Mortgage shortfall Shoosmiths

[welshfiredragon]

Hi I jointly owned a property with my Ex which was repossessed and sold with a shortfall of £80,000, shoosmiths came after me and im making a monthly payment. My query is why are they not chasing my Ex she has made no payments at all to the debt, I am only paying £50.00 its all I can afford and im struggling to make that and its never going to pay the debt off, so why on earth arnt they chasing her to ?, she owns other properties has a good job and has allot of money in savings, I dont understand it !!!???????

[nemesis45]

Re: Mortgage shortfall Shoosmiths

Hi I jointly owned a property with my Ex which was repossessed and sold with a shortfall of £80,000, shoosmiths came after me and im making a monthly payment. My query is why are they not chasing my Ex she has made no payments at all to the debt, I am only paying £50.00 its all I can afford and im struggling to make that and its never going to pay the debt off, so why on earth arnt they chasing her to ?, she owns other properties has a good job and has allot of money in savings, I dont understand it !!!???????

Hi Welcome tp LB,

You are correct in believing that your ex is liable for the shortfall, as well as yourself the account being joint and several.

What to my mind has to ascertained is has your ex been pursued for the debt? Has she refused to pay? Has there been any " misleading" ( I hesitate to say lies being to told to the solicitors or the mortgage company in regard to her financial status?) information provided by your ex as to her ability to pay?
Your course of action is I think to make formal contact with Shoosmith and or the mortgage company laying down you stance that she has far more chance of repaying/ paying now towards the shortfall.

As to your question why are you solely being pursued for this? I suspect that your ex may have put forward challenges to requests/ demands for payment that the creditor has accepted and has concluded that your are the easier target and £50 per month is better than nothing.

I take it there were no provisions for repayment of any shortfall in a divorce settlement?

nem

[welshfiredragon]

Re: Mortgage shortfall Shoosmiths

We were never married so no divorce settlement reqiured, My ex is quite capable of lies and misleading as this was one of the reasons of our relationship breakdown, but How can I bring this to shoosmiths attention if she has lied to them about her circumstances. I know she hasnt paid anything as when I phone up shoosmiths for a balance on the account its only the payments I have made adding up. When I question shoosmiths on other payments ie any from my ex they refuse to comment.....its just frustrating. It makes me want to stop paying and see what will happen ........

[wales01man]

Re: Mortgage shortfall Shoosmiths

She may have told them where to go or ignored their letters leaving you the mug to pay it off.
You could stop payment or reduce it to a pound a month either way with you paying it will not be paid off

[welshfiredragon]

Re: Mortgage shortfall Shoosmiths

Hi Wales01man , yeh I wouldnt be suprised if she has done that but its a large debt and surely they would pursue more. If I stop paying and nothing paid would it end up with sheriffs at my door and her door ?.......

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Mortgage shortfall Shoosmiths

Hi Wales01man , yeh I wouldnt be suprised if she has done that but its a large debt and surely they would pursue more.

Mortgage shortfalls should be challenged, in many cases the outstanding amount can be reduced quite considerably if you start probing into the details of the repossession. I posted about that a while ago so I'm re-quoting below:

You should write to the lender requesting a breakdown and full details regarding the following:

• the sale price
• who bought the property
• date when the property was sold
• how it was marketed and sold, i.e. at auction or through estate agents
• valuations they obtained before selling
• any maintenance costs until the property was sold
• breakdown of the costs involved in selling the property such as estate agents' and solicitors' fees
• whether you had mortgage indemnity insurance and if so, details of the claim they made to the insuerers
• interest calculations

Depending on the answers to the above, you may be able to dispute the amount owed under the alleged shortfall, for example if the house was sold below its market value and/or it wasn't actively marketed to obtain the best price or if they have added on costs and fees that are unreasonable or it was sold to an associated company.

The FCA MCOB handbook states that a lender must obtain the best price that could reasonably be paid for the property at the time it's sold: https://fshandbook.info/FS/html/FCA/MCOB/13/6

If they don't co-operate or their answers are not satisfactory, you may be able to complain to them and then take it up to the FOS if necessary.

You don't want to be paying a sum of money just because they ask you to, without knowing how they arrived at that figure. :scared:

In addition to the above, you should also look at all the fees and charges that were added to your mortgage account. :thumb:

If I stop paying and nothing paid would it end up with sheriffs at my door and her door ?.......

Not automatically, they'd need to take either of you to court and obtain judgment before that happens.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Mortgage shortfall Shoosmiths

We were never married so no divorce settlement reqiured, My ex is quite capable of lies and misleading as this was one of the reasons of our relationship breakdown, but How can I bring this to shoosmiths attention if she has lied to them about her circumstances.

As stated above, they can pursue either party for the full amount so there's no luck with one they'll just try the other.

I know she hasnt paid anything as when I phone up shoosmiths for a balance on the account its only the payments I have made adding up. When I question shoosmiths on other payments ie any from my ex they refuse to comment.....its just frustrating. It makes me want to stop paying and see what will happen ........

It all depends on your circumstances. Do you own property? If not, there isn't much they could do even if it went to court, they wouldn't be able to get you to pay more than what you can afford. I don't suggest this every day, in fact I always post against the idea, however, a large mortgage shortfall such as this one is often a good reason to consider bankruptcy as a way to get rid of it once and for all. BR is a last resort and only worth looking into if you haven't got a lot of assets and your livelihood is not likely to be affected. If you went BR she would be liable for the whole of the shortfall. :grin:

[welshfiredragon]

Re: Mortgage shortfall Shoosmiths

Thanks for that Flaming Parrot, I dont own any property and the only asset I have now now is my car which isnt worth allot. I have looked into BR and its not an option as my employers would probably sack me. The property had two valuations done on it so was current valuations for that street. It was bought in the boom 2007 when it was worth twice its present value, and now thanks to the banks I owe them its so wrong. Whats even more frustrating is I paid a £60,000 deposit when first purchased so that all adds up to £140,000 ...There is no way in my life time I am going to be able to settle this debt, I have no assets She has allot of assets ...why arnt they chasing her ......Should I bring it to shoosmiths attention with proof of her assets in the hope they will pursue her.....Its all just very frustrating