Wife wants to remove her name from joint mortgage

Hi, hope someone can give me some advice please...

My wife & I separated last Oct and since then she''s been staying in our house until she has sufficient funds to move out. Now she has done that and found a suitable property to live in with our two children, she now wants her name removed from our joint Halifax mortgage.

Now from what I have researched from the web is that I will have to take out a new mortgage in my name only to repay the joint mortgage and hire a solicitor to remove her from the deeds also. Problem is with current economic climate as it is I don''t think they will give me finance on my own, even though I''ve been repaying it without problem. She says she just wants to sign it over and isn''t interested in any share of the equity.
I''m also worried that she will "force" the sale if needed, something which I certainly don''t want.

Something else which is a concern is that this is a shared ownership property and I''m not sure what legal implications this may have. We own 50% and the property is worth around £185,000 and we have about £70,000 left to pay.

And advice greatly appreciated.

W

Hi boysie

It is a transfer of equity from joint names to just your name, not sure how it works with the sharing part, but have just gone through this myself by taking on the mortgage on our joint house in my own name.

The morg company deal with this completely (did for me), however, they do chagrin for their fees & then I had to pay the conveyancing company & the land registry their bit before got it all sorted.

I would go & see your morg company re your chances of getting a morg to cover the morg or not & go from there. However, all this should be tied up in your Consent Order as the financial part of your divorce (important to get it legally signed off by the court.

Good luck JJ

Boysie wrote:

She says she just wants to sign it over and isn''t interested in any share of the equity.

She "says" that, hmm. You need to get this in writing and stamped by the court to make it legally binding, before you do anything else. This is called a consent order, and it should state that she will transfer ownership of the house to you, and that you will in turn make your "best efforts" to remove her form the mortgage.

Once that is signed and sealed you can go ahead and try to remove her from the mortgage. If you are unable to because of the economic climate or because you don''t earn enough or because of unusual solar activity (or whatever) then she will have to stay on it. As long as you make your best efforts you have fulfilled your side of the bargain. She will then have to fulfill hers and transfer ownership - whether you succeeded in removing her name or not.

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. The thing is we aren''t actually divorced, only separated and I''m not sure what her opinions of getting divorced are at the moment. Would getting a divorce make this process any easier?

Yes a divorce is essential. It would be highly risky to do this jiggery pokery with the house while remaining married. If she spent all the money you gave her then she could come back for more at the time of divorce. You need a final settlement that ends things once and for all and the only way to do that is with a divorce.

It does not matter what her opinions on divorce are. If you want a divorce then you can get one. You do not need her permission, cooperation or even her signature.