Buying a new property and ending a relationship

Locornwall

Please spare me the relationship counselling.

My partner and I look like splitting. We have two very young children. I have a home with about £120000 equity. I would like her to stay at the house, however would also like to buy a new property for myself, nothing too big of course. I have no problem paying child maintenance etc. I earn approximately £44000 basic and do about £20000-25000 overtime. I understand she will be entitle to benefits of some sort, especially as my children haven't started school yet.

My question revolves around me getting my own home. Is this possible and what is the best way of doing this? Releasing equity from our home?

AllyMac

Too many unanswered questions there. How much are homes in your area, and how much is outstanding on the mortgage? What are your wife's chances of getting a mortgage alone, and what percentage of equity split is going to be reasonable (according to each of you, and potentially the court)?

Your comment about child maintenance suggests that you don't intend to do 50/50 shared care. With the children being so young and you wanting her to be their main carer, potentially it's fair that she takes a high equity share.

Personally, I would do whatever I could to be released from a mortgage with my ex. That may mean that her keeping your current house on isn't possible.

When I divorced my ex, I left him in the marital home. He took over the mortgage. I took all our cash savings as a deposit for a new house and took on a new mortgage. I left a legal charge on the marital property.

If that £120K equity is with £20K outstanding and she works - then get her to remortgage in her own name. If the mortgage is £200K outstanding and she doesn't work, then you won't be able to do that.

Not enough to go on, really.

Locornwall

Ok thanks.

My thoughts were to remortgage together and at the same time take equity out the house, enough to put a deposit down (£200000 property with a £20000 deposit leaving £100000 equity in the house). I'd take a long term mortgage deal possible 5 years to ensure she could stay there. I'd be happy to pay a bit more in child maintenance to assist her with living there. Looking at the maths, I earn on average £3000-£3500 minimum. If I gave her approximately £700 and then my mortgage was a pit the same it's definite manageable for me. I understand she would get reasonable benefits and help with mortgage interest up until my youngest child is 5.

Any other thoughts? I can't see why this can't be done on my income and her benefits.

Caz3121

help with mortgage interest will only help with the original borrowing so any remortgage amount (now or previously) would not be covered.
To get a second residential mortgage your income would need to be sufficient to support both mortgages
Unsure about your figures as when you posted similar a year ago there was £200k outstanding on the mortgage....
To see if this is an option you could use one of the mortgage calculators to see what you could borrow based on your income/outgoinging and see what would be left for your own place once the current amount is deducted
e.g. mortgage calculator says £250k, current mortgage £150k, additional amount possible £100k

exiled_red

If you stay on the mortgage with your ex and buy a new home, your new home would be considered a 2nd home and would cost you more. Also you would still be liable for all the mortgage repayments on your joint home if your ex doesn't pay, this also leaves you financially connected to your ex. From your point of view having a shared mortgage with your ex isn't a good position to be in, the ability of your ex to stay in the house you currently live in would depend on her ability to get a mortgage on her own assuming a deposit based on the equity left in the house after you take your deposit. Presumably to help her out there would have to be some agreement I guess in writing about how much maintainance you would pay which the bank may take into account when assessing her for a mortgage.

Locornwall

Many thanks

AllyMac

You may be putting the cart before the horses.
Have both of you taken legal advice yet? It sounds like you're trying to work out the practicalities before actually telling her it's over (I did!).

You see - you're talking about the equity in the house like it's yours to make decisions with.
But if you earn £60K a year and she is going to be on benefits, then her share of financial settlement might be all/most of the house equity. Especially if you have a higher value pension and don't want to transfer that to her.

There are mortgage companies that will take maintenance into account - though that's definitely broker territory. I very much favour clean breaks - and would look at how quickly she can take over the mortgage.