know if i can afford the mortgage and loan on my own although i would try but the idea that i would not own the thing im paying the full amount for really annoys me.

Ok i know this is very long post but i am essentially asking for any advice to what i can do. i have no idea and anyone i have asked havent been able to help me with any concrete advice as to what is should do. i have asked the bank and they suggest i rent it out-this would be difficult to do as their is a glut of properties for rent in the area and i would need to put about 2000-3000 to get it rentable i think. they also suggest getting a guarantor but i dont have anyone that could do that for me.
i have asked a solicitor and he essentially was just amazed that she could be so irresponsible and said that she will need to face up to this sooner or later. i asked about suing her and he said that it would cost me a lot of money and more than likely afterwards i wouldnt make anything out of doing it.

So i am at my wits end right now trying to think about what i can possibly do to get myself out of this situation.
she is currently at oxegen!

So does anybody out there have any advice that i can use (please note im fully aware of the you have to pay no matter what school of thought but if my credit rating is already messed up and the bank are telling me i will not own the house i dont know if there is a point in me paying).

So best of luck to anyone out there that can give me any advice-trust me if you can help me you will be forever in my prayers and im not that religious!!

Any help/advice is very much appreciated

Regards
Gary

Gary,

In a nutshell - sell the house. With a salary of E30k your mortgage is 7.25 times your gross salary - you won't be able to afford the mortgage repayments - especially when interest rates rise again (as they will do at some stage).

In the interim - try and come to some arrangement (e.g. interest only repayments in the interim) with the bank re both mortgage and loan - and keep them in the loop as to what your plans are.

Best of luck...

pjmn

Hi PJMN
i've no isue in reality with selling the house- the only problem is tghere are a lot of houses in the area for sale. also they are on sale for around 50,000 less than we paid for our house. addedto that is the fact that if i was to go down that route i would be have to continue paying the mortgage on my own as my ex cannot/will not/ just plain refuses to pay anything towards the mortgage. this means that if it takes two years to sell which is realistic in this climate i would have to fork out around 17,000 to 20,000 in mortgage repayments on my own!
Also i should have mentioned this earlier- she recently got fired from her job so she is on the dole.

Any further advice would be much appreciated

Regards
Gary

What did your Solictor advice you to do?

You can get your ex to transfer her interest in the house to you even though the mortgage will remain in joint names and registered in joint names at the land registry. You will in effect own the property. Paying the mortgage on your own may be another story though you may be able to take in a lodger to help pay the bills. When the banking crises is over in a couple of year you'll be able to remortgage in to your own name. Get your ex to sign the transter documents now. A good solicitor will be able to sort it all for you.

Hi Gary,

Fully accept it will take time to sell the property - but it won't sell if you don't start the process rolling as soon as possible.

Yes - you may have to take a loss on the sale - but that may be the lesser of two evils - the alternative being that bank go legal against you and your credit history is potentially ruined forever. I think you've ignored the interest only option I mentioned earlier, which would reduce your repayments in the interim.

Are loan and mortgage with the one bank? - if so there may be an option to combine them.

Doesn't appear to be much to be gained financially from suing your ex, especially as she is now on the dole, but you should take legal advice as to how best to protect yourself in this case.

I also accept comment re rentals - but if you were to undercut the current rental market by say 20%, it may help to bring in some income, pending eventual sale of property.

My main piece of advice is don't let matters drift, as things will only worsen, and secondly, talk with your bank, I'd be very surprised if there weren't amenable to something along the lines above, from their point of view you'd be covering interest pending sale of property.

best of luck ...

pjmn

Hi guys

Papervalue - the solicitor told me as below it wouldnt be worth my while suing her and we would have to face up to this eventually- something i already know but she doesnt appear to care about

CallaghanJ - Thats is good advice and she has already signed it over to me but the bank will not let me put it in my own name. A friend asked his father's friend about my situation and he was told that if my ex came back anytime within 6 years and paid so much as an esb bill she would have an entitlement to the property. i dont know if this is the case as nobody else has been able to confirm or deny this for me.

Pjmn - i would have no problem selling the property although like i said it will cost me 1,000's and i have nothing to show afterwards apart from another 50,000 to 75,000 debt to pay in the difference. as i know she would just ignore it this burden would be mine as well so im looking at something in the region of 100,000 debt to be paid by myself alone which on my wage is not going to be easy plus i have nothing to show for it.

Im really not trying to be difficult guys i just cant think of any alternative where either
a) i lose 1,000's
b) i pay for something i dont fully own

Again your help is much appreciated

Regards
Gary

If your ex signs the house over to you she will have no right to re enter the property and the house will be yours...the bank will just hold her liable for the mortgage if you default and the house is sold at a loss.....good luck in getting it sorted.

have you thought about letting a room out ,would help somewhat if you could

i would have no problem selling the property although like i said it will cost me 1,000's and i have nothing to show afterwards apart from another 50,000 to 75,000 debt to pay in the difference. as i know she would just ignore it this burden would be mine as well so im looking at something in the region of 100,000 debt to be paid by myself alone which on my wage is not going to be easy plus i have nothing to show for it.

Click to expand...

She may be on the dole now, but hopefully wont be forever. The Statute of Limitations is on your side - you could sue her in the future if she gets a job etc. I would be inclined to be firm and tell her that if you sell the house and have to pay off her portion of the loss, then you will be coming after her for it at some stage in the future. I assume she wants to get on with her life and will eventually want to buy her own place either on her own or with a future partner/husband, so she wouldnt want this hanging over her for the next few years. May even be worth serving the initial papers, but not persuing it until the appropriate time.

You also need to call her bluff a bit - let her know that you cannot pay the mortgage, which is also in her name, so her credit rating will be shot to pieces if the house is repossessed - again having a huge impact on her future.

Her name is on the mortgage, therefore she still owes 50% of it? I'm not sure what the effect of her "signing" over to you has on this, I presume someone else here can confirm this.

You sell your house with an outstanding mortgage of €200k (simplifying numbers!!). Uoi only get €150k in current climate. Negative equity kicks in and you still owe the bank €50k. However, it's €25k each isn't it? I presume there's no way you have to take on the entire negative equity bit yourself?

Pay your half of the mortgage every month and if you can rent it out, pay a little more. Even if the bank says this is not acceptable, continue paying this money. If it goes to court the Judge will more than likely look favourably on you because you continued to fund the same amount monthly and you did not ignore your responsibilities..think about it...Always pay secured loans first. These are difficult times, hang in there but keep paying something and never miss a month, that is the key!