2015 - 2016

Lending

Property lending

Mrs D had taken out a joint home loan with her ex-partner for a property that was owned solely by the latter. 

After they separated, the loan went into arrears several times as neither could afford the monthly repayments.

The bank then issued notices indicating it would commence mortgagee sale action.  Mrs D wanted the property sold so the loan in her name could be repaid.  However, she was unable to arrange this as she did not own it and her ex-partner didn’t want to sell. 

She was therefore happy for the bank to proceed to mortgagee sale but each time the bank issued the notices her ex-partner cleared the overdue amount so the bank didn’t proceed.  

Mrs D complained to our office about the bank threatening to sell the property and then retracting its threat.  She wanted her name removed from the loan or the property sold so the loan no longer existed.

We couldn’t assist Mrs D.   The bank did not have an obligation to proceed to mortgagee sale after issuing the notices.  It also had no obligation to remove her name from the loan and we could not require it do so.  The bank had actually contacted the ex-partner to see if he would agree to remove her name from the loan but he didn’t co-operate. 

We advised Mrs D we could not assist with her complaint in these circumstances and she decided to seek legal advice on her position.