Is it just a game?

Hi all, apologies but I just wanted to have a bit of a rant about the process I am going through to get finances sorted. We have exchanged form E and then exchanged and answered each other''s questions. I''m representing myself and stbx has a solicitor and they seem intent on playing a game.

For example, one section is about how much is owing on the mortgage. Now any
reasonable person would assume that means how much is owing now. What I didn''t realise was that you could pick a random day a year or so in the past and put down what was owing then. It appears you can! So I raise it as a question and get a totally vague non answer back. The Form E is a sworn document so is there not some risk if you just lie?

Next we ask each other what is your mortgage capacity? So I go to my bank and ask how much they would lend me because I think that is what this means. D''oh. What you are supposed to do is go to your bank and say I would like to borrow a couple of thousand, can you give me a 5 page illustration of what that would cost to pay back over 25 years please. Please give me the quote for a really high fixed rate aswell. Then it looks like that''s all your bank will lend you so you have to keep the house. Stbx has nearly double my disposable income but her mortgage ''capacity'' is half of mine. Somebody''s lying.

I know I can raise further questions. Can anybody give me some advice how I go about that? I asked for their mortgage capacity and the figures provided to the lender to reach it. I got none of that back so any ideas how I can phrase it so they don''t just send me a load of rubbish again. Regards. Frustrated H.

What about finding out what the mortgage capacity is yourself from an online for your STBX? If you know their income etc. then you could get a pretty good idea of what it is likely to be.

Good idea Action, I never thought of that. I''ll give it a go. Thanks.