Moving from a single mortgage to a joint mortgage

Caz6

I think my situation is very common and therefore very simple but having never done it before I want to get some views!

I have just moved in with my boyfriend into the house that he owns and the mortgage is solely in his name. In April this year his initial term comes to an end and he will therefore be looking around for the best options for him to renew his mortgage. However, in about 12 months time we are looking to move to a bigger house which we will buy together and have a joint mortgage.


What things should we be looking out for when he renews his mortgage to enable an easy and cost effective transition from a single mortgage which he will have had for c12 months to a joint mortgage for either the remaining period or a new initial term?

And are the likely to be any tangible benefits with stying with his current mortgage provider Alliance & Leicester?

Thanks in advance.

Leon_W

I think the most cost effective way of doing this is to leave you out of it until you buy the bigger house.

When it comes round to remortgage time this April, it is likely to incurr extra costs to add your name at this time, so I can't really see the point of doing that.

As to whether he should move from Alliance and Leicester, I can't say. See what they are offering and compare with the market. The important thing to remember is to make sure any new mortgage is portable so you can take it with you to the new house. When porting a mortgage, the application is fully underwritten again anyway so I would not see a problem with a lender adding your name at this stage.

Regards

Leon_W

By the way. If the initial term is up in April then he should get his skates on. It doesn't leave a lot of time to shop around.

Co-incidently, I've had a couple of cases this month where people are remortgaging from Alliance and Leicester to other lenders so perhaps their renewal deals aren't that great at the moment. You'll have to check.

hangover

Hi Caz

I'm currently in the process of remortgaging (to First Direct) and, at the same time, changing from a sole mortgage to a joint mortgage (i.e. adding my gf to the mortgage).

It has been fairly straightforward so far. The main added complication was that I had to engage a solicitor to carry out the conveyancing and transfer of equity (if it had been just a straightforward remortgage then First Direct would have covered all of the legal stuff). This can be pretty expensive but I shopped around a bit on the internet and managed to get a quote for under £350 including VAT and all disbursements.

Hope this helps.

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

I would agree 100% with what Leon said above... I had exactly the same situation, except it was my house, missus moved in 12 months later we moved and ported my existing Alliance & Leicester product to a new house and did a simultanious (sp) Transfer of Equity to add her.

The benefit of doing this was that there was no additional solicitors fees as A&L just made the new offer out in joint names and ported my deal over, and there was no unnessecary changes at the Land Reg to incur fees on.

Incidentally, my deal with them runs out in June and i'm half way through switching to FDs 5.15% Legal Docs requiring witnessing etc arrived this week, must say imo they are moving very quickly compared to other reports i've seen on here, although i guess i'm chilled out as house purchase does not rely on speed, and have plenty of time until redemption period is up.

Good luck/.

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

@hangover - please do update on your experiance with Online conveyancers.... i have had 2 experiances (my purchasers last year and 4 years ago) and on both occasions i ended up driving the lengths of the country to hand deliver documents they had lost countless times hours before simulatnius exchange and completion!

hangover

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain wrote: »

@hangover - please do update on your experiance with Online conveyancers.... i have had 2 experiances (my purchasers last year and 4 years ago) and on both occasions i ended up driving the lengths of the country to hand deliver documents they had lost countless times hours before simulatnius exchange and completion!

Will do. I don't want to jinx it but it is close to completion and it has been fine so far (mind you, while I am happy to use an online solicitor for remortgaging if it saves me a few hundred pounds, I would definitely stick to my local solicitor if I was moving house).

I engaged the solictors through Conveyancing Marketing Services (http://www.conveyancing-cms.co.uk/) who have kept me updated on progress with a series of emails showing which stage it is at. Most of my contact with the solicitors themselves has been via post but it has been quick, thorough and efficient and thankfully nothing has been lost!

As far as I know, the solicitors are just waiting for a final redemption statement from my current lender (Nationwide) and then hopefully it will all go through (and I'll be on 4.99% fixed for the next 5 years ).