I bought a house when I was 18 with my then partner.Joint mortgage although calculated on his wages I was on a youth training scheme. We split up when I was 21 (had a son together)I was at University. I moved out to live with my parents. He changed the locks & move his family in. I was never given a set of keys. He paid the mortgage although no maintenance towards his son. They took & kept all my furniture. This was in 1997. We organised to remove my name from the mortgage, the house was worth £10,000 more than the mortgage. The house has been up for sale before the split but when his family the for sale signs were ripped down. Twice my name was to be removewd and both times he stopped it even though I wanted no money or anything at all. I eventually got an order to sell the house in 1999 although he would not allow anyone to view and his family removed any for sale signs. It eventually went back to court in 2000 and the family were ordered to be evicted in June 2000. Hence substantial disrepair two gapping holes in my bathroom & dining room ceiling and he disasembled the garage and removed it. Now worth less than the mortgage appproximately £5,000 less. Eventaully the court have awarded posession to me to enable me to hand the property back to the building society for voluntary repossession. I cannot live there as I have had severe difficulties & I cannot take on a property which may be subject to more damage I've also had to involve the police as his mother has been forging my signature and ordering goods in my name from a catalogue. To cut a very long story short I'm worried that this will destroy my good credit rating and they will chase me for the money owning from the house. The CSA he owes then over £5,000 and numerous other companies are chasing my ex partner whom seems to amazingly be untracable. I feel totally devestated at the prospect of having to pay not only my student debts and bring up my child and struggle without already knowing I'll have a terrible credit rating and have the Halifax chasing and bullying me for money which quite frankly I don't have and certainly don't think I should pay.

Please advise me on what options I have and what I can do to restore my credit rating to allow me to buy a place of my own and to enable me to provide a decent life for my son. I have been with the same solicitor for over four years and have kept all correspondence. I have always kept the Halifax informed who just seem to like bullying me by telling me I'll never get a bank account again never mind another mortgage.I have had an excellent rating at the moment and always pay me loans credit cards on time. I've worked hard at university to get somewhere and feel a little bit let down by the legal system.

Any advice would be so welcomed.

-- Karen Carr (karencarr2000@yahoo.co.uk), February 06, 2001