The motgage to my husbands ex house was in joint names with his ex.. They are chasing him for all the money but to our knowledge have not chased her even though her name remains on the mortgage account. She left the house in 1992 and it was repoed in 1998 but the arrears were already building up when she was still living there.

-- Kate Jones (katesoper@supant.com), August 22, 2001

Answers

I'm afraid the answer is that, with most joint mortgages, each person is responsible for the WHOLE debt. In other words, they are well within their rights to chase one person, or all of them, as they see fit.

Typically, what happens is they locate one person and stop there - after all, why should they expend any more effort in finding someone else when the law doesn't require them too.

Personally, I think this stinks, but they're well within their rights.

I trust you've issued SARNs against the lender and their solicitors. Similarly, don't fill in an Income/Expenditure form, don't speak to them on the phone, do everything in writing and send it all recorded delivery.

-- Chris (chrsh@hotmail.com), August 26, 2001.