Wife wins mortgage appeal after husband's affair

[amir_j]

A wife who signed a joint remortgage with her husband while he was having an affair will no longer have to meet her repayments, the Court of Appeal ruled today.

Mrs Jayne Hewett faced losing her home because she could not afford to pay after she divorced and the mortgage company won a repossession order.

Mr Justice Briggs, giving the ruling of the three appeal judges, said Mr Hewett "was guilty of a deliberate concealment of the affair, well knowing that its disclosure would have significantly undermined his prospects of obtaining his wife's consent to his proposal" for a joint re-mortgage to pay his debts.

He allowed her appeal over repossession, saying that concealing his affair from his wife amounted to using undue influence to get her to sign the deal.

First Plus Financial Group can still make a charge on Mr Hewett's interest in the property which gives them the right to apply for a possession order.

Whether and when they are entitled to enforce it will be remitted to Norwich County Court.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/wif...

[Magog]

WTF, looks like a whole new opportunity for scamming has just been opened up. Does this now become case law or not?

[turbobloke]

Ridiculous state of affairs has never been more apt.

[Blue Meanie]

Utterly preposterous... I do wonder if the ruling would have been done the other way had the roles been reversed?

[SJobson]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Saved me posting this - I agree 100%.

If there was a marital issue, sort it out in the divorce courts. The lender didn't do anything wrong.

[Deity]

This opens up a whole can of worms.

[Tony*T3]

Sounds more like you lot are in the same boat as the bloke in the story....

Edited by Tony*T3 on Thursday 25th March 09:34

[st_files]

But surely the bank has redress with the husband, since he was the one operating the deception? How has the bank lost?

[jeff m]

st_files said:

But surely the bank has redress with the husband, since he was the one operating the deception? How has the bank lost?

It's an equity loan secured by the property. (not a personel loan on the husband)