Signing house over to wife

horseykitty

We have a joint mortgage on our property, how do we go about signing it over to me, the wife? We are not splitting up, just want to reduce liabilities in this current economic climate.

supersmith

Have a look at this from Citizen's Advice:
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/family_parent/housing/buying_a_home.htm#Buying_with_someone_else

As far as I am aware, a solicitor would be needed to change owndership of the house from joint tenants (where you jointly own the house) to tenants in common (you each own a specific share of the house) or to transfer ownership into one name only. If you have a mortgage on the house you may want to look into whether it will be possible to renew the mortgage in just your name - i.e. would your wages be sufficient to get a mortgage alone?

Jasper27_2

I would be aware that this could cause you real problems if you then split up. If you trust each other absolutely then no problem. However I used to work in the County Court and saw a case where man on brink of bankruptcy transferred whole of the house over to his (non-married) partner so it would not be included in his assets. She then met someone else changed the locks and chucked him out. It's her property so she can do that. The guy was left suing his solicitors for not advising him this could happen! If he fought to get his half of the house back then he would have his creditors after him, with possible aligations of deliberate fraud/disposing of assets. My point is even if your sure it's the right thing for you get a solicitor to explain all possible outcomes before you do anything.

silvercar

The mortgage lender will not allow this unless your wife has sufficient income to be able to pay the mortgage on her own. Why would they? At the moment two people are jointly liable for the mortgage payments, why would they let one person shoulder the mortgage without proof that it is affordable.

(Bankruptcy thing doesn't work either as the official receiver can undo any financial transaction in the last 5 years that he suspects was used to avoid creditors getting their money.)