Quizzes & Puzzles14 mins ago
Getting name taken off mortgage
I left my husband (now my ex) 3.5 years ago as he would not leave our joint property despite him being at fault. I moved into a flat with our son and he has not really contributed towards his upkeep, although he does have him over to stay and is a very good Dad. He was terrible with money when we were together and has only got worse I believe. He have recently found out he has terminal cancer and after I spoke to him he said I had better get my name off the mortgage as if not I would be left with all the debts. He is not credity worthy and could not take over the mortgage. I have suggested he declare himself bankrupt. I have not contributed to the mortgage on the property since I left as I am unable to with paying rent etc. on my flat.
Can I write a letter stating I no longer want to be on the mortgage? What happens if he declares himself bankrupt?
Answers
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.The mortgage lender will not allow you to take your name off the mortgage agreement. The reason for this is quite simple. A lender has a better chance of recovery of monies owed from two people rather than one. They will seek to recover the property if your husband defaults on the mortgage and if the subsequent sale does not release sufficient funds to cover the outstanding mortgage the lender will then attempt to recover the outstanding debt from both the parties named on the agreement.
If your husband declares himself bankrupt the official receiver will then take posession of all your husbands assets including the house. It then depends on the level of debt, the value of any assets and the level of equity in your property as to what the OR does next. If he sells the house the money raised from the sale will go first to your husbands creditors the rest to the mortgage lender and anything left will come to both you and your husband. Again if the residual amount after the creditors have been paid is not sufficient to meet the outstanding mortgage, the lender will look to you both for the remainder. This will ultimately mean court, CCJ and an attachement of earnings.
A further thought. If the house is jointly owned & your husband dies without going bankrupt the house (if it is owned as "joint tenants" and not "tenants in common") becomes yours under survivorship rules and is not part of his estate. His debts (if they are in his sole name) would be paid from any assets he had and if he did not have sufficient assets the rest would be written off. If there is equity in the house you could therefore be better off than if he goes bankrupt.
There is one qualification to this. It is possible for creditors to apply to make the estate of someone who has died bankrupt. If this was done your ex's share of the house would go to the OR (same procedure as my post above). However, I do not think this provision about bankrupting an estate is widely known, and have never heard of it happening.
I don't think you would get the lender's agreement to taking your name off the mortgage and don't think it is in your interest to try.
lady_p_gold is right. Unless the lenders have been extremely incompetent your ex could not have got loans secured on the jointly owned house without your signature. So it could be he has forged your signature to get them. If he has, this could cause you untold problems as the creditors would then chase you.
Go to the land registry website and get a copy of the title deeds for the house. This will show you how many charges are registered. If the only one is the mortgage that your name is on then fine. If there are others that you know nothing about you must challenge your ex about them and find out exactly what he has done. If he has forged your signature the lenders he has defrauded will need to know about it. If he only has a short time to live he should swear an affidavit confirming what he has done as this will help you to get the lenders to accept you have no liability for the debts.
Thinking about this again, there is a way in which loans taken out by your ex in his sole name could end up secured on the house. If he took out an unsecured loan and defaulted on the payments, the creditor could take him to Court and get a County Court Judgement for him to pay. If he then defaulted again by not paying the CCJ the creditor could return to Court and ask for a charging order, which secures the debt on the house.
If this is what has happened only your ex's share in the house could be used in relation to these debts.
The creditors would have no comeback against you.