I bought a house with my boyfriend in Feb 2001 . He walked out in Sep 2001. I had to get a second job to try to make ends meet. I work over 80 hrs a week and never saw my children. I pd the mortgage on time every month for the last 5 yrs. Last year in Texas the drought was so bad that my foundation cracked in so many places that is was gong to cost almost $20,000.00 to repair . I am a single parent of two my salary is less that $27000.00 and the mortgage payment is almost $1200.00 a month . I am receiving child support for on child . With the rising cost of electric and water and with the water rations I barely made ends meet. There were some months where I had to borrow food from my parentss . I tried several different places to try to refinance but no one would help because my house payment and car payment were way more than half my salary. I had to walk away from the house in October of 2006 . My ex boyfriends credit is ruined along with mine. He is threating to sue me or take me to court . Can he do that. We are both on the loan and both equally responsible for it . I managed it for 5 yrs but just could not do it anymore , There was no way to get the foundation fixed . I did not have that kind of money. Does he have the right to take me to court ? He was the one who walked out .

Hello milissa:

Suing you for what? You didn't do anything to him, so he's got no beef.

excon

Not only does he have no right to sue you, but you can sue him for half of the amount that you paid while you were living there and he was gone.

Ok, first please remember that there are not experts on here 24 hours a day, some experts may only check once a day and some only a couple times a week. So you will not get an answer in two minutes. I deleted your repeated posts.

But he can of course sue you, everyone can sue anyone in today's society.

But I doubt he has any case, since he was obligated to make 1/2 of the payments.

If anything you can sue him for 1/2.

Along with the others I agree that I don't understand what he's suing you for.

But I'm imagining since you say you "walked away" from the house whether you are both being dunned for the balance. You just don't "walk away" from a house. If you stop paying the mortgage and abandon the house, it gets foreclosed. The lender then tries to sell the property, usually at auction. If the sale doesn't cover the balance of the mortgage then the lender will go after the signers for the balance. Is that what's happening?

First, please do not use e-mail or PMs for follow-up questions. Just post a reply in the thread.

Second, I'm not understanding what you did by walking away. If they haven't foreclosed why aren't you trying to sell the house?

As for his threats, if he makes them again, ask him what he is suing for. And tell him if he does sue you willcountersure for half the of payments he hasn't made.

It may well be, that the total due on the mortgage, plus the cost of repairs is more than the house is worth. Although both of you are equally responsible to make payment in full on the house, it is really going to come down to who is the most collectible. If he has a steady job, assets etc. he may eventually be the one paying any amount over and above what is due after the auction. If the house can be sold for what is due, it would be in both your interests to work together to get it sold. Considering your financial problems, unless he is willing to work with you rather than against you, you will both loose. He has no basis for litigation against you. Had he chosen to make payments (on the house) to protect his credit and investment, I am sure you would not have objected.

Thank you for all your responses but the foundation is to shot and I have tried to sell it but it is not something people want with the foundation the way it is. I have tried we buy ugly houses and they want to give less than what I owe.

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Originally Posted by melissa lail

Thank you for all your responses but the foundation is to shot and I have tried to sell it but it is not something people want with the foundation the way it is. I have tried we buy ugly houses and they want to give less than what I owe.

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But they may give more than what the lender will get. What I'm not sure you understand is that if you just walk away from the house, the lender forecloses, sells the house at auction for probably even less then ugly houses is offering and then goes after you for the balance.

Hello again, melissa:

I'm glad you reported back.

It seems to me that you have two choices, neither of them good: You can walk away (give up, lie down, get screwed, etc. and so on), or you can fight some more. Me? Fighting sounds like a better option. I think you just don't know where to line up your forces.

You do have some choices in the matter. There's some very good books out there on an off the wall marketing strategy called (strange as it might sound), "Guerilla Marketing". It takes accepted marketing rules and stands them on their head.

I only bring this up, because I'm going to recommend you become a "guerilla" landlord, real estate developer, entrepreneur (I don't care what you call yourself).

The bottom line is, you need to save your house. As Scott pointed out, you CANNOT let it be foreclosed upon.

First thing. Sue your b/f. Don't talk to him about it. Don't threaten him with it. Just DO IT! Yes, you'll need to shop for a lawyer who will work with you. It's true, you may not get the top notch law firm in town, but you'll find somebody.

Next, rent your house. College kids don't care if the foundation is cracked. Fill it up with kids. Fill it up with section 8 people. Rent rooms to old ladies. Turn it into a bed and breakfast, or a rooming house with meals, or turn your kitchen into a catering business. Take in foster children. Turn it into a halfway house or a shelter. I don't know. DO SOMETHING.

It's very hard to give advice to people who have painted themselves into a corner. However, as you have discovered, the tighter the corner becomes the more radical the solutions have to be.

excon