TLDR; raising funds to avoid bankruptcy after buying a house 9 years ago with my ex. I left and stopped paying towards the mortgage as they elected to take sole ownership. They then neglected to refinance so the loan stayed in my name. The house was reposessed after multiple missed payments. The lender have advised an alternate lump sum payment from myself will absolve the debt from my name.

The full series of events;

9 years ago, me at 20 years old signed some paperwork with my partner of 3 years to purchase a home.

There was no difficulty in doing so, there were no warnings of what joining finances with someone could do later down the track, there was no counseling or education offered on the subject, it was literally as easy as providing our details and suddenly we have a $300k mortgage.

A year later, I left said partner at the time who requested to remain at the property.

While still paying half the mortgage, I moved out to a friend's place until I found my feet and had half of my belongings still at the house.

When I returned to collect some clothes, they had all been tossed out of the house into the yard and had been ruined by rain. I lost many sentimental items in that instance. I swiftly stopped paying any portion of the mortgage and returned my keys.

Fast forward 4 years, my ex had still not refinanced the mortgage solely to his name and missed countless payments, I was being called by the lender almost weekly and despite pleading with them to help me in the situation, I was advised there was nothing they could do as my name was on the loan so therefore half the debt was still my responsibility.

Eventually, the property was reposessed by the lender and sold for a lot less than we purchased it for leaving a $200k shortfall.

Fast forward to November last year, I contacted my ex asking if he had managed to seek any resolution to refinancing the shortfall amount, to which he responded he was declaring bankruptcy to escape the debt.

This means that I too will have to declare bankruptcy and ruin my credit rating even further, or take the shortfall of the loan and commence paying off a debt that should have been removed from my name years ago.

After I had contacted a bankruptcy advisor, the lender contacted me following up on the outstanding loan amount. I advised them I was declaring bankruptcy and they suggested I offer the lender an alternate lump sum figure to close out the debt.

When I put my offer of $10k in, they advised I could not pay with a further personal loan and that the finances would have to be from my own savings or gifted in some form. 

As I believed I was going to have to declare bankruptcy, I exhausted my savings on repairing my car and getting major dental work done as you cannot have more than $2k across all your finances when declaring bankruptcy.

I currently have $3k in savings, however I need to somehow come up with the additional funds to complete the lump sum offer.

I feel shame in asking the public for help in sourcing the funds for this, it's entirely my own mistakes that have put me in this position and it's not fair to expect other people to pay for my errors. 

However, I still wanted to share my story as I have heard of so many young people dragged into the same mess and other easily avoidable messy situations. If you have managed to read this far, thank you for even giving me that much time and I hope that you are able to use my mistakes to prevent yourself or someone you know from becoming a victim of circumstance. If you are in a similar situation, please don't hesitate to reach out as I am more than happy to offer any information on my story to help you find a better outcome for yours.

If you have chosen to donate to my cause, I cannot even begin to express my gratitude, thank you so very much.

If by some miracle this GoFundMe reaches above $10k, any remaining funds will be donated to Women's Legal Service WA to go towards much needed legal aid to those in simar or less fortunate circumstances to mine.