signing away 'any claim to new house'

[SarahJinx]

My best friend and her husband are buying a house. They rented for a bit after selling last house. The new mortgage is to be I her husbands name only due to her having a poor credit rating. Today she told me that as she's going to live there she has had to sign a form saying she as no claim on the house should they split up. If I've understood correctly this has been as part of the mortgage agreement. Is this usual? I've not come across it before and it seems extreme?

I thought if a couple was married everything gets split between them regardless of whose name is on the deeds?

I'm not on our mortgage and i had to sign a form saying i'd move out if they had to reposess. There was nothing regarding if we were to split though.

I suppose if she contributes nothing financially and all other expenses are shared then it could be fair. However, I think that would be difficult to practically achieve.

Personally though, I would reconsider how the clause is written and ask for it to be amended.

There must be millions of couples with one name on the mortgage fr whatever reason. It just seems really fishy to me but I'm certainly not an expert and was interested to know. I thought the same Thora

She needs independent advice from an impartial solicitor.

I asked her why she hadn't queried it Fluffy and she said she just assumed it was another piece of red tape. They've struggled to get a mortgage due to previous debt (his) although are relatively affluent now. And she will be contributing, just not 'officially'.

My dp had to sign something similar as he isn't on the mortgage of our flat (hadn't been in his job long enough). I didn't feel happy about it but he is so laid back it didn't bother him, and the alternative would have been for us to lose the flat and the 1000s we had already spent on solicitor, survey etc.

lotisblue so its probably an actual thing then by the sounds of it. She said ger dh had told her about it not the solicitor so it just made my ears prick a little

She should look at her credit report - you can get free access to this via Experian for a month. After that you have to pay. It's not that difficult to improve your credit rating. Martin Lewis has a great guide on Money Saving Expert that might help her figure out what she can do to improve her score. You can do several things that will make a difference relatively quickly (eg. will come up on report within 1-3 months) such as ask credit cards to increase your limit, so that amount of debt overall is a smaller % of her total credit allowance. People often think that keeping their credit limit low will make their credit score higher, but this isn't the case.

Personally I'd be very concerned about signing away any rights to the property, as she is essentially giving money to her partner. It doesn't make much difference unless they split up, and then it might be very difficult (or even impossible?) to get that money back.

cheese exactly my concern! She's done everything she can re credit score (long story but he defaulted on loan payments taken out by her to help his business.....) and has said her defaults will be gone in a year when they intend to remortgage

Personally I would be bloody wary of buying a house "with" a partner who'd already left me in the shit by defaulting on loans. Let alone one who wants to cut me out of any profit on the house if we split.

But then maybe I'm just a cynical cow.

That's what I'm asking though isn't it madginger could he have requested it, or is it just a bog standard stipulation. Personally I think he's an arse but I'm trying to protect my friend

I have a friend whose family gave large sum of money as a loan to use for a house deposit. The family wanted to protect their cash should any problems arise later on, so they had a solicitor arrange something (i think it was called a 'declaration of trust') that meant the money was guaranteed to come back to the family if the house was ever sold. The bank got first dibs obviously, but then the family got their cash back before my friend would. It did limit her a bit when choosing a mortgage though, as only some banks will accept this. She was with Nationwide or Natwest (it was definitely an 'N' bank!)

DH had to sign the form because the mortgage is in my sole name. It isn't s form to say she has no rights over the property, it's a form to say that her rights don't trump the rights of the mortgage company and at the point of repossession she will vacate. It is still a matrimonial asset and what's his is hers.

Thanks Silly makes perfect sense

Silly's right, it's just the mortgage lender protecting their interests, she would still have the same rights to marital assists as any other married person in the event of a break up, but couldn't refuse to leave the property if the bank invoked their right to reclaim it. It's worded in a way that makes people think what you said in your original post.

Are you sure she hasn't been asked to state she agrees to leave if the house is repossessed? That's standard for mortgages in none name.

"One" not none.

Ahh so no rat to be smelled (smelt?) here then. Thanks ladies

You're welcome.