Please help, I left the marital home around 3yrs ago, got divorced, left the house & contents to my ex-wife. About 8 months after i left, the property was repossesed, 18months later it was finally sold with a short fall (according to the building society, Skipton) of £11,500.Apparantly the property is riddled with MUNDIC BLOCK & this is why it took so long to sell.........Do I have to pay this so called "shortfall" as my ex-wife & I USED sKIPTONS SURVEYORS NO MORE THAN 2YRS PREVIOUS TO GET A MORTGAGE & NO MENTION OF mundic block WAS MADE? many thanks............

-- Toby Taylor (rocketmanandkitten@blueyonder.co.uk), January 03, 2005

Answers

I have to say I did not know what Mundic Block was until I looked it up - see http://www.caradon.gov.uk/media/adobe/h/8/A%20Guide%20to% 20Mundic%20BlockDONE.pdf

Finding the presence of this during a survey depends largely on which survey you had done - the normal valuation for building society would not pick this up - only an "in depth" survey in which materials were sampled would have picked up the presence of mundic block defects. So liability of the surveyors depends on which survey you contracted them to do.

As to the simple answer to your first question - both you and wife on the mortgage - UNLESS the court ordered on divorce, the transfer of the house to her, then you are liable for the shortfall. If the court did transfer the house to her and you were removed of liability for the mortgage, production of the relevant court order should resolve the question of your potential liability for the shortfall.

-- David J. Button (davidjohnbutton@supanet.com), January 06, 2005.