Adding spouse to title deeds and mortgage

MothballsWallet

I currently have a 5-year fixed rate deal with Accord Mortgages (part of Yorkshire Building Society) with a 1.99% APR that ends on 31/07/2025 and the APR will go up to 7.49% from 01/08/2025, so I have been considering remortgaging by talking with Better (formerly Trussle Labs, recommended by MSE) and now Haysto (I found them via Experian).

Now, and this is probably where you will get mad at me, but my wife has never been on the mortgage since the house was bought back in 2001, and she is not on the title deeds, other than a signature required by the original mortgage lender (Halifax) and Accord.

From discussions I've already had with the consultant at Better, adding my wife to the title deeds requires (in my layman's terms) a change to the tenancy to add her name, which would be something a local solicitor can do for us, probably for around £350.

Now, as of today, Accord have sent me a letter listing the options they can offer if I wished to stay with them (but, annoyingly, I can't see what the monthly payments would be for these - my cynical side says this is them trying to get me to call them).

So, what I'd like to ask is:

• Should I add my wife to the title deeds since she (obviously) has an interest in the house?
• My wife isn't working at the moment, so should I be looking at adding her to the mortgage?

There is a reason why she hasn't been on these documents, which comes down to circumstances around the times I bought the house and carried out the previous remortgages: I can explain that if needed, but I didn't want to add too much information in this OP.

Emmia

What benefit do you expect to get by adding her?

If she's not earning, then by adding her she becomes responsible for the mortgage if you defaulted (she'd be jointly and severally liable)

Do you have insurance that will pay the mortgage off in the event of your demise?

Keep_pedalling

She really should be on the LR as a joint owner of the marital home, as it will make things a lot simpler should you meet an unfortunate early death. In the current situation you should definitely have life insurance in place to pay off the mortgage and you should have made a will, especially if you have children ( a spouse does not inherit everything under intestacy rules if the estate is over £322k).

MothballsWallet

@Emmia and @Keep_pedalling Thank you both for your answers.

To answer the question you both have - yes, I have life insurance for covering the mortgage in case the worse happens to me (with annual reviews and increases). I also have some cover through work, I'll double check my contract later.

I also have a will but I'm thinking of getting a new version drawn up because it was done over 5 years ago.

So, would you both agree that I should put her on the LR but not on the mortgage since she's not working: that's one of the reasons she's not on the mortgage. IIRC, one of the mortgage advisors I spoke to in the past said something similar when discussing our situation.

Is the LR update something we can do ourselves, or do we need to go to a local solicitor to sort it out?

silvercar

She can’t go on the title deeds without going on the mortgage, so that’s a non-starter. It’s both or none.