Hello

So, I’m after a little advice.

Mrs RRR and I are both on the mortgage and the title deeds. For reasons many and varied I may want to remove myself from the mortgage.
Does this mean I’d need to also be removed from the deeds and therefore not be a part owner?
We have about 55% ltv so I’d like to still “own” my part of the house/ equity.

Thanks

Confused of Derbyshire

So you want to own the house, but not be responsible for paying for it?

*sigh*

It’s not quite that simple. I paid the deposit on the house and will still contribute to the mortgage. It’s just that for future plans it may be best if I’m not on the mortgage.

Just to clarify, this isn’t a separation / divorce scenario.

I guess I’m really asking – if I get removed from the mortgage, will I also no longer be a co-owner despite having co-bought the house?

a mortgage company won’t lend if there is effectively another charge on the property. ie you

When my wife and I bought our house, it was a sole mortgage and as a result only my name went on the deeds (she owned another house but I didn’t so a sole mortgage made more sense). When we remortgaged five years later to a joint mortgage, the deeds had to be changed which cost me a couple of hundred quid or so. So as far as I’m aware, if you’re on the mortgage you’re in the deeds, and if you’re not you’re not. Although I live in Scotland where some legal things are different!

That said, I’m not sure being absent from the deeds automatically means you don’t part own the house? Although I suppose that’s sometimes why people transfer assets into another name. **** if I know!

I am not an expert, but yes I think you would need to update the land or property registry.

https://www.gov.uk/registering-land-or-property-with-land-registry/transfer-ownership-of-your-property

For example, if you were thinking of possibly going bankrupt in the future and wanted to ensure your home was not used as equity, then just removing you from the mortgage doesn’t remove your ownership of the house.

For example, if you were thinking of possibly going bankrupt in the future and wanted to ensure your home was not used as equity, then just removing you from the mortgage doesn’t remove your ownership of the house.

Yep, thankfully it’s not bankruptcy but this is the bit I’m very confused about.

I wasn’t going to go into details but..

After my midlife crisis I’m back at uni and will be for a good for years. Having talked to the bank about remortgaging in order to expand or move home, it transpires that they will use my expenditure but not my income (as I’m a stoodent) in the calculations. If I’m used in the calculations then it’s very unlikely we could do anything.

If however, the calculations are based solely on mrs RRR then it’s far more likely we can borrow what we need based on her income alone.

I was just wondering where that’d leave us from a legal stand point re ownership

Speak to a mortgage broker.

“Do you trust your wife?”

I think you would still need to update the land registry.

Other changes

Transfer ownership of your property if you’ve:
•sold it
•divorced or separated and want to remove an owner
•married and want to add an owner
•given the property away

“Do you trust your wife?”

Nope. She’s as dodgy as f3ck.😀

She was however, the sole buyer of the house originally using my deposit (I got added later). She’s probably trust worthy 🤔

England & Wales example, might be different in Scotland / NI? It is certainly possible to be named tenants in common or joint tenants on the deeds but only one person be responsible for the mortgage. And the mortgage can have a gaurantor with no mention on the deeds. We had a situation where the bank with the best mortgage offer wouldn’t include me (I was a PhD student) so only my partner was on the mortgage. Requires trust but so do all relation finances. At the end of the fixed period we remortgaged and put me back on.

Legally the equity you have individually relates to the deeds (joint tenant or tenant in common) and whether or not you are married. But if you were shown to have ceased payments towards the family home (not necessarily to the mortgage bank but at least by bank transfer to the Mrs) that would e.g. look bad in divorce proceedings.

Sorry only just read the rest of the thread! Who paid what deposit is a bit meaningless, when you were put on to the land registry as joint owners, if you signed as joint tenants you have joint equity. If you wanted to retain your claim to your deposit you should have (both) signed as tenants in common with appropriate % ownership.

Anyway as I said we definately have had joint tenancy but only one person named on the mortgage. We may have declared my interest but the responsibility of the mortgage legally was with my partner for ~3 years. This was around 2012, after banks really reined in their lending.

Some lenders will allow joint borrowers single title owner. I do not know of any that allow single borrower joint owners as repossession is practically impossible. What you are talking about is getting around lenders affordability calculations. 1 income looking after just your wife OR 1 income looking after wife plus dependents (you and maybe kids)

If your Wife’s income is enough for affordability then the simple solution would be to remortgage in her name only and go from there.

Yes, it’s likely you’re now long be listed on the deeds, but I assume you’re thinking “what if we break up?” well it’s not like you’re be automatically be giving your wife your bit of the house, it doesn’t work that way, if you’re not worried about that, then not being on the deeds for a few years whilst you study doesn’t seem an issue to me.

I would say though, it’s easy to over-think this sort of thing, you can’t ‘play the system with mortgages so much. They’re still going to ask about your income and expenditure as you’ll be financially linked.

Sometimes you can’t have your cake and eat it, and you can’t borrow a big pile of money to extend your house if you don’t have enough income, even if ‘in theory’ your wife does, if only she wasn’t supporting your during your studies.

Thanks all.

Yes the affordability thing seems to be a bit of a blunt tool given my income is mostly from bursaries and pays my own expenses (so I’m not dependent on mrs RRR), yet it can’t be included in income (despite my outgoings being included).

Hmmm, I must admit I remain a little confused about it all.

And re your post p-jay, yep we’re not looking to borrow a huge amount more tbh and our current total monthly payment is 20% of my wife’s net monthly income.

It just all seems unnecessarily complicated. Our current deal is up for renewal in feb, so I could make enquiries then.

@RopeyreignRider I would think bursaries can be included as income with some mortgage companies (though you may need a history of them or evidence that they will continue if they are regular payments) , a decent broker would know which ones, my wife is paid via a stipend and I’m pretty sure that was included in our last mortgage.

Can you change the ownership to tenants in common instead of joint tenants and assign yourself whatever percentage of the property would be yours if you split the current equity 50/50 & then let your wife have a mortgage on her remaining share? Bit complicated but it might work.