From: Ronald Raygun
Subject: Re: Add wife to house ownership
Newsgroups: uk.finance uk.legal
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 09:54:32 GMT
peter wrote:
> Willy wrote:
>> Sharky wrote:
>> > abracad_1999@yahoo.com wrote:
>> > > Our current house (mortgaged) was purchased in my sole name as my
>> > > wife was out of the country. I would now like to change the ownership
>> > > to joint names. What is the procedure and likely costs of doing this?
>> > >
>> > You'll spend the rest of your life regretting it?
>>
>> Why, she has an undeniable beneficial interest in the house in any
>> case, simply adding her name to the mortgage will not improve her
>> position
>
> I believe that if you want to arrange your will such that you are
> 'tenants in common' then it is necessary that you are both registered
> as owners of the property.
But even to be joint tenants you would need both to be registered owners,
wouldn't you? Implied marital rights would be limited to those of a
tenant (i.e. right to occupy), not those of an owner. I.e. if the sole
owner marries and then dies, without having put the property in joint
names, the wife would not necessarily acquire sole ownership of the
house, though might under intestacy rules and/or other legal rights
acquire *some* interest, but it would depend on whether there is a will
and what it says, and on whether there are children.
> I looked into doing this a couple of years
> ago but dropped it when I found out I'd have to pay nearly a grand in
> stamp duty for the privilege. (Can't remember the detail but I believe
> it's treated as if your partner is buying half the property from you so
> has to pay stamp duty even though no money changes hands). If the
> amount of the outstanding mortgage is below the stamp duty threshold
> then you're ok, so I plan look into it again in a couple of years.
Isn't it that she would be treated as assuming "half" the responsibility
for repaying the loan, and therefore, for SD purposes, the relevant
consideration would be deemed to be *half* the outstanding loan?
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