Can I rent a flat for myself whilst I have a mortgage?

Claire_lou

Long story very short.... myself and my partner are separating and I am looking to move out of our home we both own with a mortgage in both our names.

I have no interest in staying as I cannot afford the house alone. He wants to stay and is looking into his options.

My question is will I be able to rent a property myself before my name has been taken off of our mortgage or will any decision take the mortgage into account and perhaps leave me high and dry?

reliva

I don't think the landlord will be bothered or able to see you have a mortgage, they just run a credit check I believe. The only thing to watch out for, which happened when I separated from my partner, is that you're both wholly responsible for the mortgage. So if he stops paying, you'll be wholly responsible for 100%. That happened to me for a while so I couldn't afford to rent elsewhere for a period of time.

I think it would only affect you if you were applying to get another mortgage.

00ec25

legally, as you realise, you remain liable for the whole of the mortgage payment for as long as you remain party to the mortgage.

so do you intend to stop paying anything towards the mortgage or not? Are you married and thus needing a divorce and (legal) "financial settlement", or if not married, what is your ex's attitude to the "shared" financial situation and how it will be untangled and split between you - obviously you must have at least some claim to the property given you are on (and have been contributing to??) the mortgage

as for renting the vast majority of agents or LL undertakling a credit check will ask for info on your income, will check if your credit report lists and defaults/CCJ (they cannot get any more info than that from such a report) and may, or may not, ask you for a list of your expenditure to identify what you suspect, that on paper your net income after mortgage would not cover paying rent as well. How may LL/agents ever go to that level of detail is guesswork.

on a practical level however, can you actually afford both or not? If not, then dealing with a potentially disgruntled ex now facing doubled mortgage payments may be the least of your worries

Claire_lou

Hopefully that’s the case....

Ref the existing house, we will go down the legal route and I’ve told him I want my name off regardless so will sort that side. Just need to know what my options are in terms of getting a place so we can officially separate

Claire_lou

We aren’t married. I told him that either he takes in the mortgage in full (ie my name off) or we sell it. He wants to stay in the house so it’s up to him to either make that happen or we sell

I am happy to get a place but I won’t commit to doing that till I know what’s happening with the house

BrassicWoman

many stories on here of the moved out partner being stuck because the still there partner won't sell or remove name from mortgage.

Think very carefully - I'd want it sorted before I packed my bags, to make sure there was an incentive.

xylophone

It might be wiser to stay put until he has bought you out.

Lauraliz

My partner had a similar problem took 5 years to get the house sold anda lot of money spent on paying the mortgage along the way.
You need to get it sorted before you move, there will be plenty of advice for a transfer of equity on here I am sure.

Claire_lou

Thankfully we’ve only been in the house two years so there is very little equity so he’d likely give me half what there is (which is what I’d expect) before getting taken off of the mortgage.

theartfullodger

Aye, no problem: I know someone who owns two properties but rents where he lives.

BrassicWoman

Claire_lou wrote: »

Thankfully we’ve only been in the house two years so there is very little equity so he’d likely give me half what there is (which is what I’d expect) before getting taken off of the mortgage.

- if his salary is high enough without you
- if he can be bothered