problems with existing mortgage and ex partners name on deeds

Bjh57

Any advice on this welcome.

My partner and his ex bought a house 7 years ago. The relationship ended 6 years ago. At the time he put in the bulk of the money and she put in £8000 which has been repaid to her.
Her name remains on the mortgage as the mortgage was granted on their combined incomes at the time. He alone has always paid the repayments . She has now married and wishes to get a mortgage with her husband. We cannot afford to make up the shortfall to enable her name to be taken off the mortgage.

What are our options? We do not want to sell.

Can she force a sale.? This is not about equity as it was always agreed that her involvement financially ceased when she moved out and he repaid the amount she had put in . It is about releasing her from the mortgage on this property so she can get her own joint one with her husband.

At present it is all relatively amicable although suggestions of legal action have been made which is creating stress.

Please advise

Thrugelmir

Bjh57 wrote: »

Can she force a sale.?

Yes she can.

You would liable for the costs. As there's no defence to your stance. If she pursued this through the courts.

Suggest you accept that selling is your only option. Then buying a property you can afford to purchase.

antrobus

But ...

Bjh57 wrote: »

This is not about equity as it was always agreed that her involvement financially ceased when she moved out and he repaid the amount she had put in . It is about releasing her from the mortgage on this property so she can get her own joint one with her husband.

What form did this agreement take? Was a solicitor involved? Is the ex-partner still listed as co-owner at the Land Registry?

Bjh57

Yes, she is still listed as the owner at the land registry and the agreement following the repayment of her £8k initial investment was done as goodwill. ie she had not paid any mortgage payments , her investment was repaid and the relationship had ended.

She has not lived in the property for 4 years .

It seems an unfair legacy to a old relationship that she could force us to sell in order to release her name from the deeds and the mortgage so we are trying to explore other options so that his can happen without us having to sell the property.

Any advice or shared experiences welcome

Annisele

Bjh57 wrote: »

It seems an unfair legacy to a old relationship that she could force us to sell in order to release her name from the deeds and the mortgage so we are trying to explore other options so that his can happen without us having to sell the property.

Yes, but it's also unfair that she can't buy a new property because she's stuck on an old mortgage that she gets no financial benefit from.

If you don't want to sell, then I think your only option is to find a way to remortgage in your partner's sole name / in his name plus another person's (yours?).

When you say that you "cannot afford the shortfall to allow her name to be taken off the mortgage", what sort of shortfall are you talking about? And who told you that? His existing lender, or an independent mortgage broker?

russmacdonald

Hi,

I have a very similar problem. A house I bought nearly five years ago in joint names with my then partner (in her maiden name). We subsequently married, then divorced. I have continued to live in the house as I have children from a previous marriage, and I have made all of the mortgage payments on my own. She moved out about 2 years ago now, and has subsequently re-married.

We agreed a settlement whereby I will pay her a (relatively modest) sum of money in exchange for her removing her name from the mortgage and the title deeds. She consented to this, as the house is the only remaining financial tie and being on my mortgage is preventing her from applying for a new mortgage with her new husband, and she is keen to move on.

The problem I have is that my existing lender will not remove her from the mortgage as they say I don't meet their affordability criteria. Even though I earn 2.5-3x what she does and have made every single payment from my own funds since the mortgage was taken out.

I don't really want to sell because once off the property ladder I don't think I'll be able to get back on again. Due to the depressed property market, and some low sales prices nearby, the house wouldn't fetch much more than we owe on the mortgage. Probably enough, but there would be no equity for either of us. We did try to sell about 18 months ago, but the buyer fell through and then the market also dropped and it became economically unsustainable and we took it off the market.

I also can't remortgage for the same reason, i.e. the LTV would be too high.

It's really frustrating that I can't stay with my current lender and remove her name from the mortgage, since I'm the one whose been paying it all along.