Clean break question

TBagpuss

Morris29 wrote: »

I will remain in the family home, currently the mortgage is in joint names and the mortgage company have said I dont earn enough based on salary multiples to remove my husband from the mortgage. My husband has agreed to stay named on the mortgage for a period of time until our daughter is 16 (or sooner if I pass the mortgage co criteria).

He has agreed that he will not contribute towards payment of the mortgage or be entitled to any equity currently or built up in the property during the time he remains named on the mortgage.

Can this be written into the consent order and is it common that a judge would agree to this? I presume the mortgage company would not need to authorise this agreement?

Yes, this can be done, it is an extremely common arragement as it is common where there are young childrenthat the main carer can't afford to buy out the other immediately.

Typically the order will say that you will use your best endevours to get him relased from the mortgage on or before [whatever date you agree, such as your child turning 16, or leaving full time secondary education) and will provide that if you don't release him bu thn, the hosue will be sold in orderfor the mortgage to be cleared.

It's fairly common to also provide for you to have to get his name off the mlortgage if you remarry or cohabit, as it's reaspnable to assume that you and any new partner can remortgage into your joint names at that point.

If the idea is that he will then get a lump sum equal to his share in the equity, the way you do that would usuallybe to work out what he would get if the house were being sold today (e.g. 50% of the net equity) and then work out what that is as a % of the total value of the house. The order would then say he gets a lum,p sum equal to that % of whatever the house is worth at the time you remove him from the mortgag eand put the house into your sole name.

(e.g. if the house is currently worth £200,000 and the mortgage is £150,000, the equity would be £50,000 so he might be entitled to £25,000. Your order would say that he is entitled to 12.5% of the value of the house. If the house is still worth £200,000 when you pya him, he will get £25,000. If it has gone up to £250,000 he would get £31,250, if it went don and was worth only £175,000 he would get £21,875)

If your plan is that he keps his pension, do look at what that might really be worth - unless it is a very small pension you might be better off having 50% of the pension and him having a charge back for 50% of the equity.

Morris29

Thanks for the additional replies. For now he is foregoing any equity and he keeps his pension.

I wondered, at what point should I change the deeds from joint tenants to tenants in common? It seems quite straight forward on the GOV website but not sure if I should do that now or if I need to wait for the clean break to be granted? Thanks