Hi

Wonder if once again anyone can help with this question.

My boyfriend had his house re-possessed last year and as yet it hasn't been sold (despite a ridiculous asking price!!).

He is currently living in a rented house but it would make more economical sense for him to move in with me.

However we are wary because we think that when the inevitable happens and he is hit with a huge bill for arrears/shortfall etc which he won't be able to pay (except in small installments) the address he is living at (which will be mine) will be the one blacklisted.

I'm not happy about this (and I doubt my Building Society will be either but I don't want to ask them what they think!) so am very unsure what to do.

Any advice???

Ta

Jan

-- Jan Beaumont (jan.beaumont@consignia.com), July 29, 2002

Answers

As far as I know, your building society will not care about your address being blacklisted, should it be blacklisted.

He will not necessarily be blacklisted when he is hit by a huge bill. The bill will only show up on any blacklist that I know of if the lender backs up its claim with court action, which is rare (depends partly on who his lender is and partly on a range of factors discussed elsewhere in this Q&A and this site). It will be associated with your address but if you and your boyfriend have different surnames, it should not affect you in future attempts to burden yourself with "credit".

So, from your point of view, probably no problem.

He, however, should make sure he reads and follows the Do's and Don'ts pages in the Repossession section of this site.

Good luck

Lee

-- Lee (repossession@home-repo.org), July 29, 2002.

Any financial burden caused by another does not affect your address as this had nothing to do with you and the property is owned by you. You can also, as I did with my ex-husband after I found out he was using my address for credit 5 years after he left, ask Equifax (who will then advise Experian on your behalf) to be disassociated with any financial aspects concerned with your boyfriend (which means yours will be totally separate from his even if using same address). I must advise however that despite Bradford & Bingley chasing my fiance for a £38,000 shortfall, he is still offered credit everywhere he goes, and he owns no property - it is my firm belief that Building Societies/Banks are delighted the more credit/assets you obtain in a shortfall situation as they then have something more solid to 'threaten' that person with losing.

-- Chris (chris@anon.co.uk), July 30, 2002.

Sorry, so forgot to add don't add him to the Deeds/Mortgage at your residence until time bar is up. All the best.

-- Chris (chris@anon.co.uk), July 30, 2002.

You need to get a copy of your credit file from Experian, Equifax, and Callcredit - the UK's 3 Credit Reference Agencies and MCL Software who run Hunter, a mortgage fraud prevention service.

If your Building Society is one of the many mortgage lenders who supply monthly profiles of accounts to the agencies, your partner's account will be shown against his current address. As you could be shown as financially connected to him (anything in joint names can be used by the Agencies to prove this), the debt would appear on your credit file too.

To get it removed if it is there you need to obtain a Disassociation. The Information Comissionmer publishes a booklet called 'No Credit' which tells you what to do. Citizens Advice Bureauxs have copies.

-- Helpful (anonymous@anonymous.com), August 16, 2002.

Hi, just to let you know that your address will not be blacklisted, individuals carry the bad debt with them on the credit file, the bad debt goes against the person not the property. It is important that should your boyfriend move in with you that you do not have joint names on anything. This will enable you to contact the credit agencies and create a disassociation, they will not do this if you share any financial responsibilities with the person concerned. Also, to protect yourself in the future anyway, it may be worth toddling off to your solicitor to get your boyfriend to sign a document stating that he has no claim on the property whatsover. Your solicitor will be able to word the document correctly, so that the document means that even if your boyfriend ploughed his last penny into the property he has no claim on it. This would be worthwhile doing even if he did not have a repo behind him, as should you split up in the future what would happen to your flat if he had contributed to the mortgage payments? I wish you well, live your life and don't let the lenders stop you both living, just make sure you protect your assets.

-- (bagpus90@hotmail.com), August 20, 2002.