Mortgage when separated

vixx_123

Hi all,
My husband and I are considering separating. I'm worried I'm going to lose my home. How do I take over the mortgage from him? There are currently two mortgage products, both with another 3 years on the current rate (with 23 years to go overall). And what process is there to transfer the ownership to myself? I know I could Google all of this, but it's overwhelming at the minute. The obvious plan B is to sell the house. Fyi we have no children.

K_S

Given that you are a married couple, depending on your personal circumstances, there may be other legal rights in play here.

Setting the above aside, first thing to ascertain is whether you can afford to (in lenders' eyes) take over the mortgage and buy out the other party.

What is the value of the property, outstanding mortgage and your income. Once you know how much you can potentially borrow, that will give you an idea of whether it is realistic to buy out the other party or not. If it isn't anywhere close, then selling the house might be the way to go.

Again, as I mentioned at the outset, given that you are a married couple, there could be other legal rights to consider outside a straightforward buy-out.

dimbo61

How long have you been married ?
How much do you earn ?
How much does your soon to be EX husband earn
Do you have a pension
Does your husband have a pension.
Do you have other joint savings, cars, shares, ISA,s premium bonds etc
All this information needs to be taken into account

Thrugelmir

Can you afford to buy your husband out? Would the mortgage be affordable for you? 

In broad terms your total financial assets will be split 50/50, subject to agreement. 

Consult a family solicitor. Now is the time to find someone with a clear and impartial head to advise you. 

vixx_123

Thanks all.
We've been married for 27 months. I have a small pension, he may as well not have one. 

I can afford to take over the main part of the mortgage on my salary. Unfortunately, we remortgaged after home improvements to consolidate the money borrowed to make the house we bought live-able. The second mortgage is currently just under £40k, and I can't see me getting a 10k payrise to cover it. 

No joint savings (I decimated all of my savings when buying the house). The car is on finance and all under my name as I've always earned significantly more than my husband. 

I guess we're still in that period of "you take what's yours as that's fair", but I know divorces get messy and selling the house would actually alleviate some of that. I just needed realistic advice as I understandably don't want to lose my home.

vixx_123

I definitely think I need legal advice. For example, if we did sell the house, I'll want to buy somewhere else to live, but as we wouldn't be legally divorced, would he have any rights to my new property...
I think we'll also have to be separated for two years before filing for divorce, so there's financial issues to deal with during that period too.

CSL0183

vixx_123 said:

I definitely think I need legal advice. For example, if we did sell the house, I'll want to buy somewhere else to live, but as we wouldn't be legally divorced, would he have any rights to my new property...
I think we'll also have to be separated for two years before filing for divorce, so there's financial issues to deal with during that period too.

No, divorces are applied on date of separation rather than date of divorce.