Joint Council Morgtage ex refusing to pay

E

exos48

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Long story ....

Council Affordable morgtage 2008 with ex partner, I made all payments
Ex left July 2010 having never made a payment ... refused to pay her share after leaving
Met with Council to try and remove ex, they refused
I continued to make payments in full circa €950/month
Dec 2010 I missed a payment.
Jan 2011 - Mar 2011 made payments
Apr 2011 ran into financial difficulty and stopped making payments.

No communication from Council until Jan 2012 regarding arrears
Made another attempt to have morgtage in my name but refused.
Payments still not made as an attempt to force issue.

No communication regarding arrears from Council until Jan 2013
Another attempt made to get morgtage in my name but refused again.

July 2013 received notification that proceedings were to be taken to repossess with a court date in Sept. I wrote back saying I was moving out.

July 2013 moved out but court date passed with nothing from Council.

Oct 2014 Council wrote again looking for arrears.

I engaged again and eventually entered MARP with an agreement that if I made specic payments equal to full morgtage payment for a year to prove that I can afford morgtage in my own name they would consider removing ex.

It was 2015 before this was all agreed but in the mean time arrears were significant circa €56k.
Not looking for excuses but Council took up to a year in each case to ask about arrears during which time they did not entertain my offer to take morgtage in my name. I replied to every single letter I received and got a solicitor to write to them also. They never replied to my solicitor other than to send a statement of arrears.

May 2015 got married, moved in with my wife and rented out the house to help with payments. Rental income before tax €850, MARP payments €958.

Arrears now down to circa €40k but Council now say that ex wants house repossessed and will not remover her from morgtage. They said they would review it if I got her off folio but my advice has been that she would be foolish to come off folio without guarantee of coming off morgtage. She is now living out of the juristiction so I am getting full liability.

Council want me to either pay off arrears in full or sell house and pay difference. I cannot afford either.

Negative equity probably circa €50k.

I can afford to make the €958 payment indefinitely but Council insist that a new plan must be in place in 12 months to pay off arrears or house must be sold or reposessed. They will not restructure the morgtage to take arrears into account.

I cannot countenance paying off any more arrears while ex remains on deeds and potential for her to move in/force sale can occur despite having made no payment whatsoever.

What can I do at this stage?
 
House in arrears with non paying ex who refuses to engage so I may have to sell.

Currently in MARP and making payments on arrears and interest only. 1 year left in MARP.

So by Sept 2018:
Principal outstanding €150,000
Arrears €30,000

What sale price will I need to achieve to clear my debt including fees etc ?

Thanks
 
Hi exos


Ask the council for a redemption figure.

Alternatively, if you have a recent statement, you should see the balance on the bottom of the statement. However, council statements may be confusing.

Brendan
 
Maybe hand back the keys and apply for a Personal Insolvency Arrangement?

Or sell the property and if that is your only debt, apply for a Debt Settlement Arrangement.

If you get a PIA or DSA, your ex would be responsible for the full debt and you would be freed from it.

Maybe if you threaten to hand back the keys, the council might do a deal with you.

But it's a very difficult situation - an ex who won't engage or pay anything and a lender which would find it difficult to arrive at a commercially fair deal.

Brendan
 
Thanks for your replies Brendan.

I've asked for a current statement. My reading online seems to indicate that they have not complied with conditions of MARP. I have had just one statement in 2.5 years. I'm not sure it even qualifies as a statement as it bears no resemblance to what my wife gets from her bank.

I went into MARP under the illusion that the Council would allow me to take the mortgage in my own name and that the balance of arrears would be capitalised after 3 years. New person on my account now says that this is impossible as the government don't allow it ... previous person alluded to the fact that I could have both.

So, while my ex remains on the title and out of the jusristiction I am faced with paying it all on my own, something I can afford to do but finding it hard to stomach at the moment.

I can afford the mortgage and I only have a small loan of 2k to my wife outstanding so I am not sure if I can avail of a PIA or a DSA.

I would keep the house and make the payments if my ex agreed to voluntarily come off the folio and keep pressing the council to get her off the mortgage. I have written to her today to ask.

Just on the arrears, are you saying that if I sell the house I only need to reach the capital figure? .. not both the capital and arrears added together?

E.
 
exos48 said:
Just on the arrears, are you saying that if I sell the house I only need to reach the capital figure? .. not both the capital and arrears added together?
Click to expand...

This doesn't really mean anything.

The mortgage statement should show you the balance due. Arrears is only a memorandum figure. But I have not seen a council loan statement recently so I don't know what wording they use.

If you want to email me a copy of the statement to brendan at this website, I will interpret it for you.

Brendan
 
This is quite a confused situation. The matter of how much is owed on the mortgage, at least, should be a simple question.

Your ex owns half the house and owes the mortgage. It would be very difficult to remove her without her agreement. Even with her agreement, it would be unwise of the council to agree to allow her to be removed from the mortgage. After all she owes them €150k or is it €180k why should they agree to let that go.

What do you want here. If you were clear about that you might be able to work towards it.
 
cremeegg said:
This is quite a confused situation. The matter of how much is owed on the mortgage, at least, should be a simple question.

Your ex owns half the house and owes the mortgage. It would be very difficult to remove her without her agreement. Even with her agreement, it would be unwise of the council to agree to allow her to be removed from the mortgage. After all she owes them €150k or is it €180k why should they agree to let that go.

What do you want here. If you were clear about that you might be able to work towards it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply..

I'll try and clarify.

Ex out of jurisdiction and has told council she won't pay. They can't chase her. So far refusing to engage with me and my solicitor. I have asked for her to voluntary surrender her portion to me at no cost to her. I'm not asking for her to pay anything towards negative equity so you would imagine it would be a no brainer. She would still be liable for the mortgage but as long as I am paying it won't be an issue. Even if I stopped paying it would not be an issue as she lives out of the jurisdiction. This mortgage will always be my burden as I can't leave the country for family reasons.

I want to get my credit rating back as soon as possible so I'm making payments equal to full mortgage payment under MARP. This is split into interest and arrears and capital is frozen until MARP runs out next year. I agreed to these payments as the council said they would facilitate removing ex from mortgage and deeds. They now say this is impossible.

I want to keep the house as I have paid a lot of money already and it will only be an asset once the mortgage is clear.

Also my wife is a public sector employee who would be a much better person to have on the mortgage but they won't allow a name change either.

My options as they stand are keep paying off the mortgage but as soon as there is equity in the house I reckon I will be forced to sell by my ex. After making all of the payments myself that's a hard pill to swallow.

So I might have to just surrender the property or sell it and then I'm faced with the negative equity and fees. By the time I pay all of that off and wait another 5 years for my credit rating to come back I will be too old to get another mortgage or loan.

I suppose I'm just looking for advice on my options and if anyone else has had a similar experience.[/QUOTE]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Your ex is maximising her own interests here.

You continue paying off the mortgage.

She won't force you to sell it when it gets into positive equity.

She will be able to leave it there and watch her interest build up. As you pay down the capital and if house prices increase, she will end up owning half of a very valuable asset.

So the only thing you can do, if the Council won't negotiate with you, is to stop paying the mortgage and surrender it to the Council.
Then deal with the shortfall via a PIA.

Brendan
 
Thanks Brendan, all I can do is give it one more try.

I am gathering evidence of several breaches of the Mortgage Arrears Code of Conduct. Am I wasting my time or could this be valuable in a negotiation? Who would I present my evidence to?
 
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