Mortgage Help

vwman_3

A little advice please.

My wife owns the house we are living in and has a mortgage on it, she has lived in the house for 20 years.

I moved in with her 3 years and am not on the mortgage, we got married last year.

We share all the bills/costs 50/50.

My wife has been asking me to be placed on the mortgage with her in order that I have some form of protection in case of something happening to her.

A few weeks ago she re-mortgaged as her fixed term was coming to the end, and when speaking to the Bank she was told that unless I signed a document to say that I would have no interest in property in the event of her death, she would not be able to proceed, In effect I would have to leave.

The Bank stated that the best thing to do was to get me to sign this document, then when the mortgage went through have me added to the mortgage, thereby protecting me as well.

In fairness to the Bank advisor, he has since been in touch and as I did (rightly or wrongly) sign the document told us to arrange to have me added to the mortgage ASAP.

So my question is, Can I just be added to the mortgage, just like that, or do we have to go through some form of legal nightmare, credit searches, etc to get me added, or is it a simple process and just rubber stamped.

Thanks for reading.......

hebe

My husband remortgaged last year and added me to the mortgage and deeds at the same time. We found it more complicated than I expected.

We did a joint mortgage application and my income etc was considered, as by going onto it I was taking on joint responsibility for it as well as any "protection" I was gaining. We used a solicitor to handle the remortgage and also the "transfer of equity" - my understanding is that you can get caught out on stamp duty if half of the outstanding mortgage is greater than the stamp duty threshold. Anyway, there is an Inland Revenue form that we had to do. I'll look for the link. eta - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/sdltmanual/SDLTM00330a.htm see example 3. The form is SDLT1, which we had to do even though married. You can do the SDLT form yourself though, you don't have to use a solicitor. Probably best to check direct with hmrc though in case things have changed.

tbh once you're married I don't think you gain much "protection" by being added to the mortgage. We did it as we wanted to be able to offset my savings against the mortgage as well as his. I'm a bit puzzled about what the bank said to you - if the mortgage is in your wife's name then I'm sure that as her husband you legally would have every interest in the property should anything happen to your wife, and I don't understand how they can force you to have a joint mortgage. Adding you to the mortgage gives the bank another person to chase for repayments. This is only from my experience though.

homer_j_3

You need to seek legal advice to be fair as their will be 17 years of time spent there that you or your other half may not be entitled to. If you have siblings for example or if your mother wants to leave her estate other than straight to you or your OH.

By doing a straight TOE, your Mother is probably giving up the rights on a few things and there may other things that I have not considered at this stage.

vwman_3

Thanks both for your advice, I'll have a chat with my Solicitor.