Mortgage whilst divorcing

[Wildflower1987]

Ex and I split June 2023.

He moved away and I started paying the mortgage solely from Jan 2024.

The mortgage is due for renewal August this year but we are still in financial settlement discussions. He is dragging his heels with pension information. Currently he is also not paying any CMS even though on collect and pay as he is disputing the amount they have requested.

We jointly own the house but what does that mean for the mortgage? Can I apply for renewal solo as it’s just me paying it or does it need to be joint? I don’t think he will agree to it but I can’t afford to fall out of good fixed rate deal and pay way more just because he’s messing about.

Is he paying for anything?
He should still be paying the mortgage, presuming you are both on the deeds, he is benefitting from the increases in equity with each payment you make.
Not sure if you could just change the mortgage to your name, but if you did and took on a new fixed deal, would it just give him space to drag his heels even more?

Would you be eligible for your mortgage solo?

Not can you afford it solo but would you pass affordability checks on your own?

If you went solo and you jointly own the property i'd assume you'd need to buy him out or give him his share of the equity, so i'd double check you can afford this as well.

Is the house to be sold? Don’t fix into anything if so, just go in variable. Though he should still be paying until the financial settlement is signed. Unsure why you’ve let him just stop?

The mortgage renewal will need to be made in both of your names unless the financial settlement has been passed and agreed by the courts which it won't be in time for August now anyway.

Have you actually checked that you can borrow that much? That they will lend it to you? Because it's kind of a moot question otherwise.

Basically that and unfortunately what it will mean if he doesn’t pay is that you start pissing 50% of your equity down the drain as well as his.
You need to push this through as fast as you possibly can or get your Solicitor to ask for financial penalties to be applied for dragging his feet.
I didn’t have much luck with that though, and he dragged it on for nearly 9 years

My ex stayed in our house for 3 years after the split and really dragged out proceedings. Our has needed to be sold to enable both of us to move forward. He demanded that I sign a mortgage renewal otherwise his mortgage payment would go up considerably.

My solicitor advised in no uncertain terms to agree this, it did put a rocket up his arse to get the finances sorted though.

What's the situation with you staying in the house op? Generally judges like a clean break, and the chances of a mesher order are vanishingly small (ie he stays on the mortgage until kids are older/other trigger point).
If you can afford to take on the mortgage AND buy him out then you need to push hard for a resolution in court. If you cannot afford to take on the mortgage AND buy him out then it's likely the house will be sold. You need to think about which of those is the most likely outcome and act accordingly. He cannot be forced to stay tied to a mortgage for a home he no longer lives in.

The mortgage company will want the ownership transferred at the same time as the mortgage to sole name. They won’t want to try and enforce a mortgage against someone who is no longer an owner. You can do the transfer and remortgage before a final order. The won’t alter his claim on equity at all. That is only extinguished by a final order. He will have to go into bank and sign transfer docs and say he’s had legal advice

It’s normal for the person staying in the family home to pay 100% mortgage - in theory the person who leaves can claim occupational rent for being denied the ability to live there - which paying their share mortgage effectively cancels out. They can claim on equity built up after you split so will benefit from your mortgage payments but then presumably they have housing costs as a result of vacating their property

a downside for him transferring the property to you now is if you died before the financial order but many people would consider that a small risk to be free of the mortgage obligations

I am in apposition to be able to remortgage solo.

I could remortgage additional amount up to 40k if needed to support with buyout. If he wants more then I’d push to delay the equity release.

I live alone with our 5 year old. He sees her at most 2 nights fortnightly; but often less. For example she will go a month without seeing him now, and then again in August.

I would argue heavily that sale of the house would be hugely detrimental to her, and me and currently I am doing 90% of the childcare and paying whole mortgage. He is also locked in a dispute with CMS on his payment amounts and not paying me any child maintenance - so the burden is huge.

I was in a similar position although able manage financially without CM. Ex started paying only when we got into court process and only because his lawyer told him to. CMS will make him back pay once done the review but if he’s determined to avoid it then it’s best you don’t rely on it.

tactically it’s better to keep the remortgage and other issues separate if your aim is to get a better deal. I would say the deal ends in August and he has the option of being involved in the remortgage or coming off the mortgage but the title will have to be transferred for the mortgage co to allow that so you can remortgage in sole name and release him. Tell him get legal advice about the transfer happening ahead of the financial settlement but your understanding is that it won’t affect anything.
i wouldn’t mix the two as he will then block it / use it as leverage. Say if the payments go up and you can’t afford them his credit rating will be affected if he’s still on the mortgage.
Just concentrate on trying to get him to agree what to do in august. Have everything lined up with the bank - I wouldn’t borrow more than you need now as to I can always go back for more when you get to that point.

Has he got a Solicitor?
If he hasn’t, you could tell him that you would except him walking away from the equity in the house in exchange for not getting child support
And then the moment the ink is dry on the consent order you put in a claim to the child maintenance service for child support.

But actually he is unreliability around the child maintenance service will massively go in your favour because the judge could decide to do that anyway.

Yes ex’s shenanigans didn’t endear him to the judge and I got a good deal overall. It’s always better to go to court being on the high ground. I’d just focus on the issue in front of you which is the mortgage rate ending. It sounds like you are a long way off getting the rest of it sorted. He has a vested interest in keeping payments down or getting released from them.

Have you taken any financial advice?

For a long time whilst interest rates were very low it was a good idea to fix for a long time. Because it was clear they would go up at some time. Then they jumped up very quickly and a lot of fixed deals became unattractive. Interest rates and lending has become slowly less expensive. This trend was on track to continue. Consequently some people think it better to not jump into an expensive fixed rate.
This could be an option for you anyway.

But at the end of the day you aren’t in a position to do anything without his agreement. Legally the house is jointly owned until you legally change that. Therefore you must act in tandem. You can’t borrow money in your own right against it as you don’t own it in your own right.

It is unlikely he doesn’t know this and he is pushing timelines out as leverage. He probably knows you are pushing for resolution in August and might be willing to offer him a better deal to get it.

Like someone said above you won’t get this resolved by August. It is better to put your efforts into understanding the mortgage situation better. Being on a variable whilst rates and lending costs are falling isn’t disastrous. It might be better for you.

I can't imagine interest rates falling very much though, remember we were on emergency/extremely low rates for years, it's very unlikely we'll go back to anywhere near that now, like 1.2% fixes, unless there's some kind of financial crash again.
The rate that fixed rate mortgages move on to after the fixed period ends is a very high one, the SVR, that's the problem here, selecting a competitive variable rate will require some sort of tie in/exit penalties?

I don’t think I suggested they would be back to historic lows. Just that they shot up following the Truss budget. Since then people haven’t been told the best thing is a long term fix which was a no brainer 5 years ago. The OP needs to get financial advice about her position which takes account of the reality. She doesn’t own the property in her own right and that won’t get resolved until her divorce is resolved. She needs her ex to agree to anything she does in the meantime.

It depends how much your mortgage is, Mine is under 100,000 and the standard variable at 7% isn’t too bad.
I’m not suggesting anybody would stay on it forever, but it wouldn’t break me either