Unpicking a mortgage mess, to replace mother's ex with myself and go to a different provider

Tobster86

There's a lot to this, I'll try to keep it very brief and on-point:

• Halifax interest-only mortgage with 18 months to run and £140,000 outstanding, in my mother and her absconded ex-partner's name.
• We wish to take his name off the mortgage and put my name on, and then before the existing term ends, I will take out a new repayment mortgage, which I can easily afford.
  
• He has signed a settlement deed and received payment accordingly, via our solicitor.
• There were two charging orders on the property from his previous debts, which we have settled as part of the settlement deed (paperwork is on the way to the Land Registry).

So the last piece is getting permission from Halifax to replace my mother's ex with myself on the mortgage.

They are insisting that we must take out a new mortgage; they won't change the existing one. I don't want to take out a new mortgage with them.

I don't think we can apply to another mortgage provider with my mother's ex partner on the deeds, and we can't remove him from the deeds without some kind of written permission from the lender.

I'm concerned that there's already a lot of paperwork on the conveyancer's desk as it is, dealing with the settlement deed and settled charging orders.

My solicitor has already charged several thousand pounds to get everything this far. I daren't even send them an email now, they just seem to pull a massive bill out of somewhere on the simplest of communications.

How do I unpick this so that I'm not stuck with no choice of mortgage provider?

silvercar

If he has signed a settlement deed, surely that removes his name from the deeds? If you took another mortgage elsewhere that would clear the current one and close that mortgage account, so his name wouldn't be on the mortgage.

I think what you are looking to do is called a transfer of equity - I don't know why the Halifax won't agree to it provided you also go on the deeds of the property. Is that the sticking point? If so it would be time to find a lender who will allow you and your mother to be on the mortgage with only your mother on the deeds. A few lenders do them.

kingstreet

A remortgage in the new names with a new lender and a transfer of equity will all be done at the same time.

Tobster86

silvercar said:

If he has signed a settlement deed, surely that removes his name from the deeds? If you took another mortgage elsewhere that would clear the current one and close that mortgage account, so his name wouldn't be on the mortgage.

I think what you are looking to do is called a transfer of equity - I don't know why the Halifax won't agree to it provided you also go on the deeds of the property. Is that the sticking point? If so it would be time to find a lender who will allow you and your mother to be on the mortgage with only your mother on the deeds. A few lenders do them.

Mortgages themselves are in the charges register; you can't change the deeds without permission from the lender.

Tobster86

kingstreet said:

A remortgage in the new names with a new lender and a transfer of equity will all be done at the same time.

But how? The settlement deed is with one solicitor, waiting for permission from the lender to change the deeds. How would a new lender line everything up?

silvercar

Tobster86 said:

silvercar said:

If he has signed a settlement deed, surely that removes his name from the deeds? If you took another mortgage elsewhere that would clear the current one and close that mortgage account, so his name wouldn't be on the mortgage.

I think what you are looking to do is called a transfer of equity - I don't know why the Halifax won't agree to it provided you also go on the deeds of the property. Is that the sticking point? If so it would be time to find a lender who will allow you and your mother to be on the mortgage with only your mother on the deeds. A few lenders do them.

Mortgages themselves are in the charges register; you can't change the deeds without permission from the lender.

When you redeem the mortgage they remove their charge. You need a solicitor to register the new mortgage and the ownership on the deeds at the same time. 

sheramber

if the mortgage is being redeemed the  lender is no longer concerned with the names on the Land Registry.

The new mortgage will clear the old mortgage and the deeds will be registered in the new names.

Tobster86

silvercar said:

Tobster86 said:

silvercar said:

If he has signed a settlement deed, surely that removes his name from the deeds? If you took another mortgage elsewhere that would clear the current one and close that mortgage account, so his name wouldn't be on the mortgage.

I think what you are looking to do is called a transfer of equity - I don't know why the Halifax won't agree to it provided you also go on the deeds of the property. Is that the sticking point? If so it would be time to find a lender who will allow you and your mother to be on the mortgage with only your mother on the deeds. A few lenders do them.

Mortgages themselves are in the charges register; you can't change the deeds without permission from the lender.

When you redeem the mortgage they remove their charge. You need a solicitor to register the new mortgage and the ownership on the deeds at the same time. 

But presumably, that solicitor is going to need to have the settlement deed, to remove the ex-partner from the deeds, at some point in this process?

kingstreet

Yes. You could always use the same solicitor for the remortgage and TOE.

Tobster86

Yeah it seems the best way is cut out the current lender (good call; Halifax are bloody useless and cancelled an appointment I had with them to discuss remortgages by text message ten minutes before the call was scheduled, and haven't been back in touch), and get the conveyancing solicitor who's got the settlement deed paperwork to also process the new mortgage.