My husband wants to take a loan against our house. Can hexfo this without my permission?

Razacaros

My husband and I both own our house. No mortgage outstanding. Both our names are on the house ownership. He told me that he is going to ask for a loan against the house, but I am against him doing this. He is 100% certain that he can do this without my permission and he said he has already started this process. Is he able to do it without my approval? Would whichever bank he has approached not need my signature as well to approve any loan?

Browntoa

If the property is registered in both names on the land registry then I suspect it's highly unlikely as a charge would need to be registered 

Grumpy_chap

Razacaros said:

My husband and I both own our house. No mortgage outstanding. Both our names are on the house ownership. He told me that he is going to ask for a loan against the house, but I am against him doing this. He is 100% certain that he can do this without my permission and he said he has already started this process. Is he able to do it without my approval? Would whichever bank he has approached not need my signature as well to approve any loan?

I can't speak for all banks, but when we extended our mortgage to extend the house, even though the house is only in my name, the bank required the agreement of my wife as a person living in the house.

That was First Direct but I would expect any lender to be similarly cautious.

AIUI, the reason is to do with the bank not being able to repossess the property in the event of a default.

Brie

If you are unsure then contact your bank and let them know that you have not (yet) agreed to this.  

Has your husband said why the loan is needed?  

tizerbelle

I would suggest that you sign up to the Land Registry Property Alert service using an email address that your husband does not have access to (I know some couples share emails).  This will alert you if someone tries to register a charge/mortgage on the property.   It is not unheard of that people will forge signatures of spouses to get what they want!

ETA: The link! https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk/

Razacaros

Brie said:

If you are unsure then contact your bank and let them know that you have not (yet) agreed to this.  

Has your husband said why the loan is needed?  

I don't know which bank he is doing it with. We don't have a mortgage. We are getting divorce, so no good communication at the moment

enthusiasticsaver

I would check with the land registry to see if there are already charges registered against them and definitely sign up for property alerts. If it is in joint names then no he cant but he would not be the first to forge a signature.  

Razacaros

enthusiasticsaver said:

I would check with the land registry to see if there are already charges registered against them and definitely sign up for property alerts. If it is in joint names then no he cant but he would not be the first to forge a signature.  

Thank you so much to both of you for mentioning about the land registry. I will definitely do this. 

silvercar

Razacaros said:

enthusiasticsaver said:

I would check with the land registry to see if there are already charges registered against them and definitely sign up for property alerts. If it is in joint names then no he cant but he would not be the first to forge a signature.  

Thank you so much to both of you for mentioning about the land registry. I will definitely do this. 

This is definitely worth doing, though it will only show you if anything has been registered after it has been done.

@Land_Registry, can you add anything?

Herzlos

Razacaros said:

Brie said:

If you are unsure then contact your bank and let them know that you have not (yet) agreed to this.  

Has your husband said why the loan is needed?  

I don't know which bank he is doing it with. We don't have a mortgage. We are getting divorce, so no good communication at the moment

If you're already at a lawyers stage in the divorce I'd try and get some paper trail about how you object to the loan and have no part in it, so he can't forge your signature and then try and claim it as a shared debt.

Unfortunately without knowing who he is trying to get the loan from you probably can't block it.

You should also be checking your credit report regularly in case any new loans appear on it because if he's trying to get one linked to the house he's probably already tried to get something unsecured.

Razacaros

Thanks a lot for this advise. I will do that too.