Can We remove a name off deeds?

fozzy7895

So me and my partner live in his mums house and have spent £35,000 on repairs and mortgage contributions and she wants to sell the house to us for the remaining £33,000 left on the mortgage. 

The slight issue is that my partners dad is on the deeds aswell but he left almost 10 years ago after being kicked out and charges pressed against him for assault.

Recently he sent a letter addressed to my partners mum (who doesn’t live at this address so we have ignored it). In the letter he is asking for money out of the house and included a mobile number but no address. He hasn’t contributed a penny towards the mortgage since the beginning and can prove through bank statements over the years. Is there a way for the house to be sold to us without his permission or at least get him removed from the deeds? My partners mum has been paying the mortgage on her own and for the last 5 years myself and my partner have been paying it.

please help

theartfullodger

Easy,  whoever else is named on deeds buys dad's share of the house from him. Land registry forms, Job done.  Best probably involve a good family law solicitor (I foresee arguments)

Are they tenants in common??  The parties need to agree a price for the transaction.  If all parties don;t agree, no deal, so just because one "side" think a particular price is fair doesn't mean the other will agree with them. 


See also
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/ending-a-relationship/if-you-were-living-together/what-happens-to-your-home-when-you-separate/

As neither mum or dad has lived in the house for some time there will likely be some CGT to be paid.  (NB Needs declaring & paying within 30 days of sale, had to do that in the last 12 months myself, online with HMRC). You may well agree a price with mum for sale, but I suspect HMRC will assess it at true market value.  You might be at risk from accusations of trying tax fiddling.  I am in no way suggesting that is what is being planned, obviously.

Has all rent paid whilst you've been there been declared annually to tax-man??

[Deleted User]

fozzy7895 said:

So me and my partner live in his mums house and have spent £35,000 on repairs and mortgage contributions and she wants to sell the house to us for the remaining £33,000 left on the mortgage. 

The slight issue is that my partners dad is on the deeds aswell but he left almost 10 years ago after being kicked out and charges pressed against him for assault.

Recently he sent a letter addressed to my partners mum (who doesn’t live at this address so we have ignored it). In the letter he is asking for money out of the house and included a mobile number but no address. He hasn’t contributed a penny towards the mortgage since the beginning and can prove through bank statements over the years. Is there a way for the house to be sold to us without his permission or at least get him removed from the deeds? My partners mum has been paying the mortgage on her own and for the last 5 years myself and my partner have been paying it.

please help

You cannot unilaterally remove someone's name from the deeds.  Nor will your partner's mum be able to sell the property without the agreement of the other joint owner.

Just because he has not paid anything towards the property as a joint owner he will be legally entitled to some of the equity from the property.  It's something your partner's mum should have sorted during the last 10 years and certainly something that should have been sorted out before you spent £35,000 on a property that is not yours.

maisie_cat

The answer to your question is no, you cannot just remove somebody from the deeds and sell the house to a related party at a discount rate. Think about it from his perspective, he has been on a mortgage therefore jointly liable for the payments for the last 10 years without actually living there.
That will have prevented him buying a property of his own and building up his own equity, assuming of course he hasn't misled a mortgage provider.
Assuming that there is no deed of trust in place he is entitled to half the equity as a start point. The fact that you've made improvements to a house you do not own is not relevant.
A word of warning in case this gets nasty, ensure that the tenancy and your MIL as a landlord is set up properly. If the absent FIL gets a whiff of anything not quite right it may be used against you, don't give him any ammunition.
I only make the last statement because I've seen similar happen in my family.

fozzy7895

theartfullodger said:

Are they tenants in common?? 

As neither mum or dad has lived in the house for some time there will likely be some CGT to be paid.  (NB Needs declaring & paying within 30 days of sale, had to do that in the last 12 months myself, online with HMRC). You may well agree a price with mum for sale, but I suspect HMRC will assess it at true market value.  You might be at risk from accusations of trying tax fiddling.  I am in no way suggesting that is what is being planned, obviously.

Yeah they’re tenants in common. They were never married and the house was hers before they got together. He was only put on the deeds when they decided to remortgage. My partners mum is a little disgruntled with him receiving any money at all since it was her house before he was in the picture, it was his idea to remortgage (which put him on the deeds) and then he didn’t pay a penny in contributions. So she feels like she is losing out big time.

And ooh I’ll have to look into that. She was wanting to sell it to us for mortgage value as it’s my partners inheritance and she can’t afford the house so wanted to pass it on to him now. The mortgage value and money I’ve already invested is kind of my way of paying for half the house as it’s not my inheritance. 

Thanks

fozzy7895

Has all rent paid whilst you've been there been declared annually to tax-man??

Yes, all money is declared, we have a legit tenancy agreement in place and correct insurance 

fozzy7895

Lover_of_Lycra said:

fozzy7895 said:

So me and my partner live in his mums house and have spent £35,000 on repairs and mortgage contributions and she wants to sell the house to us for the remaining £33,000 left on the mortgage. 

The slight issue is that my partners dad is on the deeds aswell but he left almost 10 years ago after being kicked out and charges pressed against him for assault.

Recently he sent a letter addressed to my partners mum (who doesn’t live at this address so we have ignored it). In the letter he is asking for money out of the house and included a mobile number but no address. He hasn’t contributed a penny towards the mortgage since the beginning and can prove through bank statements over the years. Is there a way for the house to be sold to us without his permission or at least get him removed from the deeds? My partners mum has been paying the mortgage on her own and for the last 5 years myself and my partner have been paying it.

please help

You cannot unilaterally remove someone's name from the deeds.  Nor will your partner's mum be able to sell the property without the agreement of the other joint owner.

Just because he has not paid anything towards the property as a joint owner he will be legally entitled to some of the equity from the property.  It's something your partner's mum should have sorted during the last 10 years and certainly something that should have been sorted out before you spent £35,000 on a property that is not yours.

I’m aware he is liable for mortgage repayments aswell but when you don’t know where someone is, how do you hold them to account? 

And I wouldn’t have spent that amount of money if I knew this was going to happen. I didn’t know his names were on the deeds. She said his name was on the mortgage but not on the deeds as it was her house before she got with him. Maybe she is naive or just misled us. I don’t know, but I wouldn’t blindly invest in a house that I didn’t believe was going to be ours. 

macman

How on earth did you think he could be named on the mortgage but not own a share of the property? if you borrow for a mortgage, you have to offer the property as security against default.
Either party can force a sale as tenants in common, so your mum has no security if he wants to realise his asset. If you want to buy the property from your mum, you'll have to buy out his share (is it registered at 50%, or less?), and of course he'll be expecting full market value for that share.

user1977

fozzy7895 said:

Lover_of_Lycra said:

fozzy7895 said:

So me and my partner live in his mums house and have spent £35,000 on repairs and mortgage contributions and she wants to sell the house to us for the remaining £33,000 left on the mortgage. 

The slight issue is that my partners dad is on the deeds aswell but he left almost 10 years ago after being kicked out and charges pressed against him for assault.

Recently he sent a letter addressed to my partners mum (who doesn’t live at this address so we have ignored it). In the letter he is asking for money out of the house and included a mobile number but no address. He hasn’t contributed a penny towards the mortgage since the beginning and can prove through bank statements over the years. Is there a way for the house to be sold to us without his permission or at least get him removed from the deeds? My partners mum has been paying the mortgage on her own and for the last 5 years myself and my partner have been paying it.

please help

You cannot unilaterally remove someone's name from the deeds.  Nor will your partner's mum be able to sell the property without the agreement of the other joint owner.

Just because he has not paid anything towards the property as a joint owner he will be legally entitled to some of the equity from the property.  It's something your partner's mum should have sorted during the last 10 years and certainly something that should have been sorted out before you spent £35,000 on a property that is not yours.

when you don’t know where someone is, how do you hold them to account? 

How much of an effort has anybody made to find him? Tracing agents, etc?

[Deleted User]

fozzy7895 said:

Lover_of_Lycra said:

fozzy7895 said:

So me and my partner live in his mums house and have spent £35,000 on repairs and mortgage contributions and she wants to sell the house to us for the remaining £33,000 left on the mortgage. 

The slight issue is that my partners dad is on the deeds aswell but he left almost 10 years ago after being kicked out and charges pressed against him for assault.

Recently he sent a letter addressed to my partners mum (who doesn’t live at this address so we have ignored it). In the letter he is asking for money out of the house and included a mobile number but no address. He hasn’t contributed a penny towards the mortgage since the beginning and can prove through bank statements over the years. Is there a way for the house to be sold to us without his permission or at least get him removed from the deeds? My partners mum has been paying the mortgage on her own and for the last 5 years myself and my partner have been paying it.

please help

You cannot unilaterally remove someone's name from the deeds.  Nor will your partner's mum be able to sell the property without the agreement of the other joint owner.

Just because he has not paid anything towards the property as a joint owner he will be legally entitled to some of the equity from the property.  It's something your partner's mum should have sorted during the last 10 years and certainly something that should have been sorted out before you spent £35,000 on a property that is not yours.

I’m aware he is liable for mortgage repayments aswell but when you don’t know where someone is, how do you hold them to account? 

And I wouldn’t have spent that amount of money if I knew this was going to happen. I didn’t know his names were on the deeds. She said his name was on the mortgage but not on the deeds as it was her house before she got with him. Maybe she is naive or just misled us. I don’t know, but I wouldn’t blindly invest in a house that I didn’t believe was going to be ours. 

If both are names on the mortgage then each will have joint and several liability for the full payment.  As @user1977 says, there are ways of tracking someone down if you need to send them a letter before action or file a court claim.  Your partner's mother should get some legal advice about the ex-partner being bought out/forcing the sale of the property.  

You may also want to get some legal advice to see if you can turn the money you have spent on the property into a loan secured against the property.  I'm not sure if it's possible at this stage but then again I'm not a lawyer.

Gavin83

user1977 said:

fozzy7895 said:

Lover_of_Lycra said:

fozzy7895 said:

So me and my partner live in his mums house and have spent £35,000 on repairs and mortgage contributions and she wants to sell the house to us for the remaining £33,000 left on the mortgage. 

The slight issue is that my partners dad is on the deeds aswell but he left almost 10 years ago after being kicked out and charges pressed against him for assault.

Recently he sent a letter addressed to my partners mum (who doesn’t live at this address so we have ignored it). In the letter he is asking for money out of the house and included a mobile number but no address. He hasn’t contributed a penny towards the mortgage since the beginning and can prove through bank statements over the years. Is there a way for the house to be sold to us without his permission or at least get him removed from the deeds? My partners mum has been paying the mortgage on her own and for the last 5 years myself and my partner have been paying it.

please help

You cannot unilaterally remove someone's name from the deeds.  Nor will your partner's mum be able to sell the property without the agreement of the other joint owner.

Just because he has not paid anything towards the property as a joint owner he will be legally entitled to some of the equity from the property.  It's something your partner's mum should have sorted during the last 10 years and certainly something that should have been sorted out before you spent £35,000 on a property that is not yours.

when you don’t know where someone is, how do you hold them to account? 

How much of an effort has anybody made to find him? Tracing agents, etc?

Probably not much. I suspect they were quite happy for him to be off the scene until the issue of selling the house came up.

To be honest OP you need to speak to a solicitor about this, it could get very messy. As pointed out you can't just remove him off of the deeds like that. He's a part owner of the house and he'll be entitled to a share of the proceeds and at market rate, not just the cut down price being offered. He should have also been offered half the rent money so he could likely claim for that as well. I also suspect there's nothing stopping him moving back into the house should he wish to, or forcing the sale to another party paying the full market rate.

This probably won't be to your (or your MILs) liking but in your position I'd consider offering him an amount of money to take his name off the deeds. What he accepts is up to him. This is likely to be a considerable sum but you'll likely get away with less than he's entitled to.

There is also the added issue, depending on your MILs age of deprivation of assets.