Re-mortgaging advice, anyone?

[Cinderellascarrieg]

Can anyone give me some advice?

I bought my house in May last year, & dp moved in a few months later. We've since married & had a son. The house has increased quite a bit in value - it was rundown & undervalued when I bought it.

We've been looking at re-mortgaging to free up some cash to do a cellar > kitchen/diner conversion & a few other jobs - all of which we reckon will add value. The amount we'd be re-mortgaging for is comfortably below the current market value of the house & we can afford the re-payments.

However:

We can't re-mortgage in our joint names as the existing mortgage is in my sole name. I can't borrow any more without dh's income because I'm on maternity leave & my current income is below the threshold a lender would expect to make the loan we want.

We've looked at transferring the equity to both of us but it's going to cost £500 in legal fees & 'admin charges' . The alternative is to wait until I return to work in 2 months time & apply again in my name only - but we don't really want to wait, my sole income will still be on the low side for the mortgage we want & in any case my credit history is a bit 'murky'...dh is squeaky clean!

Is it worth shelling out for a transfer of equity? Any advice appreciated!

Depends how desperate u r 2 get on with the renovations.

Baby free, now!
The question is really do you want your DP on the mortgage, are you ready for the commitment of being financially tied to each other (is he?)

Are you saying there'd be no fees/charges at all if you re-mortgaged in your name only? In which case, is it worth £500 for the building work to get going, and for your DP to have the financial security/investment in the house?

Well, it's not really material whether his name's on the mortgage or not - we're married & have joint finances. The only reason I originally bought the place on my own is that back then we hadn't been seeing each other that long & lived at opposite ends of the country!

The £500 isn't to arrange the mortgage - it's just to put dh's name on the deeds so we have the option of making a joint application, which on paper would show a higher income & probably a healthier credit score - if I apply on my own the building society can only take my salary/credit history into account.

But what happens if you die? Have you thought about that? I'm not sure, but I think it would put your DH on better footing if you were joint owners, wrt the house.

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& it's not even necessarily our prospective lender we'd be paying it to! It's made up of £160 to current lender & £300 odd to solicitor - just to include dh's name on the current mortgage so THEN we can shop around for a re-mortgage!

Re: death - once we've got all this sorted, one way or t'other, we'll be doing the will thing & will be each other's sole beneficiaries, so I wouldn't think that'd be a problem? (Well, apart from the minor problem of being dead! )