Divorced, but still joint mortgage

Hi. I have been divorced from ex husband for nearly three years. I have paid the mortgage for the past 6 years. I want to get the property transferred to my name.How can I do this if he wont meet with me or even give me his address so court paperwork can be sent to him? The mortgage is in both names.

Sorry, in this post I wrongly assumed you had not divorced. As you are divorced, my advice would be somewhat different. I have added a further post to correct what I said here.

Do I assume, from the wording of the question, that you want to keep the house ?

I''m afraid, in the medium to long term, the present situation is going to cause difficulties sooner or later, and whereas I don''t like rushing anyone into divorce, the problem that you are going to have looks something like this.

You and your husband are joint owners of the property. If you want to sell it, your husband is a joint owner and you can''t sell without him, unless perhaps he dies, in which case there is a reasonable chance that you will automatically become sole owner.

There is, of course, also a chance that if you leave things as they are and YOU die first, he gets the lot, and maybe you wouldn''t want that either.

The other problem you potentially face is that if you dutifully pay the mortgage for a number of years, suddenly he turns up out of the blue and wants to divorce YOU and oh by the way, he wants half the equity.

Now as everyone on the forum knows, I can be a cynical ******** when the mood takes me, but you''d also have problems if you want to divorce if you don''t know where he is.

Now another potential problem is that if you ignore this, and Mr Right comes along and sweeps you off your feet, you would have problems if you want to marry him.

But at the moment time is on your side. What I suggest is that you do at least consider what I am saying, before it becomes a problem. You may not have a problem now, but you could do if you neglect it.

LMM

Oh dear, profuse apologies. I see you are divorced, you just haven''t settled the finances.

So I think I''d better start again.

You are still joint owners, divorce does not, of itself, change that, so you would still have the difficulty I have described if you wanted to sell or mortgage.

If you have not settled the finances, there remains the issue of what happens when one of you dies.

In your situation I think you may usefully give consideration to the question of '' severing '' the joint tenancy. This is not an immediate issue, and matters only if and when one of you dies, but if you would like me to explain, I will try and do so and use as little technical language as possible.

He could also make a claim against you and, as I have said, it is possible he could claim a share in the equity ( though whether it would succeed is another matter ).

If you wish to leave matters as they are, there are potential problems if you decide to make a claim later.

There is a possibility that if you want to apply for financial relief at this stage or later, you may need the leave of the Court. Although leave is normally given if the applicant has an arguable case, as you would have, the Court is less likely to make an order where there has been unjustified delay. Clearly it is unwise to take the risk of an application being refused.

If you are divorced you are free to re-marry but you need to be aware that re-marriage could seriously prejudice any claim you wished to make.

In any case, delay in making the application can be potentially prejudicial.

As I say, my apologies for misreading your query ; the answer is to make an application for financial relief. To correct the problem you would need to make an application for the transfer of the property into your sole name, as a bare minimum.

That could, as you say, cause complications if you do not know where he is, but there may be ways round that difficulty.

LMM

Thanks for your reply. I was going to sumbit an E1 form and represent my self. There are other issues regarding my circumstances. I have charging orders on the house from his unpaid credit cards, which I feel were not lawfully applied as they are not joint debts and I was not informed by the creditors that they were going to to County Courts to apply charging orders. Also when the divorce was going through my ex received at least £50000 cash from his mothers estate. As I did not receive any of this I would assume the court would take this into account, if he were to make a claim on the house at a future date?

my main concern at the moment is that I cant afford to lose the £240 to go to court and try and get the house transferred in my name ,if he does not show up or return the relevant paperwork. A joint friend is still in contact with him, but will not give me his address. My ex is aware that I need to speak to him, but he has not yet got in touch with me. I feel he is worried that I will give any outstanding creditors his new address.He went to live abroad for 2 years has spent all his inheritance and is now unemployed and on benefits. Sorry to ramble on!

shazbat55 wrote:

Thanks for your reply. I was going to sumbit an E1 form and represent my self. There are other issues regarding my circumstances. I have charging orders on the house from his unpaid credit cards, which I feel were not lawfully applied as they are not joint debts and I was not informed by the creditors that they were going to to County Courts to apply charging orders. Also when the divorce was going through my ex received at least £50000 cash from his mothers estate. As I did not receive any of this I would assume the court would take this into account, if he were to make a claim on the house at a future date?

my main concern at the moment is that I cant afford to lose the £240 to go to court and try and get the house transferred in my name ,if he does not show up or return the relevant paperwork. A joint friend is still in contact with him, but will not give me his address. My ex is aware that I need to speak to him, but he has not yet got in touch with me. I feel he is worried that I will give any outstanding creditors his new address.He went to live abroad for 2 years has spent all his inheritance and is now unemployed and on benefits. Sorry to ramble on!

hi i have a problem thats simular difference is its the other way around. iv gave my x husband 2 years to sort his finaces and get back to being employed nothing has happend yet. i want him to sell the property.or have my name taken of morgage can this be done. hes unemployed and lives in the property all children are grown up working but live there. youngest just reently of depending age. he was living with me but went back to his dad at the property due to finacial difficulties and arguing... another story. this has gone on to long what writes do i have. there is no equity and i just want to have this resolved as im paying high rent in private renting.. i asked him to move out let me take over.. he says no he going to sort things ... advice pls think iv waited long enough.can i move bk in now im fully employed for 18 months.

Quick update!! Spoke to wikivorce solicitor about Consent Order,if Court granted me the house in my name the building society would have to agree to transferring the property to me by transfer of equity. As I am on a debt management plan they said they would not be prepared to take ex''s name of the mortgage, so I an stuck with the house in joint names with no chance of getting a mortgage in my own name!