Reissuing mortgage offer in married name

Arthien

Hoping someone here can advise as this issue has been going back and forth for weeks, it's driving me crazy!

My husband and I are ready to exchange on a house, our mortgage offer with Nationwide is all sorted, and we made plans to sign the contract on Monday 7th at the latest, as we need to give notice on our rental place on that date.

However, we got married 2 weeks ago, and our solicitor and mortgage advisor (and many other random people at Nationwide) keep giving us different answers as to whether the mortgage offer will need to be reissued in my married name, as the contract will be in that name.

We've had every variation of answer, from 'no, not at all, not a problem' all the way through to 'definitely has to be done, no way will it work otherwise'. I found out yesterday that our solicitor was told that it 100% had to be redone, but that it would only take a day or so (due to the Monday exchange deadline urgency), and yet when I called to see how things were progressing, I was told nothing was happening because it didn't need to be done unless our solicitor requested it specifically in writing and gave two weeks' notice!

My DH is tempted to give our notice in this month and just go with things as they stand, but my worst fear is that we'll get to our completion date in a couple of weeks and then Nationwide will refuse to transfer the money because the mortgage offer should have been reissued, and we'll end up with no house and no rental.

We're being passed from pillar to post with no-one giving any definite answers, they're just saying what they think is the case, or saying what they think we want to hear. Surely we can't be the only people to have got married whilst buying a house?? We don't even know who to turn to now, as our solicitor had a day off today and we're supposed to be going to sign and give notice on Monday morning.

For a house with no chain, this really has been a nightmare of a purchase!

ValHaller

Had you come before doing anything, I would have advised just carrying on in your maiden name and advising the lender by letter immediately after completion. I would suggest that even now, but you may have set too many hares running. On the whole, I think your solicitor is a bit on the unimaginative side not to have this under control

Brazuca

Hmmm, difficult one.
When I got my offer, it didn´t have my middle name on it.
Then my solicitor requested my middle name to be on it. When they put the middle name, the system declined and they withdrew the offer! (as I didn´t pass the credit check with a middle name).

Changing names is tricky!

kingstreet

As long as the purchase documentation and mortgage offer match there should be no problem.

However, if you have one in your maiden name and one in your married name, one will have to be changed to the other.

Arthien

kingstreet wrote: »

As long as the purchase documentation and mortgage offer match there should be no problem.

However, if you have one in your maiden name and one in your married name, one will have to be changed to the other.

And it's definitely not a problem to have the purchase documentation in a name I'm no longer using? It's just so frustrating to think that, had we never asked, it may all have been ok! We thought we were doing the right thing at the time...

It would also have been good if Nationwide had been consistent in their answers, and given the same responses to both me and my husband, and our solicitor. I think our solicitor seems very risk-averse, hence wanting everything to be officially confirmed and "proper", rather than just going ahead with things are they are.

It seems like we're left with the 'deep breath and cross all your fingers' approach now. Ah well.

Thanks to all for your help.

Kynthia

Your maiden name is still valid and legally you are in no different a position from a woman who married and decided not to change her name. The marriage certificate doesn't necessarily mean you have legally changed your name, but it is proof if you choose to use your husband's surname. Have you already changed your passport and driving license?

Arthien

No, everything else is in my maiden name, primarily because the solicitor still has our marriage certificate, but also because I didn't want to change too much at once and confuse the bank before the mortgage went through!

ValHaller

Arthien wrote: »

No, everything else is in my maiden name, primarily because the solicitor still has our marriage certificate, but also because I didn't want to change too much at once and confuse the bank before the mortgage went through!

Unfortunately rather than delay the name change to a time past being vulnerable to complications arising from the name change, you postponed it to the period when you are most vulnerable - ie between mortgage offer and completion. The mortgage does not 'go through' when you get the offer, it goes through at completion. The time between offer and completion is a very sensitive one.