Taking exH off mortgage and replacing..

[Winter199]

Not sure if this is the right place to post. I am talking to mortgage brokers to take ex husband off my mortgage and put my partner on instead. I need my ex to also be off the deeds to the house etc too. So everything just a straight swap. What kind of solicitor do I need? And can anyone give me any other advice? Thanks

Are you divorced with a financial settlement that gives you the house?

Assuming you have a financial settlement, any solicitor that deals with conveyancing can handle this.

Any high street solicitor should be able to help with this. But was this not finalised as part of your divorce? Does your ex-husband agree? What will you pay him? Will there be stamp duty to pay? Does the mortgage need to be increased? Does your new partner have the earning capacity to take on the mortgage? Is his credit rating good? Bear in mind you will likely need permission from both your ex-husband and the bank to do this. It might not be easy.

Please take legal advice before you put your partner on the deeds. If he is not paying you anything for the privilege then you are in effect giving away possibly tens of thousands of pounds to him!!
You will need to remortgage the property and also transfer a share of the property to the new partner ( please think hard about this) at the same time.
So you'll need a conveyancing solicitor for both of those transactions.
You'll need to check if the sale to your partner will incur stamp duty.
There will definitely be a land registry charge, plus search fees.

Thank you so much for your replies and advise. So exH and I have been separated for many years, but not yet divorced, he started it with a solicitor but didn’t realise how much it’s going to cost. We don’t want anything to do either each other’s pensions in the future. Neither of us are high earners in any way and our pensions reflect that. My house has £90k equity and I want to give exH £45k to buy him out so I can keep our house for my children to stay in their own home. Me and my partner have been together years and he is a high earner so can afford to take on the mortgage with is agreed with exH. A mortgage broker has gone through the figures and the mortgage increase is manageable for us.
But do I need to have the divorce first? I want to sort the house out asap as whilst still ongoing my exH comes to my house a lot and I need him to afford his own home really and for me to have my own space (even though he currently doesn’t live here it’s still his house so does stay here half the week to have the kids.)

Think it will be tidier if you get divorced and the financials sorted out. It would all then naturally flow from that.

Are you/your partner doing any 'ring fencing' in money/equity as you could potentially end up in a pickle if you and new partner separate.

Yes, the equity that’s in there will be mine.

Yes, you definitely need to get divorced and get a financial order first. You don't want to be in a situation where your ex-husband could make a financial claim against you in future.

Yes. Get divorced and get the financial settlement. Until you do he could claim the house is a marital asset (even if you give him ££) and continue to access the house.

If you keep it simple and don’t argue or require lots of back and forth between solicitors it shouldn’t cost too much.

Thank you so much for everyone’s replies- it has really helped. If everything is straightforward and not argued about does anyone know roughly how much it would cost for a solicitor for the divorce and also the house?