Removing a charge on a property

[timbojack]

A company that my ex wife and i owed money to has taken a charge on the mortgaged property i own with my ex wife. What would need to be done to remove this charge?

[Ethel]

Pay the debt.

[Eve]

Pay the money back is the simplest answer.

What is it they have put on the property (legal or equitable charge, charging order etc...) and what is the wording of the restriction placed on the title (consent or written notice?).

[timbojack]

The charge is an equitable charge that is accrueing no interest.
I`m not interested in paying it off due to the fact that my ex wife is liable for half and i doubt she would be willing to pay her share. Is there any possibility of me paying off my half or forcing my wife to pay her portion?

[Ethel]

If it is a join debt you are both equally liable for the whole, so no, you can't force your ex to pay half.

If it isn't paid off, it will be when your house is sold.

As your wife still has a legal and equitable interest in the property be very careful she doesn't secure more loans against the house, or goes bankrupt

[timbojack]

How could i stop my wife taking other secured loans on the house and how could i find out if she already had?

[Ethel]

You can't. She owns the house just as much as you do, and has every right to secure loans against it.

The only way is to buy her out, or sell up and divide the proceeds.

[timbojack]

Therefore i can secure loans against the property and then declare myself bankrupt.

[Ethel]

And lose your home and your bank accounts and possibly end up in court on a fraud charge

[timbojack]

so if she were to secure a loan on the property and declare herself bankrupt as was intimated ealier she would also face the same consequences.

[Ethel]

Only if that was her intention, to defraud.

If she intended to repay the loan and her circumstances changed so that she genuinely couldn't meet her obligations, she would not facing criminal charges.

[timbojack]

There is also a business dept that may cause a charge to be placed on the property I consider this also to be the equal responsibility of my ex wife due to the fact that she benifitted from this whilst we were married. In law is she deemed to be liable for half of this dept? I along with a business partner signed a gaurantee.

[arline]

pay the charge in full

[emlett]

if its a business debt, then i doubt that she will have to pay half. i take it that you haven't sorted out your financial issues yet which is why the house is still in joint names.

you shoudl probably go and see a solicitor with a view to compromising her financial claims against you for the house/pension/maintenance etc via a consnet order between you.

If there are no claims, then you could just buy her out of the house and knock 50% of the charge off her share as you will have to pay it off if you are keeping the house or otherwise this would be payable from her share upon sale of the house. It would be better to go for the consent order though to ensure that once you have paid out on the house, she doesn't come back for pension/maintenance claims.

[timbojack]

Thanks for that, however we have young children and the ex seems to want to sit tight and stay in the house. I would like to settle the financial matters sooner rather than later. Yes i will be taking the advise of a solicitor but would like to have some idea as to what is possible in my situation before i do so. We all know solicitors charge by the second and i don`t have a pot full of money to spare, so any usefull coments from this site would be gratefully recieved. One liners don`t really help.