Ex not paying his part of mortgage

[Elizabeth White]

Hello everyone, i am new here and I want to discuss my problem with you. 2 years back me and my husband took a loan for some personal reasons. It was taken jointly since both of us are working. It is a fixed rate loan for 7 years. 

Last year we got divorced, and till February everything was fine, both of us were paying the loan. But from March my ex stopped paying his part of the mortgage. He gave some excuse about his brothers illness and asked me to pay for 2 months. I did as he told but now even after 4months he hasn't started paying it. I can't afford to pay the full amount each month. What should I do?

[Dion DePaoli]

As stated above, not much you can do unless you have a divorce decree and even then you would have to return back to court to enforce it, perhaps getting reimbursed.  

Trying to split a note, whether secured by one mortgage or two is not a good idea at all.  Default on either note puts the demands on the other party and both would face foreclosure.  I also do not know of any mortgage lender that would be willing to entertain the same, perhaps an unsecured debt, but not a mortgage.  

From the post it is not clear who resides in the property.  Perhaps the easy answer is sell it and have the court mandate his agreement to the sale.  If you live in the property and can not afford the payment on your own, then that might be the best unfortunate alternative.  

While you try and figure this out you might ("might") be able to grab some extra time and relief by contacting your Mortgage Servicer and requesting forbearance from the note.  This may require you to call them several times and I would also suggest writing them and keeping record of the same.  Send the letter certified, etc.  Ask for temporary relief in the letter.  Dobb Frank mandated that requests for relief must be dealt with in a timely manner.  They will forward you paperwork to fill out and it does not mean they have to agree.  However, it may just allow you enough room to get to a better spot to deal with all of it.