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Original poster

Remortgaging when oldest member of household on the deeds is 80.

14 replies

Laiste · 18/10/2018 14:25

This is a long shot but does anyone know of any lender which would consider an equity loan or remortgage secured against a property when one member on the house deeds is 80 years old? I've just been advised this is unlikely and we're a bit taken aback.

We (DH, me, kids and my mum) all live together in a house owned by us outright and we wish to take out a loan for home improvements; 60k. House is worth 400k +.

Ringing round all morning and the best i can get is a maybe ... from Barclays.

The person who would be responsible for paying off the loan is DH - late 30s.

Am i making sense? Does anyone have any words of wisdom?

OP posts:
peppaminttea · 19/10/2018 10:19

Have you tried going through an independent financial advisor? They should have a wealth of knowledge and recommendations for situations like this that are unusual. By ringing round yourself even if you find one lender, by only having one choice, it's quite likely not be be the best deal.

Ignoramusgiganticus · 19/10/2018 10:23

Your dh can take out a mortgage in his name only, even though it is also owned by others. At least that was the case for our buy to let. I was a sahm but we owned it jointly.

Original poster
Laiste · 19/10/2018 21:09

Thank you. Both good suggestions.

Ignoramusgiganticus so once he's on the deeds you think the loan maybe can be in just his name? Hope you're right. Santander (who we bank with) have said their policy is definitely not if there's anyone 75 or over on the deeds with him.

I did try ringing an independent advisor yesterday peppaminttea. He said he didn't know (Hmm). As helpful on the phone as a chocolate tea pot. He also suggested equity release - but that's only for over 55s (so just my mum eligible) and we don't want to sell the house when she passes away not in me or DHs lifetime either probably.

I think DH is going to ring Barclays tomorrow and get yes or no. If it's no it's back to the drawing board i guess.

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Original poster
Laiste · 19/10/2018 21:09

Any more thoughts very welcome :)

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scaryteacher · 20/10/2018 11:03

Have you tried L&C? They are usually excellent.

Original poster
Laiste · 21/10/2018 12:18

scaryteacher THANK YOU so much! I've just rung L&C and had the first pleasant helpful conversation with someone about this issue so far!

(Barclays was a nightmare yesterday. Trying to get them off the script which didn't apply to our circs. was like trying to get blood out of a stone and we got passed around 4 times, got given a number which didn't exist, and then after about 20 mins of frustration finally got someone who told us Barclays no longer lend unless you're an exisiting customer anyway. Excluding a credit card, which we do have. We left it there ..)

According to the lady at L&C she thinks they will be able to find a lender who will work around mum being on the deeds. Or even in fact with mum just living in the property with us! It seems that on the deeds or not there are many high st lenders who wont be happy with an 80 year old living in a property with new borrowing taken out against it. Who knew? Not me!

OP posts:
SpoonBlender · 21/10/2018 12:37

How odd. MIL (83) has just taken an equity loan out of her wholly owned house, no bother.

Original poster
Laiste · 21/10/2018 16:49

This is all new to me! Grin

Equity loan or equity release SpoonBlender? If it's release it can only be paid off by the sale of the house when that time comes (afaik). If it's loan, how is she planning to pay it off? My DM has no income of her own and we don't want to sell the house. Paying it plus the interest off would be down to DH in our case which takes us back to square one somewhat.

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Original poster
Laiste · 22/10/2018 14:41

Just an update. If anyone's reading. Not looking good. Even the cheery positive broker is sounding despondent this afternoon. She said it comes down to only one or two lenders and even then it would be on a case by case basis decided by the underwriters. No guarantees at all :(

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SpoonBlender · 23/10/2018 00:54

Oh, you're right - it's an equity release. My mistake - I'm not very au fait with these things either.

No way for mum to sell her part of the deeds over to you for a tiny sum?

Oliversmumsarmy · 23/10/2018 01:06

I would have thought one of the problems could be that if anything happened to the younger people on the deeds/mortgage there might be an issue for your mum to pay the mortgage off.

A life insurance policy would cover it if you got a company to look at it sensibly and use some common sense.

The only other issue would be if you defaulted on the mortgage and they might not like the idea of evicting an 80+ year old.

If you could come up with a solution to that then you might be able to sway someone in your favour

fabulousathome · 23/10/2018 18:50

And what about if she needs care and is on the deeds? She owns some of a house. Would it need to be sold?

NoSquirrels · 23/10/2018 18:56

Could you buy her out of the property? So you & DH raise a mortgage to pay her off for her share, she releases the £60K for home improvements back to you or whatever?

Do you have other siblings to consider - what is the benefit of your mum remaining on the deeds at her age?

Original poster
Laiste · 24/10/2018 21:46

Thank you for replies. Fingers all crossed for us please L&C think they've found a lender who deals with the 'over retirement age' issue and we've been sending masses of info for an application this afternoon. DH will have to go on the deeds alongside me and DM. Lenders solicitor will deal with that. Not quite sure exactly how it works. £400 for legal fees in the even they accept us.

Oliversmumsarmy - I would have thought one of the problems could be that if anything happened to the younger people on the deeds/mortgage there might be an issue for your mum to pay the mortgage off.

Yes, that is it essentially. Now it's been explained to us properly we see the problem. It does make sense. We just didn't foresee it. We had a 'loan' mindset rather than the 'mortgage' which is what we're applying for now.

fabulousathome - good question! I don't know. I'll ask L&C tomorrow when they ring. It has been mentioned that taking my mum off the deeds and putting DH on instead might cause as many problems as it would solve because of inheritance tax and gifting? Not sure about the details there. went over my head a bit

NoSquirrels No siblings. We couldn't afford a mortgage big enough to buy her out properly. None of us are intending to ever live anywhere else from now on. She's elderly and needs to not be living alone now. No real advantage to her staying on the deeds i guess (though she might disagree). Except for the fact that her coming off means gifting someone else the share and complications ensuing.

So as i say we've applied (High st bank in the end) and will hear ''early next week''. It will be at the ''under writers discretion'', but L&C lady seems up beat about it. Nail biting till then.

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