Mortgage dillemma for separated couple

B

BETTYBOO38

Guest
Hi,
Here's the dilemma!!
In 2006 I bought a house with my ex-partner it was bought for 219,000 ( current value 180k). After he cheated in summer of 2008 and brought his new girlfriend to our home I moved back home. He then changed the locks. After he changed the locks I stopped paying the mortgage as I had no access to the property or my stuff. I sent solicitors letters but he would not agree to selling or renting.

Now two years on, he has been paying the mortgage and renting a room in the property for the last two years and has been approved a mortgage on the property. No now wants me to sign over the mortgage and for me to receive nothing.. the house and the contents were bought 50/50 and my parents gave me my half of the deposit of 10k.

I feel my only other option is to fight him in court and for him to move out and rent the property. Should I just walk away with nothing?
 
If you paid €219k for it in 2006 (the height of the bubble), then I'm sorry to say could be worth far less than the €180k you value it at now. That would suggest its value has only dropped by 18%, when it has probably dropped by closer to 40/45%, based on the latest figures (the ESRI/PTSB figures of a drop of just over a third are ackowledged by all and sundry to underestimate the scale of things).

Unless you bought it at the very beginning of 2006, and benefitted from a year of stellar house price growth before the crash, you are way underestimating the negative equity. Your negative equity could be up to €90k, not the €35k you think.

If your ex is offering to take on all the negative equity and let you walk away unscathed, I'd take his arm off from the elbow down, and run before he changes his mind..............

One thing I don't understand, though, is how the outstanding mortgage is €215k on a €219k house after four years of paying down the mortgage, especially seeing as you say you paid a deposit of €10k...? How did this happen?
 
Agree absolutely with previous poster - even if the property is valued at 180K, with a mortgage of 215K (which he has paid 4K off in the past few years), if he was insistent on selling and you taking your share, you would be left with a debt of 17.5K - so he is basically gifting you 17.5K. And as RIAD said, the property is probably not worth 180K, so you are walking away free of even bigger debt - not many 2006 purchasers can do this. Read some of the money makeover nightmares facing splitting up couples who have to figure out how to split debt/negative equity.
 
It was 298k at the height of the property bubble just go in there before it jumped up again. the property was 230k when we bought and the mortgage 219k.He states theres 215k left on mortage. I feel like I'm getting a raw deal as I was used for depoait lost 1st time buyers, left with no contents and have no deposit for a new place. Should I just leave my name on there? He would continue to pay the mortgage...I pushed for the name change but now am unsure as I feel I'm walking away with nothing only a big solicitors bill!
 
I would take the offer.

If he wanted to he would be working out how much you owe him.
 
I will try to summarise, as I understand the figures. Please correct me if I am wrong:

purchased early 2006|230
Deposit|10
Mortgage|219
current mortgage|215
current value|180

I assume that you paid €5k each for the deposit.

Let's assume that your current value is correct, although I would be skeptical of it. This is the correct pricing as I see it.

50% of the property| 90,00
add 50% of contents, say |10,000
less 50% of the mortgage|107,500
Less capital repaid by him since 2008, say|1,500
You owe him|9,000
To quote a very wise man...

I'd take his arm off from the elbow down, and run before he changes his mind..............
Click to expand...
You are rightly bitter about his treatment of you. But bite off his arm - don't bite off your own nose, to spite your face.

He will be out of your life. You won't be in negative equity. Sure you don't have a deposit, but you won't have that under any deal.

Brendan
 
I know your right you would be rightly bitter too living at home lol
Thanks everyone for their advice and confirming I'm doing the right thing!
 
I take it both of you are on the mortgage. If this is the case contact the bank directly yourself and get a balance of the mortgage.
I can understand why you stopped paying the mortgage - the locks were changed and you were given no access.
I would find out also what houses are selling for in the area.
Once you have the mortgage balance and price of houses in the area come back to us.
If the figures are as you say in the post, I would walk away.
 
Put the process in place now before he has a chance to change his mind. You are just as well out of it, both financially and more importantly, mentally.

Going back 10 years ago, myself and my partner at the time had a house bought between us. It was just before the boom, but we still had a good bit of equity in the place. The legal battles and dirty tricks went on for over a year and got so bad at one stage that I actually drove my car down the wrong side of a road, I was that stressed.

The minute the situation was over it was like a load lifted from my mind.

Move on and the best of luck to you.
 
BETTYBOO38 said:
Hi,

After he changed the locks I stopped paying the mortgage
Click to expand...
This would go against you in the courts, a judge will look at it from a commercial viewpoint not a moral one.

BETTYBOO38 said:
I feel my only other option is to fight him in court and for him to move out and rent the property.
Click to expand...
This will take time and money, lots of money. The longer it goes the more you pay, i'm down about 25k in legal fees plus five years of my life and I still havn't closed off the problem yet. Also if an order of sale was to go on the property then you would have estate agent fees and if the house is in Neg Equity then you'd also be liable for half of that, maybe more as you havn't paid anything towards the mortgage in a couple of years.

BETTYBOO38 said:
Should I just walk away with nothing?
Click to expand...
 A Clean slate, a fresh start. Thats a big positive lots of people looking for advice here would like. If you want some sort of little victory tell him you'll sign it over no problem, but only if he pays your legal costs so your not out of pocket.




RIAD_BSC said:
If your ex is offering to take on all the negative equity and let you walk away unscathed, I'd take his arm off from the elbow down, and run before he changes his mind.........
Click to expand...

Totally agree.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top