How to get off a mortgage

[AlbertBridge]

My DH bought a house with his ex back in 2005. They split in 2009. He’s still on the mortgage as his ex refuses to buy him out, sell or even discuss it.

His ex lives there with one of their DC, who will be 18 next year. The older DC has already left home.

The mortgage is interest only. After selling, there’d probably be about £250k equity left. DH is saying he’d be happy to get off the mortgage and walk away without any equity, but I don’t think that’s fair as he paid for renovations on the property and paid the mortgage when they were together. AIBU to think he’s entitled to a share of the equity?

This old mortgage means we can’t buy a house together due to the extra stamp duty he’d have to pay because it would be classed as his “second home”. So we are stuck in the house I could afford to buy by myself. We desperately want to move before we get too old to get a mortgage (we’re both in our 50s).

What can we do? The ex is not a nice person and will go nuclear when we begin this process.

@delilahbucket

He needs a solicitor and to serve notice that the property will be sold. He could try telling her his intentions first, but personally I would just go straight to a solicitor.

This.

@AlbertBridge

As they are married, they would still have to pay the second home stamp duty even if they bought only in the DW’s name. This wasn’t the case until a few years ago, but the law changed!

WHAT??! Oh FFS! That's absolutely awful!

I don’t think if it’s his main residence

Sorry @Toanewstart22 but it is unfortunately the case. OP can check with a solicitor if she likes.

Yes you can sever a tenancy legally without the other person's consent. A person just needs to fill in a form for the land registry. A lot of people do this when they wish to leave their half of a property to their children.

@Tippexy

Sorry *@Toanewstart22* but it is unfortunately the case. OP can check with a solicitor if she likes.

You’re wrong

Exemptions as per HMRC website. No stamp duty on a second property if

* no money or other payment changes hands for a land or property transfer*
property is left to you in a will
property is transferred because of divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership

www.gov.uk/stamp-duty-land-tax/reliefs-and-exemptions

Yes, that means no stamp duty is payable on the transfer of a property from one party to another due to divorce. This isn’t about that.

This is about a married couple buying a house when one of them is still on the deeds of another house. A second home stamp duty is payable. I’m not making this up for fun, trust me!

OP - look at John Shallcross - he is an expert on this topic and posts regular blogs and answers questions on Zoopla. e.g.

www.zoopla.co.uk/discover/buying/q-a-new-3-stamp-duty-surcharges/

Actually what am I saying
Yes he is liable
But it is his second home and he will be sharing with you so the stamp duty is payable on the property!

Something very shady about act he’s willing to walk away from £250k equity when the pair of you hardly sound financially comfortable

I think he's trying to do the decent thing? Or - more likely - avoid confrontation. He's terrified of her. 🙄

Why is he terrified of her?

He just needs to instruct a solicitor then and block her communication except via the solicitor. It is obviously worth spending the money on the legal costs.

I don’t see what the dilemma is on what to do.

I've emailed our solicitor to set up an appointment 👍🏻

It needs to be him, not you, that gets it sorted though OP. If he's really not willing to sort it out then he's not going to do it. As the end of the mortgage gets even closer and the final balance will be due, that may be a good motivation for him (and even the ex!). Hope you sort it out sooner than that [flowers}

Having just gone through this I think you should also look up the Capital Gains Tax implications the longer he leaves it the more CGT he will have to pay. You only get 9 months after moving out to transfer it free.