Will this work?

iwantahouse

Hi all

My fiance has a joint mortgage with an ex-girlfriend and the property is in negative equity.

We have tried every which way to try and sort the problem out but up until now it seemed like a lost cause.

Originally we tried to take the ex off the mortgage but this didn't work as my fiance did ot earn enough. We then tried to remortgage it into our names but could not get a mortgage.

In the end, it went up for sale and has been for 2 years with no offers at all! During this time, the property was tenanted but now, they too have moved out!!

Anyway, we went to see a solicitor who checked the title deeds and saw that the mortgage lender had not registered a restriction against the property stating that their consent would need to be obtained for any transaction to do with the house.

The solicitor has now suggested that I add myself to the joint mortgage and Transfer the title to myself and my fiance. She has said that the transfer can contain wording to the effect that I woud be taking over the ex partners liability for the mortgage payments until she can be released.

Do you think the lender will allow this and, if so, will they want to do a credit check?

Any advice would be gratefully received!

suisidevw

Take her advice as a solicitor and give it a spin?

iwantahouse

We are doing!! Just sick of getting my hopes up that we could be halfway to being settled and then coming back down to earth with a big bump!

Richard_Webster

Not sure exactly what you (U) are trying to achieve. Has fiance's ex (X) moved out? And now you want to move in and own house jointly with fiance (F)? is that right?

OK if there is no restriction preventing dispositions without mortgage lender (M)'s consent you can do a transfer without involving the lender. So X and F could sign a TR1 to transfer property to F, or indeed to U and F. This assumes that X will sign - if she won't you can't go any further.

Such a transfer would not remove X's liability to M. This only becomes relevant if the paymetns are not kept up and M repossesses. If M makes a loss on any sale it will pursue both X and F.

Merely adding your name to the title doesn't give you any liability for the mortgage but of course you could be evicted if it was not paid.

Doing it this way X doesn't get released from liabilities but she may not care.

Lender will not know unless F defaults on payments. F or U & F can't sell unless X's name is off mortgage - that is key point.

M very unlikley to agree to any transfers at all whilst property in negative equity and you certainly don't want property with X's name still there because she could hold you to ransom when you (or just F) did eventually want to sell it.

Mozette

Are you living there? If it is that you just need to sell it, have you thought about an auction?

iwantahouse

Thanks everyone. Basically x wants out but there is no way we can release her from the mortgage at the moment. She has agreed not to access the property and wants no responsibility for maintenance nor wants any future equity that may appear (unlikely)!

I understand that by transferring the mortgage into my fiances name and mine that she will have no rights to the property but will still be liable for the mortgage. X also understands this which is why I don't understand why our solicitor is suggesting we ask the lender if I can also become a party to the mortgage.

To be honest we just want to feel secure in the home before we move in and it helps us all out financially as me and my oh will not have to pay rent in our current home and mortgage on the jointly owned property and X will not have to make any further mortgage payments.

We all agree that we need some sort of written agreement setting out the terms before we move in and our solicitor has advised that this is the easiest way forward?