Partner's Liability

mcfayden

Hi, boyfriend here!

I have just applied for and had an offer issued for a remortgage by myself - it's a great product I'm keen to finalise asap as the 10-year rates have shot up during the application period and nothing nearly as good is available right now.

Property was valued at £350k for the remortgage and there is £200k remaining on the mortgage so the girlfriend's 10% equity share would be worth c£15k.

I don't have a great deal of cash at the moment, certainly nowhere near £15k. It seems to me that if I want to proceed with the remortgage on my own I have no option but to do an undervalue transfer?

On the other hand, maybe I could see if my mortgage offer can be changed to include her, then she could stay on the deeds and no transfer would be necessary. However, what then happens when she goes bankrupt? I don't have the spare cash to buy her beneficial interest so would I be forced to sell the property?

Or, could the OR be persuaded that she doesn't in fact have a BI since she has never paid the mortgage?

Equally, if the OR could be persuaded of that, then perhaps they could instead be persuaded that the nil value transfer was a valid reflection of the fact that I pay the mortgage and she was only on it to enable us to borrow enough when the mortgage was originally taken out.

Hmmm. I guess I can't be treated favourably so whichever way it pans out I'm going to lose the £15k on top of everything else I've lent her