Removing & adding a name on deeds

kizzykizzywizzy

Good morning
Does anyone know how I go about removing my ex husband from the deeds to my house & adding my new husbands name ( or not if that’s too complicated )

The mortgage will be paid off & no money needs to change hands, as that was paid to him previously 
He was only still on the mortgage as I was unable to get a mortgage on my own. 

I have now been quoted over £500 for a solicitor to do it for me, but can I do it easily myself ? 

Or is it too complicated? 

If not is that a reasonable price? Another said £900, but I don’t think they listened to me about no mortgage or transfer of funds 
Instructions would be great 
I have spoken with my ex & he’s absolutely fine with signing his name off of the deeds, this was part of our divorce agreement about 15 years ago
Thank You 

propertyrental

kizzykizzywizzy said:

.....

The mortgage will be paid off & no money needs to change hands, as that was paid to him previously 
He was only still on the mortgage as I was unable to get a mortgage on my own. 

....... but I don’t think they listened to me about no mortgage or transfer of funds 

Instructions would be great 
.....

Is there or is there not an existing mortgage? Very unclear from the above. If yes, is it in joint names>

kizzykizzywizzy

Thank you for replying.
The mortgage will be finished this month. So there will be no outstanding mortgage & my ex husband will not be receiving any payment, as he has already had this upon divorce.
His name is on the mortgage, so will be on the deeds, which is what I want to change. 
I am asking this now, so that I am ready to get the ball rolling ASAP 

propertyrental

You will need to wait for the existing mortgage to be paid off, and the related Charge removed from the Land Registry Title (by the lender).

This can take time, but the LR could be asked to 'expedite' the matter as there is a pending related matter (the Transfer).

Once the Charge is removed, the name change requires forms TR1, AP1 and probably ID1. If no money is changing hands (ie no new mortgage, and new husband is not paying either you or your ex) I don't believe a SDLT return is required, but check this or someone here may correct me).

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/registered-titles-whole-transfer-tr1

kizzykizzywizzy

Thank you very much for your help. 

I will have a read 

kizzykizzywizzy

Hi, can I please ask some additional advice. 

Since this post the mortgage has been paid off. 

The name on the deed didn’t match the now paid off mortgage as I’m re-married. 

I have now had that changed, so deeds are in my ex husband’s name & my new name now.

I have had my ID1 form witnessed etc by a solicitor 
My ex husband has had his ID1 form witnessed etc by a solicitor today.
I have a TR1 form for him to fill in & have witnessed 
I have the fee cheque for land registry ready to go 
This is where I’m stuck 
I was told I needed to get a Land Transaction Return form from HMRC, which arrived today.
No money is changing hands at all, but I was told I needed to do this to prove that no stamp duty is payable the value of the house is around £245,000
Do I need to do this please ( I’m not sure which helpline told me this & if they’d listened to the fact that no money had changed hands ) only one person has told me this. 
I was also told that I need to fill in another AP1 form to change the deeds from my ex husband’s & mine to just mine. I have that, ready to fill in.

( We decided not to put my now husband’s name on the deeds as just made it even more complicated ) 
If you’ve read this far, thank you 
It’s so confusing to me 

AskAsk

I recently posted about my forthcoming divorce and how to remove my husband's name from the deed and it appears to be too complicated so I will just use a conveyancer.

It is difficult to understand the complication of stamp duty and divorce, but the article below states that HMRC does not need to be informed if the transfer is done through a court order.  If the transfer is not through a court order, then stamp duty may be due?

https://vardags.com/law-guide/divorce-finance-process/stamp-duty-and-the-sale-of-the-marital-home#:~:text=To be exempt from stamp,this exemption does not apply.

kizzykizzywizzy

It’s all very civil no money changing hands 
I was just told that I need something from HMRC to prove that no stamp duty was payable ( which it shouldn’t be ) I have only been told that by one person, no one else mentioning it, so I wanted to check as time is ticking & at the moment he owns half of my house on paper! 

I would’ve just taken his name off the mortgage, but the mortgage company deemed that I couldn’t afford the mortgage & I would have had re mortgage, pay mortgage fees stamp duty & go through an affordability check even for £1!  So stupid as I have been paying it since we divorced.
I just want it done ASAP & HMRC were slow sending forms even 

AskAsk

kizzykizzywizzy said:

It’s all very civil no money changing hands 
I was just told that I need something from HMRC to prove that no stamp duty was payable ( which it shouldn’t be ) I have only been told that by one person, no one else mentioning it, so I wanted to check as time is ticking & at the moment he owns half of my house on paper! 

I would’ve just taken his name off the mortgage, but the mortgage company deemed that I couldn’t afford the mortgage & I would have had re mortgage, pay mortgage fees stamp duty & go through an affordability check even for £1!  So stupid as I have been paying it since we divorced.
I just want it done ASAP & HMRC were slow sending forms even 

It may be worth paying a conveyancer to do the transfer.  From my research on the net, which is very confusing, you need a court order to transfer assets between ex spouses if you want to be exempt from tax.  But some people have said that separation, without a court order, was sufficient for tax exemption. 

You said no money has changed hands as that was done previously, then money has changed hands, just previously and not now, but money has changed hands, nonetheless.

Was it the land registry that told you you had to complete the HMRC form?  I guess they may be responsible for checking that the stamp duty has been paid before accepting notification?

propertyrental

whether stamp Duty is payable or not depends on the amount of 'consideration' (cash!) involved (and the current threshold). As per AskAsk's link above it also depends whether the transfer is part of the court divorce settlement. It sounds like in this case that does not apply (divorce 15 years ago?)

But yes I believe either way a SDLT return is needed so that HMRC can agree no duty is due (or if due, has been paid).

And yes, any request to the Land Registry to make a change requires an AP1.

Yes it's all fiddly but once you've worked out what forms are needed for whom there's no reason to use a solicitor. The worst that can happen is that the LR tell you you've made a mistake, return your forms (and I believe your fee) and tell  to re-submit them.

kizzykizzywizzy

Thank you so much 
You have given me hope 
I just don’t want to mess up, but if they just return the forms & we do it again that’s not so bad 
Yes, the divorce was years ago, we really didn’t have a lot to divide moneywise  at all he’d gone on secondment for 18 months & we plugged away at paying our debts off & we managed to have a small amount of savings which I paid him his part of. 

HMRC have sent me a Land Transaction Return form - I’m guessing that they’ve sent me  the wrong one ? 

Just wanted to add that I worded the OP badly, the house had been remortgaged up to its full value, as previous loan added 🙄 essentially I was not gaining anything from the house at all. So I didn’t have to buy him out.

Had we been able to take his name off there & then we would have, but the building society said I couldn’t afford the mortgage on my own, even though it was cheaper than rent would have been & I have paid it.

Yes, I think the form I was supposed to be getting from HMRC was to prove that stamp duty wasn’t required to be paid 
The house is worth about £245,000 if that matters