Mortgage issue when married

mcscoobs · 24 August 2014 at 5:01PM

My wife and I bought our shared ownership flat in 2012. My credit rating at the time wasn't great, so I was unable to get a mortgage in my name, even joint, so we had to get it in my wifes name. The deposit was provided by myself. Since this time, i've got my credit in good shape, so that's no longer an issue.

However, my wife and I have decided to call it a day. She wants to move out and rent somewhere, I want to take on the flat. Affordability wise, again it's not an issue. But moving forward, what's the best course of action?

I know it's not a straight forward case of changing ownership from her to me... would it be best to add my name onto the mortgage and then after a while, take her off? How hard is this to do? She said she has no issue with it being kept in her name and I just make the mortgage payments in the short term.

Neither of us have any substantial savings, so making £10k+ deposits to buy somewhere isn't an option either....

Help!

ACG · 24 August 2014 at 5:13PM

You could purchase the property from her... if its below stamp duty then there should be no issues here. If its over then you might need some legal advice to see if there are legitimate ways to avoid having to pay it under the circumstances.