Mortgage in my name but joint ownership?

nashetho

Hi I wonder if anyone can help.
I am buying my first house with my wife, I have a mortgage offer in my name for the house and everything is going great. I just wondered how it works with my wife not being on the mortage i.e. joint ownership and title etc.?

any advice would be great

Nash

Doozergirl

Why haven't you put her name on the mortgage application?

You cannot have a house in joint names but a mortgage in one as the mortgage company simply will not want to deal with any fall out. Either you both own the house and the debt or you do by yourself. It simply means for them that if you default and they have to repossess the house, it is a very simple case of just doing it. There are no wrnagles over who owns what.

The fact that you are married will mean that she is entitled to a significant portion of the equity in the house in the evebt that you sell.

Even if she is a homemaker and cannot contribute to the mortgage, you might be able to add her to it if your salary is sufficient to cover it. I'm not at all sure on that though, but it must happen

silvercar

Your wife would have to sign away any rights to remain in the house if the mortgage company needed to repossess the property.

Debt_Free_Chick

You can only get a sole mortgage, in your name, based on your share of the value of the property.

So if you own half, then you can get a mortgage for your own half. But if this is not sufficient, your wife would need to mortgage some/all of her half too.

Hence .... joint ownership would generally mean a joint mortgage, unless "the numbers stack up". As this is your first property, I would guess that you need a joint mortgage.

Richard_Webster

So if you own half, then you can get a mortgage for your own half. But if this is not sufficient, your wife would need to mortgage some/all of her half too.

You can't do that. If a house is jointly owned then there is no way that one owner can grant a mortgage on "their" half without the other person being involved.

There are a few cases where the non-earning party has a negative credit record and the lender doesn't want them as a joint borrower but in most cases the mortgage should be in joint names just as you would want the house to be. You should go back and ask the lender to add your wife's name to the mortgage offer.

I am amazed that lenders don't ask this obvious question. If they know you are married it should be obvious to ask if you want to buy the house in joint names and therefore want the mortgage that way. Lots of people don't understand this distinction and lenders should know this and take pains to make sure that you do!

In theory you could have a mortgage (I think HSBC will consider this) where only one party owes the money but the house is owned jointly. then they separate the liability to repay the loan from the liability to be evicted if it isn't paid. So if A & B own property together and only A owes the money then both A & B can still be kicked out if the payments aren't made but if there is shortfall the lender can only pursue A. For most people the distinction is academic and the vast majority of lenders keep it simple and say that the people who are the parties to the mortgage loan must be the same people who own the house.

The joint owners can do whatever deals they like between themselves but if the payments aren't kept up the lender will kick them ALL out and leave them to sort out between themselves what is to be done with any money left over after the house has been sold.

Debt_Free_Chick

Thanks for the clarification - I didn't mean to imply that one party could remortgage without the knowledge of the other. Just that in certain situations, the lender will not insist on both parties jointly being parties to the mortgage.

Or ... that's what I understand!

xprienced

Hi. My query is along similar lines. I am a first time buyer going to apply for mortgage soon (offer has been accepted on a house)..going to see a mortgage broker this Saturday. My wife doesn't work (she's a housewife), and I am the sole breadwinner. I want her to be joint owner of the house, whereas I want a sole mortgage. According to what is said on this thread before, it seems only HSBC do something like this, but that was posted some time ago. Does anyone have up-to-date information on this, whether it is possible to have joint ownership but sole mortgage? I don't want the lender to search her credit history because it will be blank (although clean), plus joint income will seem less than sole income

Richard_Webster

Hi. My query is along similar lines. I am a first time buyer going to apply for mortgage soon (offer has been accepted on a house)..going to see a mortgage broker this Saturday. My wife doesn't work (she's a housewife), and I am the sole breadwinner. I want her to be joint owner of the house, whereas I want a sole mortgage. According to what is said on this thread before, it seems only HSBC do something like this, but that was posted some time ago. Does anyone have up-to-date information on this, whether it is possible to have joint ownership but sole mortgage? I don't want the lender to search her credit history because it will be blank (although clean), plus joint income will seem less than sole income

Unless your wife has a negative credit history (string of County Court judgements etc), there is no problem with most lenders for you to be joint borrowers, even if she isn't working. If they are happy you can afford the repayments on your own, adding another name doesn't normally make any difference - it doesn't put them in a worse position, so they normally agree to it.

How do thousands of couples get a mortgage on a jointly owned house when one is at home looking after the children and the other is working?

The HSBC point is for a very specialised situation where the house is jointly owned but only one is liable for the repayments. With most lenders you have to be joint borrowers if you own or want to own a property jointly (and therefore both technically liable for repayments) and wife has to trust husband to provide the money to make the repayments. Hopefully they wouldn't be married if they didn't trust each other so that shouldn't really be an issue.

xprienced

Thanks for the explanation Richard...it makes me feel comfortable going for a joint mortgage

ahusband

We looked in to doing it this way, it can be done, you need what is called a declaration of trust and it contains what percent you will own, pay and it normally has a solution plan if anything goes wrong...i.e...sell or one buys etc. A solicitor draws the document up, so their the ones to speak to.