I'm About to Get Divorced. Can I Get a Mortgage Using the Maintenance Payments?
Answered on 1 February 2017
My husband and I are about to separate. We will be selling our house and moving into separate rented accomodation initially. After paying off debts using the equity from the sale of the current house we then want to use the rest of the equity as a deposit for a house for myself and the children. I don't think my salary would allow me to get a mortgage for the new property in my own right - I have heard about divorcee mortages where they consider maintenance payments as part of your income, but i think you would need more than the 20% deposit we are likely to be able to raise. I want to know if my husband will be able to take out a mortgage for the new house without being resident at it? If so would his name need to be on the deeds? Alternatively could we get a joint mortgage with him not being a resident?
There's quite a few options that you should have available to you, and it may be that we can get you the mortgage you need without having to have your ex-husband on the mortgage or title deeds.
Whilst it's true that a lot of lenders look for bigger deposits on cases such as yours, there are still lenders in the market who manually underwrite cases, which means that they can judge each case on its individual merits. At John Charcol we have strong relationships with such lenders and regularly get cases agreed that fall outside of the major high street lenders criteria.
Alternatively you could look at doing a "joint borrower / sole proprietor" application, where both of you are named on the mortgage, but only yourself would be on the title deeds. We could also consider a 'guarantor' mortgage, where your ex-husband would guarantee the mortgage payment, but wouldn't be on the application or deeds.
Subject to seeing the rest of the details around your situation, I think you certainly should be able to get a new mortgage for yourself and the children.
If you'd like to have an initial discussion to explore your options in a bit more detail, then please call us on 0330 433 2927 and we'll arrange a convenient time for you to speak to one of our consultants.
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Ask The Mortgage Experts answers are based on the information provided and do not constitute advice under the Financial Services & Markets Act. They reflect the personal views of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views, positions, strategies or opinions of John Charcol. All comments are made in good faith, and John Charcol will not accept liability for them. We recommend you seek professional advice with regard to any of these topics where appropriate.