Hi all,
My husband has been divorced for almost 5 years now. As part of the settlement, the court required him to sign a remortgage on the ex marital home for 5 years. This was with a view to provide security for his children until their mother found work and could take the mortgage on herself. As part of that arrangement, he signed over the deeds so has no rights to the property and she was required to make her best efforts to remortgage to her sole name every year.
Fast forward to now, this mortgage term is ending in February 2023 and she has not yet successfully remortgaged to her own name. Whilst we have been able to buy our own property in this time, him being on the old mortgage affects our affordability checks so it would be in our interests to have his name removed before we have to remortgage later next year...times are hard and of course we want to get the best deal we possibly can.
My question to the forum is this; Is he legally obliged to resign another mortgage deal with his ex? Or can he refuse and therefore kind of force the removal of his name? (assuming, of course, the SVR she would go onto would be higher than her current repayments, therefore it would be in her interest for him to remain on the mortgage with her to keep her repayments lower)
She has been working since February 2022 (part of me wonders if this is because she anticipates that she needs to show she is earning income before she tries to remortgage next year?) So maybe there is a good chance that she will be accepted anyway and this won't become a contentious issue. fingers crossed.
I hope that makes some sense.
Thanks in advance for any advice
Thats a tricky one and may need legal advice. I guess it depends how old the children are and if ex needs a home for them.