Do I come off the mortgage to get on the housing list?

[ajmae]

My Fiance and I are separating for good. We have two children (4 and 2). I have no family support whatsoever. No place to stay or crash. He knows this and I’ve always felt trapped as a result.

My ex and I jointly own a house in a nice area. We will approximately get a bit of equity each when we sell it for a deposit on next place.

However, I’ve looked everywhere in our city, there are NO affordable houses. Even absolute run down houses I would barely qualify for a mortgage on and I wouldn’t have the money to do up if I did.

Renting seems even worse. There is nothing around my daughter’s school or even remotely in the same side of the city that I could afford. They are all over £1000.

I currently work three days a week - but have checked out what my next mortgage would be if I am full time (can increase hours at any time) and I can barely afford a house for £100-120k - which around Liverpool there’s nothing.

What annoys me the MOST is that my house we bought ten years ago for £144k. Now it’s worth £250k. And I still wouldn’t be able to get a mortgage for it on my own if he left! Or afford the monthly mortgage payment if even if I could even on full time wage.

I just need an affordable place to live with my children but it seems impossible. I love working.

I feel like he’s always made the financial decisions and I just don’t know what to do for the best. I need a place to live with my children asap.

My friend has three children, no job and lives in a larger house than my current one (council) with a car. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. She tells me I should go on the housing list but I don’t qualify.

am I entitled to anything? my nursery fees alone for my youngest is near £800. I

any advice appreciated.

Sorry OP 💐

Can you share your salary? It's likely you'll be entitled to UC (which will cover lots of nursery costs!) - but not til you've burnt through your savings/cash from house equity.

Will you have 50/50? Have you run the numbers through a CMS calculator to see what you'll be entitled to there?

How much equity is in your house? You'll be getting half of that won't you? With that plus a mortgage on FT work, your estimate of £100-120k budget sounds low?
Do you also have any savings you might split?

am I entitled to anything? my nursery fees alone for my youngest is near £800

Sounds like you'll have plenty of money from the sale of the house plus your own wages to live on and child maintenance.

I think you should increase your hours ASAP so you can qualify for a bigger mortgage. Then be very open minded about what you could buy. Instead of a run down house that you can't afford to renovate how about a flat that is in ok condition? Even if it is small for your needs and you have to have a sofa bed in the living room for example.

A flat might not be what you are used to but you will not have to worry about a landlord selling up and making you homeless again.

Could you look into shared ownership? You would use your equity to buy a chunk of the property and then could have a mortgage on another chunk (or not) and then rent on the bit you don't own. Universal credit can help you pay the rent part if your income means that you are eligible.

As you own a property at the moment you will have to explain to the housing providers that it is no longer affordable for you.

You definitely should not come off the mortgage if by that you mean give up your equity - no way.

If you don't buy you will have to live off/spend your equity down before you will be entitled to any help from benefits. Your equity will then be gone making it very difficult for you to try to get your own place again.

How much equity will you get from the sale of the house? If you bought it for £144k 10 years ago it’s now worth £250k how much is left on the mortgage?

Are you including your share of the equity in what you can afford?

Have you looked into part ownership options? It could work for you, so worth exploring.

So if your mortgage is the full £144k still which is a worse case scenario, then you're looking at having about £50k each from the equity which you can use as a deposit or to cover living costs for a while.

What would your salary be full time?

Have you only looked in your immediate area? If you have no family support and your oldest child is only 4 then you aren't tethered to a school catchment, you could move anywhere. You may need to expand your search area.

Update Hi I forgot to add he’s remortgaged the house FOUR times. So the house that we bought for £144k we now owe £180k.

full time I’m on £30k which to me I always thought was an ok wage but everything is just so expensive, I’ve not looked at rental prices in nearly a decade - I nearly fell through the floor.

So you will have 35k ISH and mortgage to 140?

You need to either secure higher paid employment or start looking at what that buys you outside the area.

Unfortunately the re-mortgaging has scuppered the usual options in your situation.

You will need to consideration what childcare options are available, would a childminder be more affordable?

And yes unfortunately you may need to rent.

I'd try to keep the house, interest only would only be about £1000 a month - cheaper than rent

You could get an order (maybe) for him to get any equity once the kids move out?

So you’d need a mortgage of £180k to buy him out?

What is his salary, have you worked out what payments he’ll need to make for the children?

Who put down the original deposit on the house? What’s happened to the money when the house has been remortgaged??

The list will take years even when I was evicted (because he wanted to sell) and living in one room in a shared house with the DC I was told at least five years and thats while being in a high priority band.
Privately renting is insanely expensive as you say. Honestly the only way now is shared ownership please look into it.

And yeah I also have friends who live in really big council houses for rent a lot cheaper than I pay it's annoying but lucky them I guess. Seriously though look into shared ownership

I was about to suggest shared ownership too OP.

I have approx 80k to chuck on a house and my earnings are 38k FT. Single mum of one. FTB.

Nothing in my area. I can't and won't move as I'm in SE and everywhere is spenny as fuck.

I'm in the process of buying a 3 bed shared ownership. It's cheaper than renting and it gets me on the ladder.

@ajmae how did “he “ remortgage without your signature as co-owner?

Unfortunately the council lists are struggling as it is, there's people on band one (the highest!) waiting 4-5 years to be housed and even longer in some areas.

Have a look at shared ownership. Make sure you get info on service charge and rent over the last few years.

You may risk being categorised as intentionally homeless.