To ask why it is so important names are on the mortgage?

[FelicityFlops]

This may be a UK thing.
My husband and I bought a house just over 20 years ago in his country, where I am also now a citizen (dual nationality - thanks Brexit).
The mortgage was in both our names (strange as he had been out of work for a while and the numbers were actually my earnings), BUT only my name was on the deeds and I was the only one to sign the purchase contract.
When he died (he committed suicide just over a year after we bought the house) nothing around the mortgage changed - except that there was no big payout due to suicide. However, his ex was on to the land registry pdq to see if their son was entitled to half "my" house. He wasn't as his father was not on the deeds.
So I am just asking, because I have never bought in the UK, why are the names on the mortgage more important than the names on the deeds?

Cos the mortgage company wants to know if someone could claim that they have the rights to the property. If you're married and then you divorce he could claim half the house in the divorce. Therefore he had a financial interest

Names on the mortgage is of more importance to the lender than it is the owner/s: it ultimately means they can consider everyone named on the mortgage liable for the debt and pursue them for it.

Most lenders will only allow both names to go on the deed IF both names are on the mortgage - that way they have two people to chase for the whole mortgage debt) if they default.

When I used to process mortgages we would have to include partners with zero income (thus affecting affordability) if they both wanted to be on the deed. This is 15 years ago though, but I doubt things have changed certainly in view of higher rates etc.

I've always assumed that when people say "make sure you get your name on the mortgage", they actually mean deeds, but are confused, because the deeds determine ownership. Having your name on the mortgage, without being on the deeds, surely means that you're liable for a debt, without any assets to back it up.

I am fairly sure that being on the deeds would be more important as the mortgage is only the loan but the deeds are what gives you right to the property surely? I know getting my ex off the mortgage was great but it was better to get him off the title of my property.

why are the names on the mortgage more important than the names on the deeds?

They're not.

In fact, in theory, you could have completely different names on the mortgage than on the deeds. Using Scottish terminology, but the operation of the loan is quite similar. Imagine that A owns a house, to buy which A took out a loan and granted a standard security (the 'mortgage') over the house to the bank. The bank therefore acquires a subordinate real right in the house. Technically A can sell the house to B even with the standard security in place, after which we have a situation where A continues to be liable for the debt, which is secured over what is now B's house. Therefore, if A doesn't pay, the bank could take B's house, even though B has nothing to do with the debt. In practice, this doesn't happen, because as part of the sale, solicitors will see to it that A discharges the standard security over the house.

Because you had a joint mortgage application to purchase the house, it would belong to both of you as joint tenants and as such, when one person dies, the house automatically becomes the property of the other person. If you had owned it as tenants in common and he had died without a will, his estate would include his half of the house (or should I say the equity). Under the rules of intestacy, the surviving spouse would get £250k plus half of the remaining estate. His children would get the rest. So in both scenarios, his children wouldn’t automatically receive anything.