Hard situation with mortgage need advise

[hberry]

Hello everyone. I am in my twenties and currently live with my mam. My "stepdad" who is a selfish alcoholic moved out a while back but him and my mam are not divorced just separated. He’s paid 2 years of his rent upfront with the money he received and STILL he isn’t paying his tax bill (he’s self employed) because of how immature and reckless he is, he'd rather spend hundreds on drink, cigarettes and video games his new obsession His name is on the mortgage along with my mams, and we can’t change it to my name until March due to financial crisis he got the family household into, because of his reckless spending and alcoholism we had to get an IVA, and that’s why we can’t change the name on the mortgage until March/april. My mam is terrified we’ll lose the house because he won’t pay his bills and/or declare himself bankrupt because he’s already saying he’s going to stop working as he wants to sleep and drink all day. He's awful. On top of this I am in the process of changing jobs. I'm worried about my mams stress levels and the rest of us as well. Sorry for the font I'm unsure why it has differed throughout. Also just to add my mam only works part time due to disability and other responsibilities, I'm now full time and help with the mortgage payments and whatever else, she asked if she could just take over completely and apparently she can't due to part time work.

You need legal advice. Try posting on the legal board as well. In the meantime make sure every other financial angle is separated from your mum's ex partner. How is the property ownership split and are they joint tenants or tenants in common? Presumably both are on the deeds?

I would speak to the mortgage company. They are generally good at working with homeowners to find ways to avoid losing the house. If it’s a temporary situation that will be resolved in 3 months, they may agree to reduced payments until march if it comes to that.

Some considerations might be whether there is any equity in the house, does she definitely want to keep it or would she be open to moving to social housing, is this likely to be available where you live and also somewhere that would be Ok to live as in decent enough area and access to amenities? Sometimes smaller properties especially for over 55s are easier to get than family properties.

The least worst option could be to sell up split the proceeds and have a clean break especially as her ex will be aggressively chased for the tax he owes.

Otherwise, where do you see yourself living over the next few years? Do you have a plan to move out or do you see yourself staying with your mam for the next few years at least? If the latter is the two of you taking out a joint mortgage to keep your home and buy out the ex a possibility if that suits?

Finally how old is your mam and what's her pension arrangements like?

As you are living there I would continue to help her with the mortgage. As long as the mortgage payments keep being made on time the house is not in danger of being repossessed. If your mum is really struggling to pay the mortgage she can ask the Lender to move to interest only for up to 6 months.

Thank you to everyone. There's somethings I haven't mentioned through stress that are important. My mam got a separation letter from the solicitor which states they're separated formally and that he got his half of the house paid to him. Also he's currently deeds are in both names

So he got paid out for half the house, moved out for two years and came back? He should have been taken off the mortgage and deeds when he got his payout, were solicitors involved then to facilitate this? Who is in the IVA now?

I'm not really sure what you are saying, he owns half of the equity yes, but it a bit more complicated for short relationships and he can sign over the house if he wants but usually you would need to buy him out.

Firstly is he still on speaking terms because talking is the quickest and cheapest way to come to an agreement?, if not your mother needs legal advice to negotiate a settlement with him, this won't be cheap. As much as it seems unfair, the reason for the split isn't taken into consideration with financial resolutions