Getting equity before the mortgage contract finishes?

MariaMorris

Apologies in advance for my ignorance here. My situation is, in short, that my husband decided to leave, and that I very likely won't be able to afford covering the whole mortgage and the bills myself. (If we didn't have a kid I'd say sell the flat, split the equity and each goes there own way. However, we have a 6 year old, she goes to school here, separation is bad enough, but moving from her family home, current school, etc. would be worse. Also, we are co-parenting, so we need to stay living close to each other.) My question is: is it possibly to remortgage before the end of the contract? (we are due to re-mortgage in 2018) I can't seem to find anything in our contract. What are the typical penalties? Also, is it possible to take some equity out, put it towards paying off the main debt, and thus reduce the monthly rate when re-mortgaging? Any advice (or clever ideas) welcome. Many thanks in advance

libf

The only way to reduce your monthly payment is to put more money in or move to a lower rate. You can usually only overpay by a limited amount on a fixed rate.

Moat fixed mortgages have early repayment charges. You'll need the mortgage offer to know how much.

If your daughter will be living with you then surely your ex should be contributing to keep a roof over her head?

Thrugelmir

Co-parenting isn't easy (said from experience). Do what's best for your daughter and not what's convenient to yourselves. Potentially there's no reason why you cannot stay in the property , if your ex contributes. Until such time as your daughter has left full time education.

MariaMorris

Thanks for your responses. I do want to stay in the property, for my kid's sake as much as my own, but ex says he can't contribute long term - he will out for the next 10 months, but then expects to get money out of the property so he can buy himself.

My question is can I re-mortgage before our contract expires - and how big are the penalties normally. We are supposed to be re-mortgaging in 3 years, what if I ring Virgin Money tomorrow and say I need to re-mortgage and take ££ out of equity whilst I'm at it, what would they say? a) no way b) Ok but pay £xx penalty c) something else? I know this is all case-by-case, but i principle.

Thrugelmir

MariaMorris wrote: »

Thanks for your responses. I do want to stay in the property, for my kid's sake as much as my own, but ex says he can't contribute long term - he will out for the next 10 months, but then expects to get money out of the property so he can buy himself.

Seek advice from a family solicitor. The starting point as far as the law is concerned is the welfare of any children. The court will naturally assume guardianship of any children in any dispute between warring ex partners. Putting the childrens interest first.

Appreciate that this is a difficult time for you. So cannot stress how important a detached viewpoint will help you.

pathtofreedom

For the mortgage side you might need to ring them to ask what the early repayment charges are. For my mortgage it goes down each year, so first year is 5% of the whole mortgage, second year 4% and so on.