What can I borrow on my own whilst still in a joint mortgage?

J_W_L

Afternoon,

I've seen a few similar threads to this so apologies for starting a new one but I wanted to put my specifics in.

I am married but separated and still have my name on the mortgage relating to the property that I used to live in with my wife. We get on extremely well still and have already come to an agreement that she can have the house and any (little) equity attached to it and we will both keep our own savings to ourself.

I know the best route to go down would be to first divorce and get my name off the mortgage before I take another step in the property market but for reasons I won't go into I am looking at buying a house now. All I will add to this is that my ex/wife is now self employed earning circa £12k. She can comfrotably pay the mortgage on her own but may fall just short of what is required to get the mortgage officially on her own.

I have recently seen a house I am interested in which seems to be a very good offer and might not be on the market for very long. So to get to the point of the thread I was wondering if there was a quick and easy way to calculate what I could borrow, taking into account my liability on the house me and my ex own?

The house we own is worth around £75k and we owe £58k on the mortgage. The house I have seen is on the market for £85k and I have a £35k desposit (which is from when my father recently passed away and my ex has said she has no interest in this money due to the fact we had been separated two years when he died). I earn £27k p/a although with bonuses its more like £29k.

So does anyone think I could get a £50k mortage whilst still tied to a £58k mortgage?

I know the sensible answer is probably to wait and make everything official with a divorce but my fear is my ex wouldn't get the mortgage on her own which leaves me in a bit of limbo...

Any advice appreciated.

kingstreet

I did something similar for a client not so long ago.

My applicant was party to a mortgage with three of his friends and the property was in negative equity. He wanted to buy with his partner.

We had a 20% deposit and approached Nottingham Building Society who agreed to take the payments for the current mortgage off the applicant's income like a credit agreement, so they assumed he might be responsible for the full payment if his friends defaulted. The residual income was sufficient to provide good affordability for the new mortgage, so the case proceeded without further problem.

In your case, it sounds like your income would be high enough to cover both mortgages, so I'd suggest a visit to an independent or whole market broker who'll find you a selection of lenders who'll look at the case for you.

holly_hobby

There is nothing stopping you getting another mge on another property.

But .. as you already suspect, your income will need to cover both mges, so you need a lender whose affordability matrix will show that your 27k income with 50% of proven bonuses (if not gted), supports borrowings of 108k. Your income looks about sufficient .. whole of market adviser will be best to source you a suitable lender & product

NB - Even if you got divorced, the lender will be unable to remove you for the mge liability, until your wife's income is sufficient to support the mge on her own.

Hope this helps

Holly