transfer of equity and debt liability in the future

zzzxxx

Hi Everyone,

I think this site is really, really good.

Would appreciate any help or info with this scenario.

My wife and I are thinking of doing a "transfer of equity" with the our house, and both of us are currenty responsible for paying the current mortgage and both our names are on the title deeds. By the way, this is all amicable. So after the transfer only her name would be on the title deeds and only she would be responsible for paying the mortgage.

1) How much is this likely to cost in total?

2) If i was taken of the mortgage and the title deeds, and then
(and i hope this never happens because we have always repaid our debts in full and on time, but obviously no one can predict the future)
i fall in to debt in the future, would THEY be able to reposses the house even thou I no longer have my name on the title deeds or am responsible for paying the mortgage?
I would like say that the chances on me falling into debt are very remote, but one has to consider all scenarios.

Thanks in advance, and thanks for reading.

Xbigman

You need to get a solicitor to do the transfer of the deeds and land registry into your wifes name. As I recall it cost me about £250 to get my bothers name off my house deeds just for legal fees. I say 'about' as there were other things happening that took the total bill to £755, but 250 is the amount I recall.

As for the mortgage, can she afford the mortgage on just her income? If she can then just ask the mortgage holder what they will charge to take your name off. This happens all the time with divorces so it should be straight forward. It could be minimal or a fair bit depending on who it is and how you are going about it. Also, if you are on a fixed rate deal there could be a penalty.
It might be worth asking this specific question on the mortgage board.

Will they go after the house if you get in debt? The official reciever will certainly pull the land registry records and might want to see some other documentation from you. If you are in debt now and you transfer the house to your wifes name then the OR can go after the house if they think you are hiding assets. Also, some debt collectors will pull the land registry details for any address you are registered at with the intention of putting on a charge. They are not stupid and will soon work out if you are hiding assets.
If your debts are all built up after the house is put in your wifes name you should be pretty safe as long as it is her income that pays the mortgage and the debts have not been run up deliberately or for her benefit.

Are you starting a business? If you are and you are trying to protect your property if it fails you should seek legal advice.
Regards



X

zzzxxx

Thanks for that Xbigman.

I'll try and answer the points as they are.

Yes she can afford the mortgage herself, and there are no tie-in periods.
Neither of us our in debt at the moment (apart from the mortgage of course-which is always paid on time), and we both have very good credit ratings. So no problems there.

I'm not thinking of running a scam or defrauding anyone (because i'm not like that). However, say i built up genuine credit card debts after the house was put on my wifes name and then lost my job and couldn't pay the debt, could they go after the house even thou i don't own it?

I'm not thinking of starting a business, but now that you mention it if I did start one up some time in the future and it genuinely (ie not deliberately) went bust (for example, cash flow problems, loss of customers, etc) and i owed money then would the house be safe?

Thanks again.

PS - we have never had much debt and we have always made our paymets on time, and have always paid off the debt. Therefore, we want to protect our good credit scoring..