My friend divorced his wife in 1991, and has had no contact with her since. He has this week been sent a letter claiming that he owes £46,000 shortfall to a debt company regarding the property they owned together. At the time of the divorce the property was signed over to her. He has contacted the company in question but they will not give him any information at all on the house sale, or why they say he owes them this much money. What should he do? Is he actually liable for this debt? He is at his wits end. All advice is welcome.

-- Michelle Tindall (epping.res@bbg.co.uk), December 03, 2004

Answers

He really needs to find out if he is still on the Mortgage. No matter if he signed the house deeds over to his ex if he is still named on the Mortgage Deeds then he is still liable, a Mortgage Company will not sign over a Mortgage if it has any arrears or shortfall so at the time, if he did sign over the Mortgage, it would have been in the black and he will not be liable for it. Check with Mortgage Company to find out exactly where he stands.

-- Chris (chris@anon.co.uk), December 06, 2004.