Remortgaging and names on property deed

Max223

Need a little advice, I own a house with my brother.

We own the house outright, no mortgage, fully paid for.

He has some debts that are frankly too much for him and after talking to various advisors the best option seems to be to remortgage the house and pay off his debts so that he has a single managable payment.

We both agree on that course of action, however, both of our names are on the home deed, is there any way to remortgage in just his name? I understand the mortgage company wouldn't want me standing in their way if they wanted their money back but I would prefer not to be a part of the mortgage.

I may move away, get married, get my own mortgage etc, I'd prefer not to be tied to one already.

So two questions really...

1) Is it possible for one person to remortgage a house with the other owner's consent without that other person being a part of the mortgage?

2) If not (and I suspect this is the case) how would I go about removing my name from the deed, I trust my brother implicitly so I'm not worried about my name not being on the deeds.

Appreciate any advice you can give me on this.

unite79

1 No - Although some will say it can be done - IT CANT
2 Transfer of Equity, which the new solicitor will do while doing the re-mortgage.

Max223

unite79 wrote: »

1 No - Although some will say it can be done - IT CANT
2 Transfer of Equity, which the new solicitor will do while doing the re-mortgage.

Thanks for the quick response, one question, what do you mean by new solictor? so far we were just remortgaging through a mortgage company, I'm not very versed on the process I'm afraid.

I wasn't aware any solicitor was involved.

unite79

The new lender will instruct a solicitor - To register there charge etc, in a remortgage this is usually free -however extras like transfer of equity you will get charged about £100.

Max223

Ok, thanks for the info.

Would we need to retrive the deed from our solicitor or would the lenders solictor be able to do that?

Sorry to ask all these questions, I'm pretty sure this is the last one

unite79

Dont think deeds actually exist anymore - Stored electronically now - Solicitor will do it all!

happybroker

A transfer of equity will remove you from the deeds, you will be transferring your equity into your brothers name which from what I understand isn't what you are looking to do as you will no longer own the house.

Perhaps he can buy you out of the property whilst remortgaging and raise the cash for his consolidation at the same time. I am a little dubious about the advice he is receiving on this one.

edit----re the deeds, a Land Certificate will have been issued by the HM Land Registry but you can get what's called an "office copy" of this for a small fee if you can't find it.

Max223

Thanks for the responses, I've spoken to the land registry in the past and they told me the paper deed was practically meaningless, the electronically stored version was the key.

Even so the mortgage people seemed to insist on the paper one.

As for the transfer of equity, it's not ideal but it's the only way to solve our problems and I trust my brother enough to remove my name from the house.

gizmo111

What level of debt has he got?
Is he sure he will be able to pay the mortgage? How much will this be?
Has he got a budget sorted so he doesn't get into debt again in the future.
If is he struggling now, what sort of credit rating has he got, this could bar him from the better mortgage deals.