Take ex off deeds or wait until house sold in divorce?

gemmalouise93

Hi, 

My ex husband has agreed that I can have all the equity from the house sale in our divorce (very little but I am resident parent of our daughter). 

Things have been quite high conflict between us - and I worry that it will come to the house being sold and he’ll change his mind. Can I take him off the deeds now and will this safeguard the settlement? Hope this makes sense

Mark_d

My understanding is that separating your assets now won't affect the settlement.  So I wouldn't go to the legal expense of getting him taken off the deeds

Brie

Are you planning to sell in any case?  Then as Mark says why go to the expense!

Savvy_Sue

Brie said:

Are you planning to sell in any case?  Then as Mark says why go to the expense!

Plus I think it can take a while to get the land registry updated, and I don't know if you'd be able to complete a sale while that was in progress. 

AskAsk

in a divorce settlement, it doesn't matter who owns the asset, it is all considered jointly own, so there is no advantage to taking him off the deed.

Land_Registry

gemmalouise93 said:

Hi, 

My ex husband has agreed that I can have all the equity from the house sale in our divorce (very little but I am resident parent of our daughter). 

Things have been quite high conflict between us - and I worry that it will come to the house being sold and he’ll change his mind. Can I take him off the deeds now and will this safeguard the settlement? Hope this makes sense

Simple answer is yes but the two of you would need to transfer ownership to just your name. If you are having to sell as part of the divorce settlement then same thing applies and the two of you would complete any transfer to the buyer. So seems little point in trying to get it changed to a sole name first. 

VyEu

Do you have a consent order and d81 agreed and about to be/already submitted to the court?

pinkshoes

gemmalouise93 said:

Hi, 

My ex husband has agreed that I can have all the equity from the house sale in our divorce (very little but I am resident parent of our daughter). 

Things have been quite high conflict between us - and I worry that it will come to the house being sold and he’ll change his mind. Can I take him off the deeds now and will this safeguard the settlement? Hope this makes sense

If your ex comes off the deeds, then you will likely need to take out a mortgage on your own as most mortgages require you to be on the deeds. As there is very little equity, is this feasible? Often in cases like this, both have to remain on the mortgage and deeds until the child is 18, which is not always ideal.

Lavendyr

gemmalouise93 said:

Hi, 

My ex husband has agreed that I can have all the equity from the house sale in our divorce (very little but I am resident parent of our daughter). 

Things have been quite high conflict between us - and I worry that it will come to the house being sold and he’ll change his mind. Can I take him off the deeds now and will this safeguard the settlement? Hope this makes sense

Agreed how, in writing?

You should do this as a financial consent order and not separate to that.