My husband of three years (but who has lived with me for five years) and paying towards my mortgage, which is in my sole name,is somewhat distraught.Since splitting from his ex-wife six years ago,she has ran up arrears. The building society obviously would not release him from their mortgage because of said arrears. Finally his ex-wife has finally managed to re-mortgage and my husband is now released. However we now want to move house and have been told that it may be a problem because his name was of course on the mortgage and was in arrears for many years.Will and should we be penalised for her failure to pay?

-- ruth morris (sammorris@cwcom.net), October 12, 2000

Answers

As far I as know from my own experience, as long as you are honest with your prospective lender there may not be any problem. I am in a similar position, I have been married for two years to my present husband (15 with the first) and my new husbands ex wife had the house repossed last year. We have looked into taking over the mortgage on my property and have been told we should be O.K. we laid all our cards on the table and they could see that my current mortgage is up to date, so as son as we have settle the shortfall claim against my husband we will be taking up the offer of the new mortgage

-- christine singleton (singletons51@hotmail.com), October 12, 2000.