Anyone taken an ex to court over redress?

Bones of story : Bought in 2004, separated in 2006, ex moved out in 2007 and did not contribute one cent to mortgage from start 2007 onwards and also has not once engaged the bank since 2007.

Divorced in 2015 and I took on 64k arrears, 100K negative equity, paid all outstanding bills and loans to include his car loan all to just keep house and get rid of him. Both signed divorce papers which had similar wording to 'cannot benefit from the others finances from this day forth' kind of stuff.

From divorce date to now I have restructured mortgage without his signature, capitalised on the arrears and then entered into a split agreement. He was never contacted about a restructure and had been written off as non contactable by bank at this point. I took on the mortgage by myself with hopes of taking him off loan when I can as I am the sole beneficiary of the home although cannot remember exact wording on court docs but he cannot contest or look for sale unless I stop paying mortgage which again, I have been paying alone for 11 years.

Roll on to recent weeks. Tracker has been given back to me. I was contacted with amount to be taken off mortgage balance and another amount in redress and compensation from 2008 when I was affected until 2018. 10 years being affected, 10 years of me solely paying mortgage. Agreement sent out to be signed by us both - I query this with bank as they have been unable to contact him in 12 years but miraculously he has contacted them himself only recently and now realises there is a few quid (that I overpaid) due back. He now has decided he wants a 50/50 split of this money (23k). I have been advised by bank to contact my solicitor.

Question - does he have a leg to stand on and can he benefit from the money I and I alone have put into this mortgage the past 10 years? Not sure if it sways anything but I am the sole parent of a young child who works/does not claim benefits and have never had any outside help paying mortgage be it from him, another partner or the state.

I am both gutted and annoyed right now - actually also very emotional that he would stoop so low because as far as I am concerned a real man would not do this but maybe I am wrong.

Advice? Comments? Am I really going to have to give that b'stard more money that i can ill afford to give him?

I can't see any angle for him.

The issue commenced from end of fixed rate period, the compensation is for overcharging from then til now.

He made no contribution, hence its not possible for him to receive compensation as he was at no loss.

I would look at contacting the same solicitor that represented you in the divorce aa he/she would have all the pertinent information and would be able to deal with this quickly.

Thanks to you both. I have gone over and over it all and I can see no way a judge would entertain him but he has proven once before to waste courts time and clearly fancies his chances a second time. Its control I think but all these years later you would think he had found a different hobby. Will update as and when I can.

Just make sure he knows that he'd be responsible for all legal costs if he goes that route and loses.

Sorry if this seems off topic were you allowed split mortgage without ex signature?

Yes BradyJ. My ex was written off by the bank as non engaging so they gave me the split and restructure without his signature. It baffles me that they now need it to give me back my own compensation.

The frustration at this point is killing me. My solicitor has sent him two letters now, one to his home and one to his job and he has completely ignored both.

Does anyone know what will happen if we get a court date and he does not turn up??

I had the same issue except I threatened ex with having to pay me the arrears he racked up when he was living in the house and I was not (12 months) I recapitalised it all fought hard to keep the home, but because he is still in the mortgage bank insisted he was entitled to half unless he signed the payment instruction form, he did thankfully but as you have it in the divorce agreement I would get the solicitor to challenge the bank under the reason of consistency and how their current actions are not consistent with their past actions. I hope you get this resolved seems banks are unable to handle the fact people seperate /divorce and as it's made impossible to remove other from mortgage by the banks it's ridiculous that they do this I have now lodged two complaints also and will escalate.best of luck

What letters were sent to ex? Has ex done anything in writing? He’s probably on a fishing expedition.

Thanks Happy11. I have my complaint ready to go to the bank on Monday morning along with all the court documentation once again from our divorce.

Bronte my ex messaged me back in may and told me that as his name is still on the mortgage that he is 'certain' he still owns half. He does not, it is all signed and agreed since our divorce 5 years ago but I presume he told other people so many lies at the time that he forgot the agreement and that he has no rights at all to my home. My solicitor has sent him a letter asking him to sign the form to release the money and a copy of the divorce agreement pointing out that he has no rights to my home. The first one was sent in May, second one was sent in August. No response despite the letters being signed for as they were registered letters. The bank obviously cannot tell me what he has requested off them if anything at all but even if he was asking for the history since he left it only takes a month to get.

Finally got a response off his solicitor! Apparently he has reason to believe I am in arrears with my mortgage - I am most certainly not and have requested a letter from the bank to say same - and once I can prove that I have been making the payments to my mortgage (doing it for 11 solid years!) then he will enter into an agreement whereby the money goes off the mortgage. I have instructed my solicitor to tell him to get lost with his ridiculousness and that the money is to be given to me - nowhere or anything else to be done bar lodged to my account. The man has finally realised the house and money are not his but still trying to control the finances.

Hi Muddle

Is his name still on the mortgage?
Is his name still on the deeds of the property?

That is a much bigger issue for you to resolve than half of €23k.

If my name were on the mortgage with someone else, I would want any refund to pay down the balance on the mortgage rather than to give them a cash windfall especially if I thought that they were in arrears.

Brendan

Still on mortgage but in talks about transfer of equity.
Still on deeds technically till transfer is done but no succession rights to home, no rights at all, cannot sell etc, I can remain in my home to his exclusion for life as stated in divorce settlement.

Bigger issue I have been dealing with alone since even before the divorce as he left me in dire straits and a lot of debt.

I got a refund of 47k in overcharged interest which has already brought down the mortgage I am solely paying since he moved out in 2007. The compensation is for me not being able to access the cash I overpaid for 11 years so hardly what anyone would call a windfall.

I am not in any arrears. My ex left me in 64thousand euro worth of debt when he moved out which is why I capitalised on the arrears and got a split mortgage. He has not paid a cent since 2007 and I was only affected since 2008. He was happy for me to cleardown our joint 64k arrears on the mortgage plus happy for me to take on everything to do with the house including LPT, property management fees etc while also at the time of divorce leaving me in 100thousand of negative equity. I have put the split back together and solely because of my paying mortgage alone all these years have managed to get us both our credit ratings back. He sat on his smug This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language doing nothing until now when he sees a further way to control me.

It will be a cold day in hell when I agree to that money coming off my mortgage. I need it and he should never EVER have any entitlement to it and I have advised my solicitor to advise him of same. He is only short of contacting my boss at this point and asking for half of my wages the lecherous greedy little man. I WILL go to court with this if he does not sign the agreement.

Could you allow the payment to go into the mortgage account, get his name off the mortgage and treat the payment as a mortgage overpayment? And then don't pay any mortgage until you've the money back.

To be honest I need the cash. Its not for anything farcical - I genuinely NEED the cash. That said my solicitor has responded at this point to him basically telling him that the money is to be signed over to me and that she/we will not entertain a transfer of equity until this is done. She has also pointed out how little he ever contributed to the home and pointed out the fact that she has advised me that i will win if I take him to court and he will have to pay my costs of same.
I have also received a letter back from the bank telling me they are considering my complaint and I will hear a response by 14th of this month. This is in regards to the transfer of equity and my complaint about needing his signature to get my compensation. My ex is literally doing this just to control me. He does not care one bit about the house - he has not once asked if i have life assurance or mortgage protection in place in the event of my death etc which, If I had nothing in place, would leave him with a mortgage on a home he cannot ever benefit from nor own. He has no interest at all in this house, never had done - his only interest is in pissing me off and I currently hold 7 text messages from him saying that. He has an abundance of cash to hand and I was advised to go after him for part of his pension in our divorce but I just wanted rid of him. I do not play the same games he plays because I am happy with my life and comfortable without unnecessary dramas. Fingers crossed this is done and dusted by the end of this month because I am really bloody pissed off at this point.

I would guess this would be a district court case.

Average costs for the losing side is circa 15-20k.

This goes as a judgment and would prevent him from getting any credit til satisfied.

I'd ensure he knows this and that if he dies not come to an agreement within xx days, you will commenced proceedings.

Time for the bully to be bullied.

Whatever it takes to get rid of him works for me at this point. If it hurts his pocket then I will be honest, it will make things sweeter. I recently spoke to his father - I never fell out with him or his partner just my ex himself - and I explained what had happened etc and got a barrage of text messages last night from my ex with plenty of putdowns etc for talking about him behind his back! He is holding off on 'allowing' me the cash because apparently I always 'win' and he never does. Short memory really and victim blaming at its finest. I unfortunately responded to him once and got told that he only left because I forced him to leave... he realistically left to move in with someone else who he is still living with but clearly has written himself a new history. It appears all i can do now is go to court. Such a waste of precious time and a waste of stress but then for someone like him, its all a game really. Not my idea of fun.

Muddle, my sympathies. I can't see how he has a leg to stand on but I'm not a solicitor. Speaking as someone on the receiving end of a damaged and controlling ex-wife my only advice is to try to remain calm and don't get dragged into old dynamics which can open old wounds. If you trust your solicitor then let her deal with it in as much as you can.

I forwarded on everything to my solicitor and she said the same, pretty much 'Do not feed the troll'. It is very frustrating but sure my responding to him and acknowledging him is just making it better for him and worse for me so I blocked his number. The saga continues though!

Over a year later but finally we are closing this thing off!!! Just wanted to update in case anyone is going through similar.

It has taken over a year but finally this month, this week in fact, the bank received my ex husbands signature to state the compensation was mine and nothing to do with him. His solicitor advised him the money was never his and that I would win if it went to court however she did also ask that I try remove his name from the mortgage first before he signed. It was agreed with KBC that they have realised not only their mistake due to this tracker fiasco but also the fact my ex has not paid them in now 12 years that I genuinely had a case and they looked through everything and granted me a transfer of title and mortgage whereby they are taking my ex husband off my mortgage entirely and ultimately the deeds of my property. I have fought tooth and nail for this house and the bank can see proof of same, as can my solicitor and now his so now we are on the very last legs of this saga. My ex has released funds to me which at this point literally pay for legal fees, bills I have had to pay in his name (long story) and a few other bits but the main thing is that even though I am a one wage, single mum family, I have still managed to get my ex husband off the mortgage and title deeds to my home. I am delighted with myself and although I am exhausted as this has been a 13 year fight, I can state fully that it has been worth it. It can be done. It can take time but it can be done!