Swapping house from dh to me?

[MuddlingThru]

We have a rental property that we put in dh's name when we bought it years ago as at the time I was a higher rate tax payer and he wasn't. However I am now a SAHM - needless to say I am no longer a higher rate tax payer.

We have previously always declared any rental profit on dh's self assessment. Could we just declare it on mine in future? Or would we need to change the ownership into my name?

TIA for your help.

I've just been through this palaver recently, so hope I can help.

You will really need to switch ownership from DH to you before you can claim all the rent is paid to you, and forms part of your income. My accountant said it would be difficult to argue it was my income if the asset belonged to someone else, even if jointly owned.

This is really simple to do, our solicitor sent us a deed of gift (transfering the ownership from DH to me) to sign and have witnessed and charged us about £60. The solicitor then amended the Land Registry for us as well.

I was then careful to make sure the next tenancy agreement named me as landlord, not DH.

You didn't mention a mortgage - this would likely change things as it complicates matters.

£60 would be well worth it for the tax it would save (with interest rates so low there is a lot more profit than usual and we could really do with the income rather then re-investing it, but would rather re-invest than give the money to the govt!).

Mortgage and tenancy agreement are also in dh's name.

Getting the tenancy agreement amended probably wouldn't be a big deal.

Getting the mortgage changed over could be trickier as although it is a buy-to-let mortgage I am fairly sure they also wanted evidence of income from employment which for me right now is £0.

The mortgage thing was a problem for us too, as like you I don't work so I wanted everything in my name not DHs, but it just isn't possible (as of last summer when we bought) to get a mortgage in my name alone, not even for a buy to let with adequate rental cover. And a joint mortgage means joint ownership and then (for us anyway) a joint tenancy agreement. I'm terrified of a knock at the door and being caught for tax evasion, so have a complusive need to do everything by the book.

We did think about doing the whole thing jointly, so at least half the rent would be tax free.....maybe you could add just yourself to the mortgage and rental agreement?

As it was we debated finances and ownership for ages, but decided to re-mortgage our main house instead on a cheap deal, and use the money to fund the buy to let in my name.