Putting me on deeds to the house

[SoddingWeddings]

DH owns this house, but we want to join up on the mortgage (due for renewal in 6wks) and add me to the deeds to the house.

It's worth about £160k. £86k left on the mortgage.

I've been paying in 50% of the bills for the last 5yrs, but we didn't make the time to do a joint mortgage when the current one was renewed 3yrs ago. I'd like DHs investment (ie pretty much everything paid in to date) to br protected for him, so that if we broke up, we would only be looking to separate out any equity accrued from now as opposed to the whole property, IYSWIM.

Do we need a conveyancer? Are we looking at tenants in common?

I've found the paperwork online for the Land Registry, but I'm unclear on whether we are obliged to do this via a solicitor or if we can do it ourselves.

Any advice gratefully received!

Does he own the house or is he still paying a mortgage on it? You usually only get the deeds when you’ve paid it off.

I would say yes to the solicitor, sounds like you are looking at tenants in common and a deed of trust setting out that you own the property in unequal shares (you can do a % arrangement, or you can state that your DP is entitled to the first £100k or whatever the current equity is, after the mortgage is paid off and any costs, and then any remaining equity is divided in equal shares after that, whichever feels fairest to you). I'm sure there is such a thing as a DIY change of ownership and deed of trust but it's not the kind of thing you want to risk messing up IMO, plus it all needs to be synced up with the remortgage as the bank are not going to risk lending in joint names on a property where the ownership isn't clear, plus you don't want to risk any tax issues either...

Deed of trust via a solicitor would do what you need. You would need permission of the mortgage lender to formally transfer a percentage of the property to you.

Although bear in mind that as you are married, I don't think a deed of trust would necessarily mean the property would be totally excluded from any financial settlement in the event of divorce, I'm sure it would be taken as a statement of your intentions and of course if you agree a settlement between yourselves then it doesn't come into question, but if giving him the larger share of equity would mean you or any dependent children were left inadequately housed or in poverty I'm sure it could still be overridden by the judge....

If you are both on the new mortgage it’s not true that you would need permission from lender to transfer a percentage to you. Lenders only don’t like parties being in the mortgage but not on the deeds. A deed of trust sets out intentions as to disposal of equity but as someone mentioned when married the default is 50/50.

You are not obliged to use a solicitor to complete the Land Registry forms. However, since you are adding your name to the mortgage and will want a deed of trust to protect your husband's share, I would recommend using a solicitor to handle all the legal work involved.