Does this financially ring true?

[ManyBooksLittleTime]

We bought our house nearly 20 years ago for 245k. Now, 19 years later, we still have 203k left on the mortgage. I know the first years is basically paying interest , but only 42k in 19 years??? We have had good interest rates too.Also, my husband reckons it will go down to 181k by August next year. Please can soneone more astute with finance let me know if these numbers can be right?

Like previous pp's the figures don't stack up for me either.

Has you husband felt the need to 'shelter' you from financial issues? Perhaps you've been unwell, stressed by elderly parents etc.?

Is it possible to tell from any joint accounts you have if there is an insurance (endownment) type policy being paid in addition to the mortgage? On the optimistic side he could have done this covering only himself for your protection and not covered you on the policy in the belief he would find it easier to manage if he were left alone?

On the pessimistic side, it's also possible he has taken out a lot more money than you understood and/or moved to interest only without your awareness and then doubled-down on that without a policy to cover the outstanding balance at the end of the term.

Hopefully, he'll be able to explain/prove to you what has happened and if that is acceptable to you, no real harm done. If his explanation still seems unlikely (feel free to run it past MN again for confirmation of discrepancy) then do as others have suggested and seek the information from whatever sources you can.

No matter the outcome this time, it's a sore lesson to learn due to not being vigilant where finance is concerned.

Good Luck.

This all sounds very odd!

It does not financially ring true.

You need to look at all the mortgage statements for the last 19 years. Something doesn't add up.

And it sounds like your husband is either a bit clueless about it all, or hiding something from you. Either way, I would not trust him to sort out your remortgage by himself.

Haven’t read all the posts but basically you’ve been spending more than you earn and kept adding it to the mortgage.
Interest rates of 1% have lulled people into thinking money was almost free.
With new rates at say 5% no way will you pay that off in 8 years. Sorry you’re going through this but your husband has not been honest with you and now it will be harder to pay back the money you owe.

Is it the case that you make the mortgage repayments to your dh's account and he pays the bank? If so, could the money have gone astray?

He might have asked for a payment holiday, switched to interest only or a longer term mortgage to reduce the monthly amount and pocketed the difference? I am not sure whether the bank would require you to sign something for this change other than write to both of you to notify. If so, could he have intercepted the mail?

It will be good to get the figures from the bank so you can compare.

He is lying to you.

Sorry

House prices shot up almost exponentially in the late 90s and early 2000s. Neighbours in my street paid around £86K for their houses 25 years ago when you were buying yours. 20 years ago when the OP and I were buying our houses, those same houses were going for £186K.

Me too, she found out after 10 years .

Get an annual interest for every year.
This will break down what was paid what was deducted from orignal loan.

Adding to the mortgage explains why you have paid so little.

But get the information and you will have rhe answers. This will help you plan for the future.

Come on, that's beyond ridiculous if, as you say, it wasn't interest only.

I suspect DH 'being very quiet' is very telling!!!

What have you been spending the money on instead of paying off the mortgage?

Our mortgage was exactly 245k 8 years ago when we bought, our balance is 170k now. No extra borrowing so far, but I'd say the amount of extra borrowing is more than "a bit". You need to speak to your husband.

What's the point in an interest only mortgage?

Sorry for the derail

This / this is 100% not correct - he has screwed you over and remortgaged or taken money out of the house or gone to interest only.

contact the lender direct

Well if you keep adding to it, of course it's more

With overpayments making out morgage payment average £700 a month, we have paid off £30k in four and a half years.
Your dh is lying to you.

Unless it's an endowment, I would be really worried. I thought endowments stopped more than 20 years ago though.

Because some people want a very large house to live in, hold it for many years and then downsize and use the equity to buy outright.

Look on line for a mortgage calculator that shows the term, interest rate and how much you pay each month. It should give you a rough estimate of how much you currently owe.

Has your husband remortgaged without telling you?

That's what would be worrying me on top of everything else. Rates are getting higher and so it'll take a pretty big whack each month to be able to pay it off in that time frame.

I'm afraid this smells distinctly fishy to me, OP.

If he'd remortgaged on an interest only basis, the capital wouldn't go down to £181k by August next year unless he has an endowment policy that will mature then and clear a chunk of the debt, or possibly some other investment that's due to mature.

I suspect he may have borrowed more with each remortgage, so that the total debt has gone up each time, or at least, not gone down. But I'm suspicious in these matters, because I know a few people who've found themselves in this position.

If the mortgage provider has changed several times, it may be difficult to get to get to the bottom of it.

He has borrowed a lot more than you thought or you had a long period of interest only payments. 1.9k repayment on a 200k mortgage is fine though if that's what you want to pay. We pay 1.9k on 160k mortgage because we want it cleared in 8 years (3% interest).

Intrigued in how your DH considers the mortgage will be paid off in 8 years.

There is no way that you've only paid off what you think, the borrowing must have been increased and by more than £5k twice.

You need mortgage statements and to find out how much the additional borrowing was each time you remortgaged.

To pay that off in 8 years is over 2k a month with no interest. Something isn't right op. I'd go and see a financial advisor and check this, I'd also book an appointment with the mortgage provider and find out.

If you've been paying £1900 a month for 19 years, that's over £433'000 - that's either an obscene amount of interest or you've been screwed over. You can't borrow more than the house is worth. Have you remortgage and borrowed more against the house in those 19 years?

What's your interest rate at?

To give you an example, I took out a mortgage for a tad over £175000 last year, in one year, I've paid £10000 off my mortgage, I've paid just over £11500 in total. With an interest rate of 1.3%

It's the remaining term that doesn't add up, even more so than the balance. It's absolutely not possible that you could have 8 years left on a repayment basis (as opposed to interest only) when you are only paying £1.9k per month. The bank wouldn't allow it-payments are automatically calculated so that you'll have a zero balance at the end of the term.