URGENT: Title deeds/Mortgage Q

[Chellie]

I hope someone will be able to offersome advice urgent for a friend of mine who has just received a letter from her mortgage lender direct line. House was original inherited to friend by mother and deeds were in her name only (before marriage). The deeds were then put into joint names after having an extension put onto their house 7 years after mariage. Husband deserted her and 4 kids two years ago, and has made no contact since then with either her or the kids. She does not know where he is and her solicitor is trying to track him down. She has been paying the mortgage on her own with no help from him at all. Her solicitor has been trying to get the title deeds changed into her name only again, but this is proving a fruitless exercise as both signatures are needed and his agreement. Now because of new legislation coming out in Oct, she received a letter from direct line stating that the transfer of her title deeds has to be completed by 30th Sept. They are telling her she is to find another lender. What she needs to know is that if husband still cannot be found by 30th sept, and her mortgage is due on the 1st oct, are they still obliged to take the money from her acccount? Or will they leave it to add up, then take her to court? Her local bank has has said they will take her on (she has her own current acc with them) but the solicitor is saying she cannot change lender without husbands signature? Does this make any sense? Any help will be greatfully appreciated. Thanks

[Oneeyedvic]

It does make sense, but unfortunately your friend is not in a good position. SOme of it will depend on how her husband was taken on to the deeds. Just because your friend hasn't seen him in 2 years does not mean he is no longer entitled to his percentage of the property. However, he should also be paying maintenance for their children. If not it MAY be possible to get a judge to sign over the house to her in lieu of these payments However, this is certainly a solicitors problem to solve and I suspect it will be costly. Incidentally the direct line mortgage problem is with the new FSA regulations in OCtober. they should still be continuing with her mortgage, they are only stopping taking new customers. Hope this helps

[Chellie]

Thanks for your reply. There is actually 2 solicitors dealling with it. One for her divorce(she) and one for the house deeds(he). Luckily she is getting legal aid! Friend thinks when husband is found?? He will refuse to sign over his share of deeds and take her to court for his share. This will put her and their 4 kids on the street as she cannot afford to pay him out. He was put onto the deeds after they built a self catering extension onto the house 7 years AFTER they were married. As her mortgage payments are �437 a month, right now her biggest concern is that the husband wont be found by the end of sept and direct line will not take any more payments from her account to cover the mortgage. By the way it is Scottish Law. it is the divorce solicitor that is trying to track him down and she has said she thinks it very unlikely that anything will happen in such a short space of time. I believe he hasnt paid anything to her for the children. They dont get anything at birthdays or christmas either. His family are saying they dont know where he is either. I really would appreciate any further advice you or anyone else could give me to pass onto her. She is seeing her divorce solicitor on Monday, but unfortunatly i am away from monday for 2 weeks so would be grateful for advice before sunday. Tall order i know!! Thankyou

[Oneeyedvic]

Firstly, I am afraid I have no idea about Scottish Law. However, I looking at it logically, your friend should be in a fairly good position. Since she owned the house before getting married, the most he should be entitled to would be A SHARE of any extra value that the extension made. That said, I am pretty sure that he should be paying maintenance, and if he is not that should be taken into account. (Eg: House originally worth �100,000 (current value). House with extension worth �150,000. Husband should be entitled to �25,000. If he has not been paying any maintenance though, his entitlement would be reduced. Also note, it would be very rare for a judge to not take into account the above and would want the children to be able to stay in their home if possible. I doubt your friend has much to worry about. As I also said, she needs to talk to Direct Line (a supervisor or manager) and explain her situation. They are not taking on new mortgage customers but are keeping existing. SHe pay have to pay the standard variable rate as opposed to a discounted rate though.

[Chellie]

Hello oneeyedvic. Story with Direct Line is: Title deeds in joint names. She had agreed to be the sole borrower to pay off the mortgage when husband left.Direct Line have been happy with that for past 2 years. They do know of her problems. However Letter she received last week is stating that they will no longer accept a sole borrower to pay a mortgage whose title deeds are in joint names. They want title deeds changed by 30th Sept so that she is the only person on them. The house solicitor (he) is apparently in talks with D.L about this. He also wants to take it to court to get it sorted once and for all. She is to phone him on Monday. Problems with CSA have been ongoing. They tracked him down through his tax payments. and have told her he is working abroad so they cannot touch him as he is not paying tax in Britain. Also they wont tell her where he is. She has had quite a bit of trouble with them. As I said before her biggest worry is that D.L wont take her mortgage payment out of the bank on 1st Oct, and eventually she will have a big bill to deal with. She said that D.L will not charge her any different rates? You will have to excuse my ignorance I am not very jened up on this sort of stuff. Thankyou for your advice I have passed it all onto her. She was under the assumtion that he would be entitled to half of the whole house value. She will ask the house solicitor on monday.

[Oneeyedvic]

One more thing Chellie - make sur your friend oopens up a new account (possibly a standard savings account) at her bank. If Direct Line do not take her mortgage payments out make sure she pays the same amount into the savings account. That way if direct line ever take her to court she can always pay the amount requested and a judge will obviously look on this favourably. Also whenever she is dealing with direct line it would be good to preferably recored the conversation but if not take notes and then confirm it all in writing. I suspect that there is no easy answer to your question and this may well draw out for some time. Obviously she needs to protect herslef. Be aware that someone who said something to you a month ago probably can't remember they did and may well deny it. IF she has confirmed it all in writing it makes it very difficult to deny. Hope this helps

[vittoria]

I think DirectLine are being very unreasonable; I agree with Oneeyedvic, if the matter ended up in court, the judge would have every sympathy for your friend. If DL stop collecting her mortgage repayments, I urge your friend to follow Oneeyedvid's advice - open a building society account and pay the mortgage repayment into it. This sounds like something your friend should start writing to the money/reader advice columns in the newspapers - sometimes these big companies can be shamed into action. Another thing: I don't know enough about it, but I suspect a court could make an order for the deeds to be changed without the husband's signature, whilst registering something called a charge on the property in the Land Charges Register; this "charge" would mean: we are putting the deeds in the woman's name but if she ever sells, she will owe (say) 25 per cent to her husband (minus maintenance he owes her). If he does not come forward to claim it, that money (if she sells) may have to be held in trust for the husband.

[Chellie]

Hello and thankyou oneeyedvic and vittoria for your replies. Unfortunately my friend is not in the best position at the moment. However I will pass on your advice about the account. Sounds like a good idea. Thankfully she will know more on Monday as she is to phone her deeds solicitor and has an appointment with the divorce solicitor. I have meantioned that she must ask the house solicitor about her husbands share if she has to sell up, as you meantioned before oneeyedvic about husband may only be entitled to half share of extension. His name was never on the house deeds before the extension was built. The said extension is a self catering appartment attached onto the end of the house. If push comes to shove she could always sell that and pay husband his share.She currently rents it out as B&B or Self catering lets. This is what is paying her mortgage. She worries that a judge will look favouribly on husband where house is concerned. I doubt this myself. She has 4 kids,all under 12. I am away from monday for a few weeks. But will let you know how she gets on when i return. I am thinking of setting her up with her own account so she can go to the internet cafe to get advice for herself. May be a good idea.Thanks again, appreciate your input.Cheers:)