One in eight UK women who have held a joint mortgage in the last two years have experienced joint mortgage abuse from a current or former partner, a report from the charity Surviving Economic Abuse has revealed.
The report, ‘Locked into a mortgage, locked out of my home’, funded by abrdn Financial Fairness Trust and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, reported that 750,000 people have experienced joint mortgage economic abuse.
It explained perpetrators are causing economic harm by refusing to pay their agreed share of the mortgage, agree to new terms, or sell up.
This mortgage-based abuse traps victim-survivors with dangerous abusers, while those who flee are forced into housing insecurity and debt because of ongoing economic abuse.
Surviving Economic Abuse interim CEO, Sam Smethers, said: “Mortgage abuse is a hidden crime that’s destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of survivors.
“Right now, domestic abusers are using joint mortgages to cause economic devastation by refusing to pay their agreed share, agree to new terms, or sell up.
“Being forced to foot the full mortgage bill makes it near-impossible for survivors to flee to safety.”
A personal experience
To illustrate the impact this abuse can have, the charity shared the personal story of Sarah, who had left her abusive ex-husband and consequently experienced mortgage abuse.
Sarah’s ex-husband stopped contributing to the joint mortgage and began to withhold child maintenance payments.
She knew she couldn’t afford the mortgage repayments and meet her children’s basic needs, but her abuser blocked every attempt Sarah made to sell the property or negotiate a more competitive interest rate.
Sarah has been forced to pay tens of thousands of pounds in divorce and financial remedy proceedings, yet was unable to remove the abuser from the mortgage.
“I was forced to use food banks and even stopped putting the heating on in the winter just to pay as much of the mortgage as possible each month,” Sarah recounted.
“But I still couldn’t afford to maintain the mortgage and make ends meet, particularly as the cost of living continued to rise, so I was finally forced into arrears.
“Over a decade since I left my abusive husband, he remains on the joint mortgage.
“I can’t sell the property without his permission and, at any point, he can use his position to stop me from making mortgage repayments by withholding child support payments.
“Me and my children remain trapped in a mortgage prison with no way out.”
Action
The report is calling for several measures to address this issue, demanding financial services firms boost their support for customers experiencing joint mortgage-based abuse.
Alongside this, financial services should take steps available under existing guidelines to make it harder for perpetrators to use joint mortgages to cause economic harm.
It also called for the financial services regulator to clarify and strengthen regulations and guidance for firms to avoid causing foreseeable harm to customers experiencing economic abuse through perpetrators’ misuse of joint mortgage products and services.
