Married couple / Joint mortgage ?

PoorPaul

Hi all

A friend of mine has recently got married and moved into his wife's house - it is solely in her name, as is the mortgage.

He has savings which he is planning to transfer into her account - it is one of those open plan offset ones so therefore (as I understand it) they will only pay the interest on the balance.

My question is... is this recommended ? Should the property and mortgage be in joint names ? Or as a married couple if the worst happened do you have 'equal' rights ?

Many thanks

Paul

jonesMUFCforever

As it stands the house and mortgage is in his name.
Give it some time and the wife will 'acquire' rights meaning he will have to pay her half in the case of divorce and if they have any children it will probably be him that has to move out!!

wymondham

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

As it stands the house and mortgage is in his name.
Give it some time and the wife will 'acquire' rights meaning he will have to pay her half in the case of divorce and if they have any children it will probably be him that has to move out!!

it's her's already isnt it?

I would not personally do this, as soon as it goes into her account then it's her's isnt it? - fine when things are going well, but what if they part? all very grey!

KiKi

PoorPaul wrote: »

Hi all

A friend of mine has recently got married and moved into his wife's house - it is solely in her name, as is the mortgage.

He has savings which he is planning to transfer into her account - it is one of those open plan offset ones so therefore (as I understand it) they will only pay the interest on the balance.

My question is... is this recommended ? Should the property and mortgage be in joint names ? Or as a married couple if the worst happened do you have 'equal' rights ?

Many thanks

Paul

Offsets are great, however, an offset 'savings' account will be in the same name as the mortgage account. Therefore, he is effectively putting his money into her account.

As someone else said, fine as long as they stay together. Not so fine without a written agreement in case they split up.

At the moment, she:
* has the house
* has the savings
* benefits from not paying interest on the offset amount

He:
* pays towards the mortgage but doesn't have any equity in his name
* has no savings
* won't benefit from any interest on his savings


So, no, it's not recommended - by me, anyway! It depends how much the house is worth compared to the savings he has. But I'd put his name on the account, with a written and signed agreement of what they want to do with the savings / house / equity if they split up.

I don't know about the specifics of legal rights - I'm sure there's something about property being equally one person's as much as the other's. But it's very grey, if nothing else!

HTH

KiKi

Gorgeous_George

If the market cra...orrects, he may be better off investing HIS money in ISAs and other safe accounts.

If he has doubts, he should take appropriate care.

GG

PoorPaul

Thanks for the comments so far, they are both in their late 30's and planning to start a family so god forbid anything happening, but guess I'm the cautious type.
Perhaps more cautious than him - but then he is watching the outcome of this thread with interest

More details.... he's got about £100K in savings, the property is worth about £200K and has a mortgage outstanding of about £50K. The intention is to put about £30K in her offset account.

He thinks that as a married couple, the 'whats his is hers and vice versa' rule applies but not sure how that stands legally if they were to split. They also haven't made a will yet if that makes any odds should the worst happen to either.

He reckons they were told by a finanical advisor type person (?) it would cost about £500 in legal and other fees to get everything changed to joint names and legally it wouldn't make a difference.... again, is that true though?

Interesting point about having no equity in his name.... is he even actually classed as a 'home owner' ?

Paul

KiKi

Why doesn't he just pay the £50K, get rid of the mortgage, and put the house in both their names? Otherwise they're both paying unnecessary interest on the standard mortgage payments. It saves her the interest, so she gains.

If they were to split up with kids, then she undoubtedly would get the house and be entitled to some of his earnings. (I believe he isn't classed as a home owner as he doesn't have a mortgage or deeds in his name.) If the savings are in her name, and kids stay with her, they'd likely go in her favour.

I don't know the legal ramifications, I'm afraid - not convinced by the IFA statement that it makes no difference whatsoever.

It just all seems rather one-sided if they're in an equal marriage, that's all.

KiKi

KiKi

This thread about joint ownership but one name on the mortgage might help:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=847413

PoorPaul

Thanks again, he's got some food for thought now !