Here's the problem. Would really appreciate some advice.

Have joint mortgage and relationship has ended amicably. Ex-partner moved out. I've remained in flat and pay the mortgage. This was agreed by both of us as short term measure. Partner now understandably wants to have no financial/practical responsibilities for the property and I would like to continue living there. Both are happy with this. Ex-partner is happy to walk away and is not pursuing me for any money.
Been to mortgage lender to discuss. Bank initially happy to transfer mortgage into my name. Ex-partner happy with this and forms signed.
Received a phone call this morning from bank to say they cannot find my forms. Received a further phone call to say on further inspection due to house prices and negative equity they cannot offer me this as an option.

Have been advised of the following -

1. Stay with current joint mortgage and wait to see if market improves. Ex-partner does not want this. Concerned market will get worse.

2. Sell flat. Both of us will be at a substantial loss and I'll be homeless.

3. Transfer mortgage into my name now as originally agreed with bank, but pay £16000 to cover the negative equity. Can probably get hold of money but this is a substantial amount of money and would like to avoid this high amount.

4. Stay with current joint mortgage and save money to cover negative equity so mortgage can be in my name only. This will take some time. By then market may have improved so lump sum won't be as high. However it's a real possibility if I wait, cost of lump sum will be higher.

Apologies for the long drawn out post. Not sure what to do. Any advice gratefully appreciated.

Hi there,

It's an unfortunate situation you're in, and I'm afraid the lender has the right to say what they are saying, although I am somewhat surprised by it. Can I ask who the lender is?

As for your options, they are exactly as you have said.

From a long term perspective, property prices will probably rise again in the future, although no necessarily as quickly as you would hope.

If you are planning on staying in the property, say for the next 10 years, you will probably find that the price has risen and you are no longer in negative equity. But you have no real option other than maintaining the mortgage as it is, ie in both names, and waiting for prices to rise again at which point you can transfer the mortgage into your name at a smaller cost to yourself(or hopefully no cost at all). The other option is to pay the lump sum as requested.

However in this case, it seems to me your ex partner should be responsible for half of the negative equity amount.

Assuming the property is jointly own equally, there is no reason you should be forking out for the lump sum negative equity payment.

If that isn't clear, let me put it another way.

Suppose you sell the house, you make a 16k loss, the mortgage is in both names and you are both liable for the 16k. Not just you.

Essentiall if you transfer the property into soley your name, you are buying the property from both of you (weird way of looking at it, but that is the case). So here, you are both selling the entire property to you. So why should you take the entire loss?

If there is 16k needed to make up the difference, you should both pay half. And if your expartner wont pay, then say you will simply sell the property and then he will be forced to pay anyway.

If you need to speak this through with someone, speak to either a solicitor or an independent mortgage broker. As this may be easier to explain over a conversation rather than via me rambling on in this forum.

Hope that helps a little, and if you have any more questions either contact me direct for a free chat or post any questions you have on here.