Mortgage shortfall & Ex-Wife's Bankruptcy

[Mags76]

Re: Mortgage shortfall & Ex-Wife's Bankruptcy

thanks for the link for the bankruptcy search

it says she went bankrupt in aug of this year and her total debts was over 40k

do i SAR the mortgage company now to see when she handed in the keys?

[LooLoo]

Re: Mortgage shortfall & Ex-Wife's Bankruptcy

Hi hun

just so you know - there was a point i was considering BR - i was living in the Former Marital home and the ex had moved out - he not paying anything towards the mortgage - which was interest only. At the time any correspondence regarding the house was coming to me as the home address - he was getting nothing - so i know how easy it would be just to go BR and then inform the Mortgage company and they would assume that the ex had given his permission. As decitful as it is - i wouldn't have been that difficult to do

Bear in mind this is in England and not Scotland - also i am not 100% sure and one of those who is better in BR stuff can let you know - i know normally when you are BR or you get the house repossed the lender normally asks you to sign something to make you liable for the shortfall - which i have been told never to sign esp if you are going BR - Rizzle can you let me know about this if your are around. So if neither his ex or your BF signed this can they still come after him - again someone with more knowledge can shed some light.

I knew at the time if i had gone BR my ex would have had all of the creditors of our joint debts come after him - and the same if it was the other way round.

Anyway lets see what others say on the matter.

I really feel for you and him hun

xx

[Mags76]

Re: Mortgage shortfall & Ex-Wife's Bankruptcy

Loo Loo

thanks for your support xx

I know that the house was NOT repossessed she just handed it back. I didnt know this was possible

oh and i might add his ex has got herself a new boyfriend and a nice new car and is away just about every weekend on short holidays so F%^$ me bankruptcy obviously suits her oh and while she is away who do you think always has the kids thats right me!

Sorry ranting a wee bit but this is starting to get me a tad angry lol

[PriorityOne]

Re: Mortgage shortfall & Ex-Wife's Bankruptcy

Hi guy

sorry not been on over the weekend been trying to get my BF to open up and talk to me but no joy (still raw/angry that the ex can do this to him i think).

Anyway [COLOR="rgb(255, 140, 0)"]as far as i know[/COLOR] my BF was paying money every month for
a. the children
b. the mortgage
c. payment of a joint credit card

right, found out that she had not been paying the credit card BF got debt recovery letter to my home (so creditors knew where he was, right?) we have picked up approx £8k bill (nice huh)

as far as the mortgage goes [COLOR="rgb(255, 140, 0)"]he does not think[/COLOR] that she missed a payment the only thing he got from ex was that (in a very nasty way) you f*^%ing left so i didnt want to stay in the shitty house so i handed back the keys!! she is now living in wait for it my BF best friends old home which he rented to her. (BF not too bothered about this as quite rightly so he knows his kids are in a nice neighbourhood and nice house)

now if I have got all your comments/answers correct in my head the first thing i should get him to do is SAR santander to find out exactly what happened?
I would have thought if the keys were just handed back then my BF would have also had to sign them over??

A tad confused but is this what i should do?

Sorry for any offence caused.... but this is really not good enough. Your BF needs to grow a pair and deal with some of this himself; he's the only one who knows what's gone on between himself and the ex and to be vague about details does beg the question of whether he's being straight with you.

You need to deal with the credit card as a separate issue and explain where this £8K balance has come from please.

thanks for the link for the bankruptcy search

it says she went bankrupt in aug of this year and her total debts was over 40k

do i SAR the mortgage company now to see when she handed in the keys?

He needs to SAR Santander, yes..... by recorded delivery. If there are specifics that he needs to know about, then these can be added to the SAR before he sends it off.

Loo Loo

thanks for your support xx

I know that the house was NOT repossessed she just handed it back. I didnt know this was possible

oh and i might add his ex has got herself a new boyfriend and a nice new car and is away just about every weekend on short holidays so F%^$ me bankruptcy obviously suits her oh and while she is away who do you think always has the kids thats right me!

Sorry ranting a wee bit but this is starting to get me a tad angry lol

The main difference between handing the keys back and repossession is that with the former, you make yourself intentionally homeless and the debt is stopped from escalating faster.

There is a tendency to be bitter about such things, I agree..... but your BF's ex is perfectly entitled to have a life; however badly she may or may not have behaved before. Unfortunately, married men usually come along with an assortment of baggage and the new partner inherits the mess, as you are now finding out.

[PlanB]

Re: Mortgage shortfall & Ex-Wife's Bankruptcy

Like you I don't know all the facts in this particular case, but I have researched the options open to the bank in the event of a homeowner handing back the keys to a property in Scotland, and this is what I have been told:

If Wife hands in the keys with a letter saying she is happy for the lender to sell it then they can do that without the need to go to court to repossess the house so long as the property is empty and no one entitled to occupy it (i.e. children or live-in husband etc) remain living there (whether they were named on the mortgage or not). This is a voluntary repossession with no court involvement.

If there is a joint owner then Husband's permission would be needed for a voluntary repossession regardless of whether he lives there or not.

But if permission to sell is not given by either Wife or Husband then the lender cannot sell the house but can seek a court order for repossession in the absence of both Wife and Husband even if there are no mortgage arrears on the basis of abandonment once the keys have been handed back and efforts have been made to contact both parties.

If permission is given by Wife only but not Husband (or vice versa) there cannot be a voluntary repossession but the lender can still proceed to court to repossess the house due to abandonment and then sell it.

If the lender decides to seek repossession through the court then the legal papers would need to be served on both parties (Wife and Husband) at any "known address". If neither address is known (because Wife has moved without giving her address, and Husband has failed to notify the lender of his current address) then the lender can still repossess the house in their absence using "service of walls of the court" which means that the lender would attach the summons to a noticeboard in the court and that's good enough. At the hearing the lender would have to prove to the Sheriff that efforts have been made to trace Husband, but at the same time the court would be critical of Husband if he failed to tell the bank of his wherabouts since moving out 3 three years earlier (if that was the case).

Since the property was in negative equity Husband has not lost any money by this sale/repossession, but he may have lost the opportunity to clear any arrears that existed to prevent the repossession. If those arrears were caused by Wife then he could try to claim any loss from Wife but she is now BR from what you say. There may have been no arrears when Wife moved out, but unless she continued to pay the mortgage after she had gone (which I doubt) then three months later there could have been sufficient arreas to warrant repossession by the lender.

Having said all that it's important to check with the bank that proper procedures were carried out with the court repossession. Because if they've traced and found him now to claim the £50k shortfall, how come they didn't trace and find him earlier which would have at least given him a chance to sort this (pay off any arrears and sell the house on the open market or let it) before the repossession hearing

It seems the bottom line may be that the bank didn't need permission from either Wife of Husband to go ahead with a court repossession after a time lapse from receiving back the keys

The lender will now have to go to court to recover the £50k shortfall from your BF so it's still worth trying to find a defence

[PlanB]

Re: Mortgage shortfall & Ex-Wife's Bankruptcy

Gosh, that was a long post

Your BF could also ring these people for a brief chat. I've never used them but I'm told they're really good or can refer him to someone similar but more local

http://www.lsa.org.uk/housingandprev...elessness.aspx

[PlanB]

Re: Mortgage shortfall & Ex-Wife's Bankruptcy

I know that the house was NOT repossessed she just handed it back. I didnt know this was possible

You need to check whether the house was repossessed after Wife handed back the keys and not take her word for it since she may not have known what went on once she had left the property.

Repossessions are reported to CRAs so maybe your BF needs to check his file because if it was a joint mortgage then presumably Santander was reporting to his file unless his/your address isn't linked in any way to the old house But if Santander didn't have his address (which is why he didn't get any notification of what was happening) then it may not show up. Repossessions stay on CRA files for six years like Defaults.

[PriorityOne]

Re: Mortgage shortfall & Ex-Wife's Bankruptcy

Just to add.... my (jointly owned) home was repossessed years ago and the shortfall debt was £57K. It never went to court and it wasn't the end of the world either. I eventually made a small F&F settlement and got on with life but only because I'm a pro-active person and a fighter. My ex isn't and wasn't... and his debt was never settled. It now stands at over £100K.

Your BF needs to arm himself with the facts of what actually happened, rather than assuming his ex did this, that and the other. Talking to her won't give him anything; he needs to send the SAR and take things from there and as much as you love and want to support him which I fully understand, it's his mess and not yours.

[Mags76]

Re: Mortgage shortfall & Ex-Wife's Bankruptcy

Hi

Just to say my BF has no idea about what has been going on except for the fact that the ex told him she had handed back the keys, he got this info from her when his children said they were moving house and he asked her what was going on) my BF knew he would be liable for half of any shortfall the problem here is, after we received a letter asking for the WHOLE shortfall amount not half did the ex pipe up with that she has made herself bankrupt. we had no idea of this until letter landed on doormat a couple of days ago.

[Mags76]

Re: Mortgage shortfall & Ex-Wife's Bankruptcy

oh and no offence caused, I'm from Scotland we dont do offenced ive got skin thicker than that on a rice puddin lol

[PlanB]

Re: Mortgage shortfall & Ex-Wife's Bankruptcy

.... my (jointly owned) home was repossessed years ago and the shortfall debt was £57K. It never went to court and it wasn't the end of the world either. I eventually made a small F&F settlement and got on with life but only because I'm a pro-active person and a fighter. My ex isn't and wasn't... and his debt was never settled. It now stands at over £100K.

It looks as if P1 was clever enough to do a deal with her lender and only paid a (small!) part of the shortfall after repossession so maybe your BF could also negotiate a reduced F & F to close the file Santander could see it as a bird in the hand is worth more

From what you say your BF knew what had happened but was quite rightly shocked to be hit with the whole 100% bill several months later because his ex-wife had gone BR without him knowing that important fact. I would be shocked too

[PriorityOne]

Re: Mortgage shortfall & Ex-Wife's Bankruptcy

Hi

Just to say my BF has no idea about what has been going on except for the fact that the ex told him she had handed back the keys, he got this info from her when his children said they were moving house and he asked her what was going on) my BF knew he would be liable for half of any shortfall the problem here is, after we received a letter asking for the WHOLE shortfall amount not half did the ex pipe up with that she has made herself bankrupt. we had no idea of this until letter landed on doormat a couple of days ago.

That is generally what happens; they can and go after either party for the whole debt because it's a joint and several liability. If the ex is bankrupt (or even if she's not), they will go after whoever poses the greatest chance of the recovering the shortfall.

oh and no offence caused, I'm from Scotland we dont do offenced ive got skin thicker than that on a rice puddin lol

That's a relief.... I say things as they are sometimes but no offence is intended....

It looks as if P1 was clever enough to do a deal with her lender and only paid a (small!) part of the shortfall after repossession so maybe your BF could also negotiate a reduced F & F to close the file Santander could see it as a bird in the hand is worth more

From what you say your BF knew what had happened but was quite rightly shocked to be hit with the whole 100% bill several months later because his ex-wife had gone BR without him knowing that important fact. I would be shocked too

I did indeed strike a deal and although it was a joint and several debt, they agreed to make my ex liable for half. Many things are possible....

I'm assuming that you and your BF are currently renting? What does his financial situation look like at the moment (not including the cc debt)?

[Mags76]

Re: Mortgage shortfall & Ex-Wife's Bankruptcy

Hi

Just checked some records out Ex Wife declared bankrupt in Aug 2012
house was sold on 25 July 2012 (according to Zoopla website).

So first things first, he needs to SAR santander and get a hold of the whole file to see exactly when and where everything happened then we will go from there.

[Mags76]

Re: Mortgage shortfall & Ex-Wife's Bankruptcy

P1 this is where it gets a bit tricky my home is jointly mortgaged with myself and my ex partner hahahahahahahahahahahaha i know i know tricky or what lol

though i threw my partner out because he was a lying cheating abusive dirty wa&^*r lmao about 4 years ago. I am currently trying to sort out the mess he left me in due to the fact that he paid for fecking nothing after he left and i kept everything going as i had a very small child at the time, i am in the process of sorting out a joint loan that he left me with (going to court just shortly, long story) and the mortgage on my house is to be signed over to me as soon as i have sorted the loan!! I am lucky in a way that after the loan is sorted my mortgage is very very small about half the value of my home.......

this is what brings me to this next question with my BF currently living with me and on the Electerol Role at my home address, could my home be effected by this?
dumb question i know but i have no idea lol

[Mags76]

Re: Mortgage shortfall & Ex-Wife's Bankruptcy

P1 we dont have any savings at all, at the mo like mostly everyone else we live pay check to paycheck, Like i said above i may have equity in m,y home but i will be damned if i pay for his ex wifes debt

that may sound harsh but tis the truth