How do I buy him out of our house?

[WhatFreshHell1]

DH and I are splitting up (long story - whole other thread) and I need to buy him out of the family home (we have 2 dc). We both work full time.

Please can anyone advise me how I go about buying him out? I don’t know where to start?

Thank you.

Start with getting the house valued. Then you need to speak to a solicitor for advice on % you maybe entitled to and then you need to speak to a mortgage broker. All of this will give you an idea if it’s possible.

This is a huge question and dependent on a whole lot of variables. For a start: how much (approx) is the house worth? Is there a mortgage on it, and if so for how much? Whose name(s) is the house in and whose is the mortgage in? Do you own any other properties or similar major assets? Are you working? (FT/PT?) How old are you?

Not trying to pry, but that would be a minimum to be able to suggest a way forward.

hi
just place-marking and watching with interest as a friend is going through this and has no idea where to start either. x

Sorry didn’t reply earlier was a bit scared of posting too many personal details. Joint mortgage. Approx £85000 left to pay. Value approximately £350,000. Im fairly youngish and we both work full time.

no other properties or assets

Do you have the income to support a mortgage to buy him out
if you haven’t already done so get a good mortgage advisor

The equity in your house is £265K - that can be verified with 2 or 3 valuations.
Supposing you were giving him half the equity, you would need to raise a mortgage for £265÷2=£132,500 plus the outstanding £85K ie £217,500.
More typically an equity split would be 65:35 in favour of the resident parent, this more manageable.
That's just the house. Everything has to go in the pot to divide when divorcing ie pensions, savings, debts, shares etc Male pensions can have a much higher value than female pensions because of time out for child rearing/career slowdown from having children.You get some good pointers on .gov.uk/divorce or on Wikivorce.
I hope that helps

So yeah basically you'd need to find another £132,500, and the most likely way of doing that would be to increase your mortgage while transferring it into your sole name. The first step would be to talk to your mortgage company. Whether they're willing to do that would depend on your income and other factors. If they approve, they'll organise a new mortgage for £217,500 and use that to pay off your current mortgage, giving you the remainder in cash which you would then pass on to your husband as part of the divorce settlement, in return for your getting sole title on the house.

If they won't do it you could try other mortgage companies, or a broker who might have access to more specialised deals.

If that's still not possible you may need to move to a cheaper/smaller house (practicable in theory as you'll have one less person living there?), and use the equity difference as part of the settlement.

Or - and this is getting more out of my depth - I think there are mechanisms by which your H can retain some equity in the house, on the agreement that you sell it at a later date after the children are grown up. Would need to ask a solicitor.

Mortgage broker here. Don't pay to get the house valued, it's a different type of valuation needed when buying a party out (I'm doing similar with my ex)

Phone your lender and find out outstanding mortgage balance and an approximate property value from them as a starting point.

Deduct balance from value and that's your equity. Half of that you would need to raise to buy him out (depending on what else is in the finance pot, women with DC tend to get more of a split ie 60/40)

You can borrow more money to buy him out on your mortgage if your current lender allows based on affordability. If not then you'd need to remortgage to another lender or downsize.

I need to move to another lender as our current one doesn't accept child maintenance as a form of income. Thankfully we're not in a fixed rate so no early repayment charges

There are loads of lenders on the market that do accept child maintenance as a form of income, so please don't panic. You can extend the term of the mortgage to keep the payments at an affordable amount (if possible)

Hope that helps

In addition, please don't take on a huge mortgage if it's going to overstretch you. I don't mean to sound like the grinch but it rates go up again then you may need to end up selling in a few years time if it's tight already. I'm probably over cautious due to my line of work but I think of things like if I need an new car, new boiler, what sort of lifestyle I want for myself and kids. Do you really want to be watching every penny?
We're seeing so many clients just now that overstretched themselves when rates were so low during covid now struggling as rates are so high and they've not got the equity in the property they thought they'd have due to house values falling

We've not got to the finance agreement yet but I'm having second thoughts about buying him out and downsizing. Property prices are expected to reduce more next year so whilst you'ok get less if you sell yours, it will even itself out if you buy somewhere smaller. Try not to let your pride get in the way and don't rush into anything until you've spoken with a solicitor.

I did this once. I can't remember the details really but essentially i got the house valued 3 times, we agreed to aim for the middle of these. We then went together to our then current mortgage lender and explained what we needed to do. They paid him and added that to my mortgage and extended my term.