Mortgages after a separation

Harrycat27

Hello all - hoping you're well. I'm looking for some kind advice.

Me and my husband have recently made the very sad decision to separate. No ill will or bad blood between us, just "one of those things". We are fortunate enough to own two properties together - our first home which we lived in for 7 years and is now rented out to a tenant. And then the property that we live in now. Currently, despite having separated, we are both still living there - which has its own challenges - and I am keen to move to living separately so that we can both begin to move on with our lives. With both properties, we are - I think the term is joint tenants? Where we both own 100% of the property each, rather than a 50/50 split? Apologies if I have got the mortgage lingo wrong there.

Divorce isn't something we are looking to rush into. Instead, an ideal situation would be if I were to move back to our first house (once the tenants have gone, of course) and then my husband would stay living in our current house. As we both want the best for each other, we could come to a private arrangement about splitting the cost of the two properties, but we are confident on our salaries that we can afford them. In time, when we come to divorce, we can then work out how we split everything, but at least in the mean time we would have better space and the ability to move on with things individually.

My question is around the legality of our plan. Obviously we don't want to break any laws. Is the above something that we would need to clear with the mortgage providers first? Or as we will, between us, still both be inhabiting the two properties, is it just a private arrangement between the two of us, that the banks don't need to worry about?

My head feels fried by the whole situation as it is, after 15 years together, and I just want processes to be as simple and un-complicated as possible. That being said, I don't want to break the law!

I really appreciate any guidance, signposting or advice.

Thank you very much.

Matthew

Exodi

I think there's a lot of things that blur together, I think CGT could prove to be an issue as I believe that a married couple may only jointly state one property as their residence. There are people much more knowledeagble though who will be along to help here. Do you have a BTL mortgage on the second property or consent to let?

One thing I'd say, having gone through a break up a few years ago involving property is:

"Divorce isn't something we are looking to rush into."

Reconsider your view on this. Sure, early on while things stay rosey, this works out fine.

But this stance can soon change when one of you gets a new partner, you have a disagreement on splitting an item, or a whole host of other reasons. You (and your future partners) would definitely not want this dragging on for years, especially if things stop being amicable and  you're now having your recent bonuses split, or an inheritance, etc.

I can't think of any reasonable reason, except the cost to do it (or I guess you stand to benefit from it being delayed?), why anyone would delay getting a clean break order.