Taking over the mortgage and removing from Title Deeds

[FlowerAndBloom]

Hi all, I'm currently in the family home and I've been paying the mortgage for 6 months on my own. My ex is renting. I can easily afford it now I'm getting CB, UC and maintenance and working full time but I don't have the salary to afford the mortgage on my own if I were to make a single application when the mortgage is due (November). Has anyone had a mortgage company allow you to keep the mortgage on if you can prove you can pay it for a period of time? I've heard of this anecdotally but wondered if anyone had any experience? I don't want my kids to lose their home and I'm also trying to buy ex out and give him his equity. X

I would get in touch with a mortgage broker. They will be able to advise you. I had someone look into this for me. Like you with my salary. UC and maintenance I could of got the mortgage in my own name. Then ex stopped paying maintenance. So I have had to put the process on hold for now. Good luck.

Thanks Eve :) I'm hoping they let me as I can easily do it but on income multiples I'm pushing it with 8x my salary as it's a massive mortgage but have at least 40% equity so LTV is very good.

You won’t get a mortgage on 8 x your salary. The average is 4 x

Some lenders will take benefits into account (and if they do it’s a proportion of them).

Child maintenance is only taken into consideration if it is court ordered (and again not all lenders take it into account or will only take a %).

You need to prove you are able to cover the repayments abs if interest rates rise you are in a position to take in the increase. Otherwise the only option is for your EX to remain on the mortgage (which I am sure he won’t like).

Have you taken legal advice?

During the consent order you will need to prove to the court that you can afford the mortgage and upkeep of the FMH.

Yes i can afford it now (both the mortgage and the upkeep) and have been doing so for months now so even if it increases it's not a problem. My mortgage is only 29% of my income.

I know no1 gets a mortgage on more than 4.5x so I guess the options are 1) delay a divorce up to 5 years (not really fair on ex) while I get more money together but pay ex the equity (although he won't be able to get a second mortgage) and stay on the SVR
2) get someone else to come on mortgage with me

Tricky really as I'm perfectly capable of doing it but my salary isn't enough for the multiples

Some lenders like the Halifax will take child maintenance into account even if it’s just a family based arrangement not court order. Also most will take benefits into account. quickest way to check options is to approach someone like l&c broker who search large num of lenders for you and no broker fees. Often your existing mortgage company don’t want to help but you can be more successful arranging new mortgage to pay off existing one.

Was having a look into this more last night....there are some lenders that will lend on an individual basis rather than using income multiples and take a more holistic approach (building societies usually). I want to do this and feel upset I may not be allowed to :( anyone else in this situation?

Barclays take UC into account as I'm in the process of remortgaging and taking STBEXH off. Nationwide take child maintenance into account bur because I didn't have 3 months worth of proof we had to abandon that application.

I used London and Country, they were good at finding me exactly what I needed.

Thankyou so much Newme x

I've been in this exact situation. Have you spoken to your lender? Mine was HSBC and they were incredibly supportive and helpful. I was allowed to keep the property but had to do a full remortgage and change of title so needed a solicitor for that and had the associated costs. HSBC asked me to reduce the mortgage a bit (think it was about 7 grand) but the eventual mortgage was still more than they would have given me as a new customer. They do have some flexibility if you can prove you have been paying it yourself, which I had been doing for nearly a year. It's worth speaking to them first.