Welcome to the DAD.Info forum: Important Information – open to read:
Our forum aims to provide support and guidance where it can, however we may not always have the answer. The forum is not moderated 24 hours a day, so If you – or someone you know – are being harmed or in immediate danger of being harmed, call the police on 999.
Alternatively, if you are in crisis, please call Samaritans on 116 123.
If you are worried about you or someone you know is at risk of harm, please click here: How we can help
Hi,
new here but need an urgent advice.
I am over two years separated with wife, all this time we had bitter legal battles over our two children (6 and 3). We have a 50/50 shared care order in place. There is no financial order, and ex refuses to acknowledge to court receipt of my divorce application. Ex lives in what was our familiy home, which we own jointly and have a joint mortgage. I live in a rental property. I've been fully paying the mortgage till January 2023, when fixed rate period has expired and payments became unaffordable. Ex contributed for two payments in January and February, but in March her contribution did not arrive and the mortgage is now in arrears. She says that she has no intention to pay any more money, and says that the bank won't be able to take her out of property because she has two small children.
What are my options? And what should I do?
The property was not cheap when we bought it and now can be in light negative equity or just break even.
Ex refuses to share details of her employment or financial situation and says that she barely has money for food. At the same time she refuses any mediation or to sell the property. In summer 2022 she refused to cooperate in any way in trying to secure a new mortgage. Untill now we also had endless legal battles and spent tens of thousands of pounds in legal fees per year, which seems to continue.
The situation is so irrational that I cannot understand what she wants other than me paying for everything. To add to context, we are having an extremely acrimonious separation. Our separation happened when she sought refuge in domestic violence shelter falsely accusing me of home violence. She failed however to convince judge who did not believe her lies and ordered children to be with both parents on equal basis. This has infuriated her and she spent next year creating trouble, with older son's school, the police, GP, constantly raising grade of her actions, to now unbearable level. Recently she tried to get a referral from GP to psychological specialist for our older son, and I am afraid that she may be trying to get some mental illness diagnosis for him. She refuses to cooperate on any issues related to divorce and separation of assets, has been sending police to my home claiming that I obducted children and so on. I am in my 40's living a nightmare life thanks to my ex's efforts, and now on top of everything come issues with possible property repossession.
I know that I need to speak to a lawyer, but thought that someone here can give a practical advice first.
To be honest, I think you are best getting professional legal advice straigh away on this - my first thoughts are that you speak to the mortgage company and let the mortgage fall into arrears, and let them take possession, this will badly affect your credit rating, so you definitely need the professional advice as this could be the wrong thing to do for reasons I haven't thought of.
That must be very difficult for you. I know of a case some years ago when the mortgage went into default and the mortgage company repossessed the house. Ex with 2 children were homeless and the council had to rehouse them. They were in a bed and breakfast hotel for a while and then a council house. The bank is a business and will take possession of the property regardless. Agree best to speak to the mortgage company so they are aware of the situation. A court will make her disclose assets and financial situation but I can see there will be a legal battle before she does that. Perhaps you could take some legal advice and do some work yourself to keep costs down? Hopefully she is keeping to the 50/50 arrangement for child care.
Welcome to the DAD.info forum.
We don’t like to set ‘rules’, but to make sure that you and the other dads are kept safe, we have some requests. When engaging with the forum, please be aware of the following:
- The forum is not moderated 24 hours per day.
- Many of the moderators do so on a voluntary basis. Whilst they may be able to provide some guidance, advice or support, they may not be able to deal with specifics.
- We are not an emergency crisis service so if you or someone else is in immediate danger, please call emergency services.
- If you are concerned about the safety of a child, please click here to find the support you can get for them (link to new page)
- If you are in crisis, please call Samaritans on 116 123. They are open 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.
We hope you find this forum a supportive environment and thank you for joining us.