I inherited half a house with my brother who wants to mortgage it

silvercar

Add to my previous post,

Is he paying you rent on his half of the house? Or is he living rent free on your half, borrowing money against your equity and telling everyone he is paying all the mortgage, so you shouldn't complain.

MWT

popcornguess said:

HampshireH said:

He needs to buy you out otherwise you effectively gift him your inheritance.

Can you explain why, because i said that to my family and they asked why it means that and i didnt have an aswer. 

Put simply, he is getting the benefit of 100% of the house for as long as he wants with no benefit of any kind going to you until some vague time in the future when he may decide he doesn't need it any more...

You have no ability to borrow against your share of the property and no way to benefit from it. Any talk about growth in the future value is of no help to you now, and is meaningless as he may never sell...

born_again

popcornguess said:

HampshireH said:

He needs to buy you out otherwise you effectively gift him your inheritance.

Can you explain why, because i said that to my family and they asked why it means that and i didnt have an aswer. 

You own half the house.
If he mortgages & gets the deeds changed to his name only. You own nothing. 
Mortgage company may not like 2 names on the deeds & only one person taking a mortgage.

Simple answer is he buys your half of the house & then he can do what he wants. You then have a nice sum of money to spend as you want.

If he say's no. Then say as you own half, then you are moving in to your half. That will focus his mind.

Clive_Woody

He pays you half the value of the property now or the property is put up for sale and you split the proceeds. Otherwise you're effectively "lending" him your inheritance with no agreement on when this would be repaid. 

popcornguess

silvercar said:

Add to my previous post,

Is he paying you rent on his half of the house? Or is he living rent free on your half, borrowing money against your equity and telling everyone he is paying all the mortgage, so you shouldn't complain.

No he is living there rent free, i dont mind that so much because i live with my mother and im sure i would live here rent free too if she died, but about the mortgage if it goes ahead he will be 100% responsible for paying it back.

Exodi

Absolute madness, I thought at first the initial responses on this thread was everyone being pessimistic... obviously the brother was planning on taking out the mortgage to buy the OP out... right? Then I see:

popcornguess said:

Caz3121 said:

popcornguess said:

my brother  wants to mortgage the full house in his name and pay it back himself without me. 

does that mean he will be giving you half the value and your name will come off the deeds in return?

No i dont get anything, his argument is he wants it to improve the house, and if he sells later i get half the money.

Absolutely mental. Honestly words can not describe how I feel about this (well they could but I expect they would be against MSE's code of conduct).

As others have said, this is obviously not in your interest. He should be taking a mortgage on half the house to buy you out while thanking his lucky stars you haven't decided to live in, nor charge rent, on a property you own half of.

Most lenders require any parties on the deeds to be parties on the mortgage, so I expect you'll probably end up being roped in to being on the mortgage as well, where you would also become severally liable for the payments... it just gets messier and messier...

Clive_Woody

An alternative if your brother refuses to buy you out. Let him know that you will be renting out your part of the property and will be looking for a suitable tenant to share the house with him.

Keep_pedalling

popcornguess said:

silvercar said:

Add to my previous post,

Is he paying you rent on his half of the house? Or is he living rent free on your half, borrowing money against your equity and telling everyone he is paying all the mortgage, so you shouldn't complain.

No he is living there rent free, i dont mind that so much because i live with my mother and im sure i would live here rent free too if she died, but about the mortgage if it goes ahead he will be 100% responsible for paying it back.

No he won’t be 100% responsible because he won’t get a mortgage on his own you as the other owner will need to be on the mortgage agreement and that will make you jointly responsible if you brother can’t keep up the repayments.

if you have any plans to buy your own place becoming a joint owner (rather than sell and split the proceeds) was a terrible mistake because a) you have lost your first time buyer status and b) while you remain a joint owner  any purchase you make will cost you an extra 3% in stamp duty.

If your mother is so keen on this and you plan to stay put, then you might like to suggest an alternative solution, you gift your share to your brother and in return she make you a joint tenant of her house. There may be capital gains tax to pay for you on any increase in value of your share since the death of the testator but at least you would own half a house that you are actually living in.

Sea_Shell

How long has he been able to live there rent free?

Some would argue he owes you half the current value PLUS backdated rent arrears at 50% market rates😉

Please don't let your family mug you off for more than they already have.

There's being generous, and there's being taken advantage of.  IMO that line's been crossed.

Don't let them guilt trip you into further generosity.

However, Are you paying your Mum a decent "keep"?   

Beetroot_24

Just to add, if you just give away your half on a verbal agreement, and his marriage breaks down, would his wife not be entitled to half of the house, as a marital home/asset? If anything unfortunate should happen to your brother, would it not become his wife's house? 

If you don't understand any of this, you should not agree to anything until you have sought legal advice.