Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Money matters

Find financial and money-saving discussions including debt and pension chat on our Money forum. If you're looking for ways to make your money to go further, sign up to our Moneysaver emails here.

Original poster

Mortgage Pay Off DH half only

65 replies

Malariahilaria · 29/12/2022 12:26

Hello. Tried to google this but its not clear so hoping someone can make sense of it for me. DH and I have a joint mortgage. We pay equal amounts currently. DH has way more in savings than I and would like to pay off 'his' half of the mortgage asap. I am not great with finance but would this leave me paying more in interest than I would if we both kept paying at the same rate? He thinks not but I don't want to be penalised for this. There isn't a huge amount left on it but given the low interest rates I'm more interested in splitting my disposal income between pensions, savings, DC isas and to be frank fun stuff like clothes and shoes.

Any thoughts?

OP posts:
SHNBV · 29/12/2022 13:14

Your husband sounds great. If you’d rather pay more long term then that’s your choice but he shouldnt be penalised for that. I paid £10,000 off our mortgage yesterday and it saved over £13,000 in interest.

How much do you have left on the mortgage? For example, if he paid off his half when it came time to the end of your current fix term could you get an unsecured loan to pay off your half, then your soley responsible for that rather than having a debt against the house, which penalises your husband? You also need to consider putting a contract in place to protect your husbands money

Original poster
Malariahilaria · 29/12/2022 13:17

I'm not aiming to get my own mortgage and if we divorced then yes, fully appreciate everything gets put on the table. He just wants his mortgage done and dusted whereas I'm not going to use up accessible cash when I don't think there's a burning need to do so as long as I'm getting paid monthly.

Some really good responses here, thank you everyone. Will chat to an FA before any decisions.

OP posts:
TTCm · 29/12/2022 13:23

@Malariahilaria we manage our money EXACTLY the same as you - it works for us too. We earn similar and have a joint account and can save or spend our spare money as we wish.

the interest won’t go up, but it depends if he is planning on paying 1/2 the remaining interest that will be due on the repayments, as it may not be fair for you to pay all the interest.

AreOttersJustWetCats · 29/12/2022 13:29

Is he going to incur early repayment charges? Will he be paying those? And how long have you got left - will you need to remortgage before you finish paying it off?

Original poster
Malariahilaria · 29/12/2022 13:30

@TTCm I'm so glad we're not the only ones, I seem to have stirred up a few people with our bizarre financial situation. Some of my friends find it weird too but I prefer the independence of doing whatever I like with 'my' money or everything turns into a negotiation with 4 weeks research on the which website Grin

OP posts:
AreOttersJustWetCats · 29/12/2022 13:30

If you're on a fixed rate, most (but not all) fixed rate deals will apply an ERC to any additional payments that exceed 10% of the balance.

Original poster
Malariahilaria · 29/12/2022 13:44

Thanks areotters, I'll factor that into my investigations. We did just recently fix but I think it was only for 2 years as we couldn't work out which way the market was headed back then.

OP posts:
AreOttersJustWetCats · 29/12/2022 13:49

Is you half of the mortgage going to be paid within the 2 years? If not, when your fix is up, you will want to remortgage, and it will be hard to do that in your name only I think.

blackpearwhitelilies · 29/12/2022 14:01

Why do people always express astonishment that different couples do things differently? Not all married couples share all their money and there can be good reasons for this.

Coooosd · 29/12/2022 14:03

Surely if he stops paying 'his half' then you'll be left paying that sum on top of yours monthly? Unless you're both overpaying monthly?

Say the monthly mortgage payment is £800 and you both usually pay £400 each, just because he pays off a lump sum the monthly payment will still remain at £800?

MilkshakesBringAllTheCoosToTheYard · 29/12/2022 14:06

Coooosd · 29/12/2022 14:03

Surely if he stops paying 'his half' then you'll be left paying that sum on top of yours monthly? Unless you're both overpaying monthly?

Say the monthly mortgage payment is £800 and you both usually pay £400 each, just because he pays off a lump sum the monthly payment will still remain at £800?

Depends if they renegotiate the term or not, but tbh this would be to the OP's benefit to pay the same amount as she always had which will then reduce the mortgage more quickly.

Even with a slightly different approach to finances than most people, I'm assuming clearing the mortgage is your joint goal op? I think if you both approach it in that light then it sorta doesn't matter who pays more interest over the longer term.

Frabbits · 29/12/2022 14:06

Malariahilaria · 29/12/2022 12:26

Hello. Tried to google this but its not clear so hoping someone can make sense of it for me. DH and I have a joint mortgage. We pay equal amounts currently. DH has way more in savings than I and would like to pay off 'his' half of the mortgage asap. I am not great with finance but would this leave me paying more in interest than I would if we both kept paying at the same rate? He thinks not but I don't want to be penalised for this. There isn't a huge amount left on it but given the low interest rates I'm more interested in splitting my disposal income between pensions, savings, DC isas and to be frank fun stuff like clothes and shoes.

Any thoughts?

If the mortgage is in joint names there is no "your half" and "his half". If you overpay it then he is still responsible for half the outstanding amount.

And if you have a fixed, reasonably low rate you'll be better off if he just sticks what he would overpay into a savings account, assuming you can find one with a higher interest rate than your mortgage.

Imjustbrowsing · 29/12/2022 14:07

The only real issue is that interest rates have been rising and the next deal you sign up for is likely to be at a higher interest rate meaning your monthly payments will go up.

The 10% overpayment rule has heavy fees if you go over it and if he is as savvy as you say I am sure he realises this.

Benefits- You can get a better fixed rate when your LTV is lower, which it will be significantly, although that tapers off after 60%.
Interest rates may fall (unlikely, but who knows).
Cons- Interest rates rise and he does not share the burden of the extra interest.

It is still a great position to be in and long term your assets are shared anyway.

Good luck

KickAssAngel · 29/12/2022 14:16

Check the terms of your mortgage. It will have info on what they do if you make a large overpayment. You probably don't need a FA, just call the mortgage Co and ask them what will happen. Some will expect the same monthly amount and will shorten the term, others will reduce the monthly interest but not the capital etc. It's very unlikely that the monthly payments will drop by 50% unless you remortgage.

America12 · 29/12/2022 14:22

So say you owe £100k. He pays £50k. Is he then expecting you to carry on with the mortgage on your own ?
Do you also have an ERC ?
Sounds bizarre.

Frabbits · 29/12/2022 14:50

The more I think about this, the more of a CF I think DH is being.

It's a joint mortgage. One of the people on it doesn't get to just pay off "their" half and leave the other person responsible for the rest. What happens if OP loses their job? If the interest rate goes up on the loan why should DH not share that?

Tell him to get to fuck. If he wants to squirrel away money he can do that outside of joint financial products.

Original poster
Malariahilaria · 29/12/2022 15:15

To be fair Frabbits if I put all this to him he'll be open to discussing, when I lost my job last time during covid he just paid for everything so I'm not too worried about that. It's the fiddly details like end of fixed term I need to think about. He's just fixed on being mortgage free as soon as possible and whilst that would be lovely if I got a sudden windfall it bothers me less.

OP posts:
wonkyheadwoes · 29/12/2022 15:18

I'm also finding this thread bizarre. So does he think that once he's paid off his lump sum he won't have monthly payments to make?

A friend and her husband recently paid off a big chunk of their mortgage with his retirement lump sum. Their fixed deal came to an end at the same time. Their monthly payments are now higher than they were despite the better LTV.

So you could potentially have a higher payment each month than you have now, that's all your responsibility.

Fuck that!

Oblomov22 · 29/12/2022 15:26

So he'd pay it off. His 1/2 as he sees it. Then he'd stop making his mortgage payments, you'd continue, so he'd have more disposable income.

Odd. But if that's what he wants.....

How long left on your mortgage?

Frabbits · 29/12/2022 15:35

Malariahilaria · 29/12/2022 15:15

To be fair Frabbits if I put all this to him he'll be open to discussing, when I lost my job last time during covid he just paid for everything so I'm not too worried about that. It's the fiddly details like end of fixed term I need to think about. He's just fixed on being mortgage free as soon as possible and whilst that would be lovely if I got a sudden windfall it bothers me less.

It's a joint product.

He is not mortgage free until the full thing is paid off.

Pallisers · 29/12/2022 15:41

Coooosd · 29/12/2022 14:03

Surely if he stops paying 'his half' then you'll be left paying that sum on top of yours monthly? Unless you're both overpaying monthly?

Say the monthly mortgage payment is £800 and you both usually pay £400 each, just because he pays off a lump sum the monthly payment will still remain at £800?

This. Either they renegotiate the mortgage so the monthly payment halves or OP ends up paying double what she currently does on the mortgage. I can't imagine that is what she wants?

iknowhimsowell · 29/12/2022 15:46

I'd let him do it, he's still jointly liable for what's left so it can only benefit you in a split. The mortgage will have to remain in joint names anyway as the house is in joint names.

iknowhimsowell · 29/12/2022 15:47

But yes you'd need to make sure the monthly payments are reduced accordingly after the lump sum is paid off, the remaining should be spread over the same term.

GettingItOutThere · 29/12/2022 15:54

if he pays off half ,he is still liable for half of the remaining balance!?

so if your mortgage is 100k and he pays 50k, his debt is still 25k... if tht makes sense?

as you are married. it is joint

jevoudrais · 29/12/2022 15:57

My view is that, if he does this, and you split, he'll still be liable for half anyway. So he's trusting you'll stay together and they you won't mug him off.

I know married couples who manage finances separately and whilst that's a bit odd to me (and not what we do) it works for many.

Paying it off means he alleviates his risk of rising interest rates on his share. You'll be taking the risk on your share as you always have. I don't think this in particular is an issue, I think it's just a consequence/example of how you guys manage things.

Swipe left for the next trending thread