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This is a complicated one but anyone with similar experiences?
My dad (72) was sold an interest only mortgage on the house he owned with my mum in 2011, for £108k. It ended in 2021 and since then he’s just made the payment every month by standing order. They’ve got in touch a few times to ask how he proposes to settle the balance and for a long time he pretty much ignored them. He’s got some physical and mental health issues and was overwhelmed, essentially.
Last year they called and were more assertive about him needing to settle the balance and he agreed to speak to a broker they referred him to about equity release to pay the balance. The house is in a very poor state of repair and extremely cluttered so when the surveyor came they said he couldn’t have an ER without doing some essential works (new boiler, guttering, roof works). We wrote to Birmingham Midshires and said give us 5 months and we will do the works and put the house on the market.
For a few reasons he’s not managed to get the works done and I think BM are gearing up to seek possession. At 72 on a state pension he won’t be able to service the interest on an equity release anyway, he was quoted about £600 a month. The house is worth about 425k in its current state.
I am interested in whether BM have a strong case to seek possession, given that they seem to have just let the situation drift for 4 years - every month he’s made the payment so isnt there a de facto contract of sorts? Ideally he wants to stay in the house and just have a lifetime mortgage, maybe with an order to settle the balance when he dies? The whole thing is so sketchy and BM seem to send him standard template letters about being in arrears - which he isn’t?
Another complicating factor is that while he and my mum divorced in 1998, she is still on the deeds and technically joint owner. She’s long since remarried but legally is in the picture.
Congratulations and thankyou for reading this far! Any pearls of wisdom very gratefully received
My dad (72) was sold an interest only mortgage on the house he owned with my mum in 2011, for £108k. It ended in 2021 and since then he’s just made the payment every month by standing order. They’ve got in touch a few times to ask how he proposes to settle the balance and for a long time he pretty much ignored them. He’s got some physical and mental health issues and was overwhelmed, essentially.
Last year they called and were more assertive about him needing to settle the balance and he agreed to speak to a broker they referred him to about equity release to pay the balance. The house is in a very poor state of repair and extremely cluttered so when the surveyor came they said he couldn’t have an ER without doing some essential works (new boiler, guttering, roof works). We wrote to Birmingham Midshires and said give us 5 months and we will do the works and put the house on the market.
For a few reasons he’s not managed to get the works done and I think BM are gearing up to seek possession. At 72 on a state pension he won’t be able to service the interest on an equity release anyway, he was quoted about £600 a month. The house is worth about 425k in its current state.
I am interested in whether BM have a strong case to seek possession, given that they seem to have just let the situation drift for 4 years - every month he’s made the payment so isnt there a de facto contract of sorts? Ideally he wants to stay in the house and just have a lifetime mortgage, maybe with an order to settle the balance when he dies? The whole thing is so sketchy and BM seem to send him standard template letters about being in arrears - which he isn’t?
Another complicating factor is that while he and my mum divorced in 1998, she is still on the deeds and technically joint owner. She’s long since remarried but legally is in the picture.
Congratulations and thankyou for reading this far! Any pearls of wisdom very gratefully received
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