Bank Chief Executive intervenes to sort out joint ownership problem!

Hi All,
My ex and I divorced in 2008, we had 2 houses, the family home and one bought as an investment. When we split, I got the family home, I have 2 kids, he got the investment property. No problem, the bank at the time made us sign each other's mortages, I did protest, but was told it was a paperwork exercise. He is now 20k in arrears on his house, my payments on the family home are up to date, but the bank want me to pay the arrears on his home!!! Surely they cant do this, because he is a taxi driver, he is no longer paying me any maintenace payements, I have explained all this to the bank, but they refuse to take my name of his mortage, not only that, they put forward a suggestion that they would put me on interest only payments on my house, but that the extra 500 I would normally be paying could be used to pay back his arrears. Anybody got any ideas.

Now this is another mad story from a bank. You are competently paying off your home mortgage. But cannot afford to pay the investment mortgage. I would absolutely no way do what the bank suggest, you will end up eventually owing a large back log on your current mortgage. Did the bank suggest this to you in writing or over the phone.

The bank should cop on and let your performing loan continue and force the sale of the apartment and then if you cannot afford it out of current income and nor can your husband they should write it off.

Can you explain how you were forced to sign for the mortgages, did you not as a married couple purchase the family home and later together purchase the investment property?

And yes you are liable for the arrears on the investment property, but you do not have to go down the option they gave you.

Like many others you need help, Mabs is presumably no good for this, but no doubt you cannot pay for advice.

Did you get legal advice independent of your divorced spouse,and were you made aware of joint and several liability on both properties.What does your legal advisor say?

Hi Bronte, what happened was the morning we went into the solictors office to sign over the properties, this was mentioned, so the deeds of my house are in my sole name, the deeds on my ex's house are in his name but the only way we could keep both properites was to underwrite each other's mortages, of course back then the current situation was a million miles away. The back suggested I pay back his arrears by phone and keep refering to us like we are still married, even though I have told them I dont know any thing about his finances only that they are bad. But I will have to go the legal route, as I now have no credit rating even though I have never missed a payment on the family home. Its really annoying, as I guess, as of course his house is in Negative Equity, the banks will just push over any monies owed on it to me.

I sympathise with you, but I also see it from the bank's point of view.

They had a joint and several loan to two people secured on two properties. That is pretty good security.

If they had been asked at the time to split the loans and the security, they were really weakening their position.

It's a terrible mess for FAY and for thousands of others in similar positions who are acting responsibly but who are being damaged by their irresponsible or financially less well off Exes.

Is the solution to ban joint and several loans? Lend Johnny what he can afford to repay. Lend Mary what she can afford to repay. But then the house would be provided as security for both loans, so it probably wouldn't make that much difference.

Hi Brendan, to be honest at this stage, I have appealed to them to remove my name and they have refused, bottom line, I have no control over whether my ex pays them back or not, and to make matters worst, I think the arrears are just getting worst, if it was my family house, I would be contact with the bank talking options, but again how do I get another person to do the right thing?. I would also like to point out to the banks that I am sure they signed for stuff back in 2008 that they now deeply regret, but they seem to be able to get a bail out, whereas there does not seem to be any redress for the house owner. Surely they have to start dealing in the real world.? I have no intention at the moment of paying my ex's arrrears, and I know its time to check out legal options if I have any.

FAY said:

Hi Bronte, what happened was the morning we went into the solictors office to sign over the properties, this was mentioned, .

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You surely knew before you signed that these were the banks conditions? I see nothing wrong with the banks conditions.

There is a reason the bank is putting pressure on you over the phone. I would be most surprised that they would write a letter to you telling you to go interest only on your home and pay the other mortgage. Most likely if you did agree to this you'd end up in arrears on both and in 5 or 10 years when they seek repossession, in court they'll say you asked for this and signed for it.

From my readings and other family members the banks are up to all sorts of tricks and pressure on people. Always by a visit or phone call. Not in writing. Do not correspond with a bank in any form other than in writing, to protect yourself.

You have to be strong here. You are very protected by the fact it's the family home and you have 2 kids. Marp protects this. In addition you are paying back your mortgage. Your ex being self employed, well enough said. He's probably gone beyond the point of caring about his property and the marriage breakdown will have impacted him no doubt.

This does not solve the problem of the 2nd property. The bank as I already outlined should repossess it. Or better still allow the ex to sell it, he's unlikely to agree to this, as they well know, which is part of the reason they are putting pressure on you. Whatever the shortfall is you and the ex are liable for. If he is not a mark then they will come after you. But if your income after mortgage and expenses are taken into account, then a judge at an instalment hearing will order a very low amount to be ordered against you.

By the time all this happens hopefully the new insolvency regime wil be in and will be of help to you. One other important point, if the insolvency bill does not help, then you'll have to rethink about what will happen if you have equity in your home.

Hi Bronte, thanks for your reply, yes, I suppose I did know, my point was this was only mentioned to me the morning we were due to sign over the interest we had in each other's property, and also, I was told if I did not sign, I would not be able to put the deeds of my property in my sole name. This was important to me as I have 2 kids, and also I wanted to be responsible for my finances on my own. As it turns out, that is not the way this has unfolded, but I did find your comments helpful and thanks for them. One last point for now, I did contact an organisation where debt arrears are their speciality, but I was a bit taken back when they asked for money 250 euros up front before they even looked at my case.!! Has anyone else any experience with these organisations, and are they any good? In the grand scheme of things 250 euros is nothing, but I dont want to find I am throwing good money after bad.

A bit of light

Hi All, I wrote back in June on this site, my ex and I had 2 properties and we got divorced in 2008. Both names were on both properties and my ex fell behind in the payments on his property, the arrears kept going up and the bank began to chase me for the money. Phone calls and threats followed, my ex did not really care, his thing was, they cant take what I dont have, he is a taxi driver and I know his earnings were down a lot. After they turned down my request to be removed from his property, I appealed their decision, they again turned down my request, there even was a mention of me going on interest only and paying off his arrears which were now at 22k. I wrote to the CEO of the bank, stated my case as to why I should be taken of his property, and would you believe it, the Bank rang me on a Saturday, to say they would take my name of his property. This was back in June and I just got the papers for the new mortage which is in my sole name and confimation that my name has been taken of his property today. Ok I am not saying they will do this for other people, and I dont know why they did it, but they did, just thought I would let the other folks out there know.

Fay

That is really great news. Seems like a good approach - write to the Chief Executive

He obviously decided that you should be rewarded for your responsible behaviour.

Brendan

FAY said:

. This was back in June and I just got the papers for the new mortage which is in my sole name and confimation that my name has been taken of his property today.

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My goodness this is absolutely wonderful news. Which bank is it, would you mind telling us. It would be nice to know which institutions are finally actually dealing with the debt mess. Well done on your letter writing skills. It really shows that tacking the issue instead of ignoring it can actually work.

Hi Bronte, I am not sure I want to go public on that, I would hate the guy to regret his decision, my point was, that when you are against the wall, sometimes thinking outside of the box actually works. As for my writing skills, I thought it was a good letter, I kept to the facts and bascially told the truth, that I was sure the bank had made some decisions back in 2009 that they regret also. The amazing thing was to get a call from the bank on a Saturday from a senior member of their staff to say they would agree to it.

I am inspired by your thread FAY and going to send a letter to the ceo of my own bank today. Well done

Thank You, Hope2divorce, my only advise would be to stick to the facts, in my case I kept saying that at least by taking my name off his mortage they would have one property which was still viable, and I know everyone told me including my solictor that there was no way they would do it, but they did. Very best of luck to you!

Just to poiont out to Hope2divorce and others, Fay seemed to have the mortgages jointly and the deeds/property ownership separate to her husband. In addition she had zero arrears and demonstrated her ability to repay the mortgage.

Hi Bronte, you are correct, I had no arrears on my property but my ex has I think around 25K on his, the other thing I would say is that I dont think the Senior Management at the bank were in anyway in agreement, what appeared to happen was they were told to sort it, I cant tell the relief as one of the previous phone calls from the bank and told me I would have to put my property on interest only and pay off my exs arrears.!!!!

This is interesting. What was the value of the investment property in relation to the family home (in percentages, not actual values)?

I'm sceptical of banks (aren't we all) and doubt that they done this out of the goodness of their hearts. Maybe they realise that, should you have had to cover his losses, there's a possibility that you wouldn't and that you'd then have two non-performing loans.

Perhaps they are planning to repossess his house and, realising that both are in negative equity, they can't get their money back by selling yours so may as well let you continue on paying your current mortgage as you have been doing.

Or perhaps FAY's well written letter and well argued point actually persuaded the Chief Executive that it was the fairest thing to do under the circumstances.

Brendan

Hi Marathonic, just to clarify, the family home is not in negative equity,in fact, there is probably about 100k worth of equity in it at this stage, but, if there was one loop hole, and I dont know if this was was the case, and I will never know, it might be, that I had no advanced warning before we went into the solictors office, that they would make us underwrite each other mortage, I signed without any cooling off period, I dont know, maybe this had nothing to do with it, I guess I will never know, maybe the CEO is a nice guy, who knows!

FAY said:

maybe the CEO is a nice guy, who knows!

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Who cares?