Buying a new home under his sole name

[Queenxaos]

My husband and I have been married for several years and have young children. We are buying a new home and he has decided he wants to do it in his sole name as it is easier for him to do the paperwork because he works in the city, near to our lawyers. I have not worked since we had the children and I have no problem with his plan. The deposit and mortgage will be paid by him as I have no savings. Does this mean I don't own our family home?

how much stamp duty you pay if you're not married and the other one already owns property

A few people saying that if you own another property you have to pay the additional stamp duty. That's not necessarily true. I own a flat (my name). We are buying a new family home (joint names) by selling our current family home (joint names). We do not have to pay the additional stamp duty as its the family home we're buying/selling.

"@BarchesterFlowers

John, DH is not a British or even EU citizen. It has never made a jot of difference on our mortgages, three to date."
Not all lenders take it into account, it depends who you applied to. For us Coventry had the best deal but it was a flat no unless all were British citizens. For HSBC and Halifax it made not one jot of difference.
We were advised we could put one of us on the mortgage and still get it, and it was genuinely a valid reason.

Please don't agree to this OP.

An honest application which names you as a dependant will result in a lower maximum of funds to borrow. this is sensible and correct. Obviously a single person who has no dependants can afford bigger repayments than someone on the same income who is supporting a SAHP and kids. That's a no-brainer.

Refusing to go along with this doesn't have to be about suspicion about his motives but is more importantly about common sense.

The bank legally has to have lending criteria that responsibly ensure that borrowers don't overstretch themselves so much that bankruptcy becomes a real danger. Wangling around their rules to be able to borrow more is the same thing as choosing a higher risk of being left with nothing.

No one can predict what the economy is going to do over the next 3 years let alone 30. The bank's lending rules are balanced so as to be able to maximise what they can lend you without increasing to an unacceptable level the chances that interest and house price changes could lead to you being unable to afford the repayments but unable to sell the house for enough to repay the whole debt such that you still owe them money once all your assets are sold. Agreeing to your DH's scheme means betting against the bank's professional economists and risk assessors about the likelihood of this scenario.

In actual fact I believe that most banks err too much towards lending higher than they should. What I would advise is that you find out how much the bank will lend on a totally true application with all dependants declared, and actually borrow no more than 80% of that figure to be on the safe side. Your own criteria should be more strict than the banks because they see an acceptable outcome as you bring left with nothing so long as the debt is repaid in full, whereas you should want to avoid that. This is cutting your coat according to your cloth. Buy a smaller house in a less nice area.

However we didn't try applying for joint mortgage as DH assumed it won't be successful.

On what basis? Does he work in mortgages and actually know what he's talking about? It may well reduce the amount that you can borrow, but there's no reason why it should preclude you from obtaining a mortgage at all.

Speak to a mortgage broker. And do not agree to anything until you have had professional advice. At best your DH is completely ignorant of what these potentially means for you. At worst he's trying to pull a fast one. Either way, you need to speak to someone who actually knows what they are doing. London & Country Mortgage Brokers are a large firm and don't charge fees (as they are remunerated by the lender if your mortgage goes ahead). We've used them and found them to be helpful.