Unknown overdraft

[Mortgageoverdraft]

I'm shaking. I'm putting papers away and realised my husband of over 25 years has a massive overdraft going back years.
I didn't question it before as it appeared regularly on our bank statements and I was looking for unusual activity.
He doesn't like it when I start talking about saving more now that our children are older.
He's spending it on something I don't know about, isn't he.
The papers say it's secured on our home. I had no idea.

Is the house in both names? If so, has he forged your signature to get it secured against the house?

A personal overdraft secured on your house? That's fairly unusual. How much is it and what's the balance vs limit?

I know a woman whose DH forged her signature on a remortgage to pay off his debts and tried to hide it. She was devastated.

Is the home in both your names? If so then the overdraft can't be against the home without your knowledge, unless he's fraudulently signed your name.

If the home isnt in your name, you have bigger problems.

Dig deeper.

in that case she can prosecute as that's fraud. She wouldn't be liable, he would have to be prosecuted.

Mortgage only in his name.
A good few thousand.
I knew something was off, lack of eye contact and closeness.
He works from home after Covid, so not another woman cos he's at home loads.

I’ve gone into my over draft by being silly and buying loads of crap
im bad at managing my money.
I don’t do gambling or drugs. Is there a chance he is also crap with money

I'm going to keep looking. He tried to put me off organising the filing cabinet, now I know why.

bigger problems than his overdraft. You've no rights on the house, if you were to split etc However on the plus side, if it's his house, it's his debt.

Why isn’t the home in your name too? What happens to you if you split, financially?

If he's crap with money, I think he should tell me. We have to plan for our old age.
I can't save if there's a debt.

I've lived here for over 20 years.
We've been married for 25.
I feel sick. I can't lose my home.

If OP is in the UK that’s absolutely not true whatsoever if they’re married.

Why would you lose your home? How is an overdraft secured against the house, I’ve never heard of this before, if it’s a few thousand and all your mortgage payments are up to date I don’t know what you’re panicking about?

Is this his personal account or a joint account?

Says mortgage reserve it's over 20,000

Mortgage reserve is an overdraft facility secured against equity in your home - it's effectively like a mortgage extension that gives you access to cash. Providing he is paying the mortgage payments, you wouldn't lose your home, he just has to be able to repay the reserve balance at the end of the mortgage term.

And is he actually into the reserve by £20k or is that just the facility he has access to.

Mortgage reserves weren't that unusual at all 20 years ago. I had one that I used for renovations - it was a cheap way to fund the cost.

I don't know if he's using the reserve or not.
Moneys coming out every month and paid into it. The money hasn't been spent on the house or anything like a car. It doesn't make sense to me. I wonder if he's a secret gambler.

@Mortgageoverdraft OP you need to answer the questions. why are you not jointly on the mortgage? you may have inadvertently enabled him to do this. has he buried his head in the sand thinking the debt would never be visible? How far into the overdraft is he???? are his earnings enough to pay off this debt and is your mortgage nearly paid off?

Your biggest threat is it's not your home to lose if it's only in his name.

Why are you not on the mortgage? There is no planning for the future without this

A mortgage reserve is an overdraft attached to a current account.

It is "different" to a normal OD as it tracks your mortgage rate instead of the normal 29.9% or whatever that your bank charges.

Having it doesn't mean the same as using it; but equally, it's attached to a current account so he could just be using it as a current account.

These were added to almost all Woolwich/Barclays mortgages back in the day, but they have been phasing them out for the past five years or so.

Question: what you do mean "it appears regularly on our bank statements"? Do you mean him putting money in from your joint bank account?

Could it be that it's a offset mortgage? They were quite popular a few years back. I think it's where instead of having a mortgage and then having savings separately, you run the two things together so that any savings are used to reduce the mortgage balance.

How big is the actual overdraft balance? Just because he has a £20k facility doesn't mean he's actually £20k overdrawn.

Thank you so much everyone.
I need to ask him questions about what the reserve (overdraft) does. Maybe he's borrowed money at a,lower rate of interest? But for what? There's no visible evidence of what it's been spent on.
He refused to put me on the mortgage cos I only work part-time and he said that my earnings wouldn't be taken into consideration when applying for a mortgage, both 20 years ago when we moved in and last year, when I asked again.

Are you sure the mortgage reserve is a negative thing? It could either be how the bank records overpayment to the mortgage (nationwide does something like this) or it could be a savings account that is part of an offset mortgage