Remortgage

Financial_Prey

I have a joint mortgage with my mother. We bought our council house in 2006. My mother received  some discount when we made the purchase. The monthly payment was quite low and I paid for this myself out of my own bank from the very start right up until now. 2 and half years ago my mother became very ill and was placed in a care home and the house has been disregarded because me and my 3 young children live there. The house needs improvements and I was looking to remortgage.  How do I go about this?
I've already passed all criteria to get the mortgage soley but how does this effect the title deeds?

chanz4

Personal loan really going to be the route

kingstreet

You need to do a transfer of equity to remove your mother from the ownership and she will need to have mental capacity to agree to this. Get legal advice.

Financial_Prey

She has already been deemed not to have mental capacity and I have enduring power of attorney. 

MWT

Are you on the deeds already or as she was the original tenant at the time (you mentioned that she got a discount) is she the only one actually on the deeds at the moment?

As her attorney you are walking through a minefield if you start trying to remove her from the deeds and transfer ownership to yourself and I would certainly take legal advice before proceeding...

Financial_Prey

We are both on the title deeds, it was a joint mortgage but I've always paid it and it's always been my account that has been used.

MWT

Financial_Prey said:

We are both on the title deeds, it was a joint mortgage but I've always paid it and it's always been my account that has been used.

It doesn't really matter who has been paying for the mortgage, so that doesn't help.

Do you know if you are on the deeds as 'joint tenants' or 'tenants in common', and if it is 'tenants in common' are there other family members who would have an interest in her estate (...and does she have a will)?

The problem you are up against is that as her attorney you cannot just transfer her equity to yourself, nor can you encumber her equity by increasing the mortgage or in any other way secure a loan against the property for your own benefit

This is probably going to have to go to the Court of Protection for a ruling if you need to proceed with this, but you really do need to get some legal advice before doing anything...

Financial_Prey

I see, I don't want to be doing anything I shouldn't, my knowledge in all this extremely limited, it's with the solicitors now. I appreciate your input, thanks.

Financial_Prey

Just to clarify we are joint tenants and yes she has a Will from 18yrs ago when she had capacity for her half of the house to go to me upon her death. Hopefully the solicitor can shed some light on my options, I'm definitely not just looking to transfer ownership for my own good but surely there must be an option for me to remortgage to help with repairs and some modernising. 

MWT

Financial_Prey said:

Just to clarify we are joint tenants and yes she has a Will from 18yrs ago when she had capacity for her half of the house to go to me upon her death. Hopefully the solicitor can shed some light on my options, I'm definitely not just looking to transfer ownership for my own good but surely there must be an option for me to remortgage to help with repairs and some modernising. 

Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting you are doing anything that your mother would not have agreed to if she still retained capacity, but it all becomes more complex when she lacks capacity and you are both her attorney and the one who will be benefitting from what you are planning to do.

I would hope that the Court of Protection will see it the same way if you ask for their approval, and this is probably what a solicitor will suggest is necessary, but equally they may have a better solution that isn't apparent to me, so this is why you need advice.