Housing Benefit if I own another property

zzzLazyDaisy

dmg24 wrote: »

I would be very surprised if your lender allowed you to remove your name from the deeds, but remain on the mortgage. The loan is secured on the property, and therefore you need to have an interest in the property.

That is absolutely correct

Edit to clarify: If you transfer the house from joint names into his sole name, that transfer is, for legal purposed, equivalent to a sale. The change of ownership must be registered at the land registry, and in order to do that, the lender must be notified and agree to the change. In any case, as long as your name remains on the mortgage whatever agreement you may come to with your OH regarding your on going liability to the mortgage, that would not bind the lender. In law, if he defaults on the mortgage, the lender can pursue either or both of you for the full amount. So it is in your interests to get your name off the mortgage. To do that you need to get your name off the registered title (deeds).

Have you seen a solicitor? Don't rely on your OH advice - he is biased!

zzzLazyDaisy

happygirl5 wrote: »

well I put in nothing to the deposit I put in £10k towards doing the house up etc, he sold his place and put down nearly £50k on the deposit and other fees etc, I found out from an agent the house has lost about £25k in a few months and if we were to sell now after the mortgage paid off would prob make £15k, surely a court would look at who put what in and apportion it on a percentage basis. He is offering me now just under £5k to take my name off and I will get a disclaimer from a solicitor to say that he cant try and come after me for the mortgage payments that is a risk I take I guess.

It is more complicated than this. You need to know how the house is held - 'joint tenants' or 'tenants in common'. You can get this information from the land registry website for payment of a £3 fee.

If the house is held as joint tenants, you are each legally entitled to 50% of the net proceeds of sale. If it is held as tenants in common, it will state the shares (eg 'in equal shares' or '75% / 25%, or whatever). In that case the net proceeds will be split according to that formula.

So unless the title deeds expressly state that he is entitled to the return of his £50000 deposit before any division of the proceeds takes place, then who put what into the house is irrelevant.

You need to know what shares the house is held in, and then get specific legal advice on that basis.

happygirl5

Thank you for your comments. Apparently he has spoken to the lender who has agreed that I can come off of the Deeds but not the mortgage. I will obviously check this out myself with them.

We hold the property as Joint Tenants. I have got a solicitor and she has advised me that if the property were to be sold the Court will look at percentages and it would not be 50/50, I need to speak to her again and bring this to light. What about if he doesn't want to sell then my name is going to be stuck on a mortgage and a property that I am not living in, and this means I wont be able to get another mortgage. Can I force him to sell or I supppose buy me out?

zzzLazyDaisy

Happy Girl - what your solicitor has told you would be correct if you were married, but the courts don't have the power to re-distribute the property shares where the parties are not married (it is a special provision to do with divorce law).

The only time that can happen is if, say, one party puts a lump sum into the property after it was bought, say to pay for an extension, or to pay a lump sum off the mortgage. That MAY result in them acquiring a larger share. But if the money was put in when the house was bought, and it was bought in joint names, then the person putting in the larger amount is deemed to have taken that into account when they agreed to have the house in joint names.

In any event, this case would never go to court - the legal fees would cost thousands of pounds and there is not enough equity in the house to justify it.

What you need to do is to come to an agreement whereby he buys your share of the house off you, and BOTH the house AND the mortgage are transferred into his name. Even if, ultimately, you don't get your full financial entitlement, at least you can draw a line under it and walk away. If you wait a few months, the chances are the house will have dropped again in value, and your share will be even less...

Think about it - if you no longer own the house, why would you want to be saddled with liability for the mortgage?

happygirl5

Thanks for your advice, problem is lender will not let him take mortgage on his own at the moment as his salary is not enough and we are tied in with them until aug 09 otherwise get charged a massive redemption charge. However he can try again before Aug when his salary goes up, every which way there is wall! I either just wait till he can transfer me off both then run the risk of getting nothing or take a risk for 5k! I will speak to my solicitor.

Thanks again