Transfer of Equity Issues

Wazza6890

Hi,

I split with my partner back in March and have been in the process of buying her out of the property we jointly owned since July. I was told that completion on this transfer of equity had occurred on 29th September by my solicitors (sum of money paid to my ex partner and solicitors fees paid as I didn't know any better at the time) however, the names on the mortgage have not yet changed.
This has caused me challenges as my 2 year fixed term on the mortgage ended at the beginning of November, which has resulted in my having to pay and extra £300 a month on the mortgage as I am now on a variable rate but cannot action a remortgage until the names on the mortgage have changed.
Given ‘completion’ occurred 7 weeks ago and I still don't officially own my ex partners share of the house (as own names both still appear on the mortgage paperwork), what grounds do I have to claim any of the additional money this has cost me in higher mortgage payments from the solicitors? Their communication has been atrocious and it seems that progress has only happened when I call to ask for an update, for example, the transfer deed only arrived with the lender the day after I found out the names had not officially changed and I chased them (3 weeks after ‘completion’).
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

Tiglet2

I don't really understand this - normally where there is a mortgage on the property and you want to buy someone out, you would need to have a mortgage offer in your sole name before the transfer of equity could take place.  Solicitors will usually do a re-mortgage and transfer of equity (TOE) running alongside each other but the re-mortgage would have to be completed before the TOE.  Did you speak to your lender and arrange a new mortgage either through the current lender or with a different lender?  Did you receive a mortgage offer and did the lender send a copy of the offer to your solicitor?  The way your post is reading, it sounds as though you haven't looked to re-mortgage until now.  Have you received the updated title register from your solicitor yet, though Land Registry do have a backlog at the moment?

yllop1101

A pretty similar thing happened to me except I found out about 6 months down the line that my ex's name was still on the mortgage. The bank were claiming to never have received the final signed piece of paper which would have executed the transfer. My solicitor had proof of sending it, which we supplied and the bank then backdated the transfer.
I had a mortgage offer at the time, which has since expired, however as it was a fault on the banks part, they just approved it all again without needing to be reassessed. It was so much stress at the time, as like you, I had paid my ex over £20k and also paid the solicitor, and was being told at first I would have to go through the whole process again. In my case the title deed had been changed and it was just in my name (you can check this online for £3) it was just a matter of the bank messing up.

It sounds like your solicitor isn't very on the ball, I would try to establish the reason behind the delay and then go from there. 

Wazza6890

Tiglet2 said:

I don't really understand this - normally where there is a mortgage on the property and you want to buy someone out, you would need to have a mortgage offer in your sole name before the transfer of equity could take place.  Solicitors will usually do a re-mortgage and transfer of equity (TOE) running alongside each other but the re-mortgage would have to be completed before the TOE.  Did you speak to your lender and arrange a new mortgage either through the current lender or with a different lender?  Did you receive a mortgage offer and did the lender send a copy of the offer to your solicitor?  The way your post is reading, it sounds as though you haven't looked to re-mortgage until now.  Have you received the updated title register from your solicitor yet, though Land Registry do have a backlog at the moment?

I had an offer from the lender to change the current mortgage to just my name rather than a full remortgage before the end of the fixed term as that would have cost me £3k. So I was expecting the change of parties to happen in enough time to the remortgage before my fixed term ended.

yllop1101

So why didn't the mortgage get switched over? Surely the bank can give you an answer there. Has your mortgage offer now expired?

And by the way, just because your ex's name is still on the mortgage, it doesn't mean you don't own the house. The title deeds state ownership, the mortgage merely reflects who is financially responsible for paying the money you have borrowed. In my case, it was more unfortunate for my ex as his name was off the title deeds and still on the mortgage, so if I had stopped paying the mortgage he would have been responsible for it, despite not owning the home. Luckily I am not that type!