mortgage nightmare

marielle

Hey people,

I am a bit at a loss about the mortgage i am in the process of getting.
My situation is the following. I am building a house with my fiance on land that was given to him by his parents.
First hurdle. We are in the process of changing the ownership of the site. If i appear on that document then we will have to pay taxes and fees so we were advised by the family solicitor to change the ownership to my fiance's name only as this is a present from his parents hence no fees.
The bank has agreed to make the mortgage in both our names even though the site will be in his name only.
What will this mean if we split up or if one of us decides they want out or if one of us dies?
There is a mention on the offer of advance from the bank of a "deed of postponement /deed of confirmation" by me confirming i have no further interest in the property. I have no idea what that means but i sure don't like the sound of it. Can anyone help me with this?
Should i go to yet another solicitor (family solicitor for site, bank solicitor for mortgage...) and pay more fees to write up a contract of some kind between us before considering going further? If we do nothing what will happen in the eventualities i listed?
We are so confused right now we are considering running to the registery office and getting married! At least there would be some help from the law then!!!!!

Pataman

I think another solicitor is your first call. Am I right in reading that both you and his parents are using the same solicitor. If so it is against guidelines as he cant give you impartial advice. Generally the bank will use your solicitor so they dont need to get one.

marielle

Well no. The parents solicitor is organising the change of ownership of the site but that's all. The banks solicitor is dealing with the mortgage. I am thinking of contacting another solicitor alright then i'll be sure i'm getting independent advice. Anybody know a good one and preferably not expensive in Galway?

Chipboard

The bank arent doing you any great favour by allowing both of you on the mortgage, its actually to their advantage.

The deed of waiver of interest means you are waiving your right to any claim of ownership of the property.

You need a solicitor who isnt dealing with any aspect of the transaction already and who is only acting for you, in order for him to be independent. This issue wont take too long to sort out so I wouldnt go shopping around - just bang in "Solicitor Galway city" into Google. Solicitors aren't that expensive if they do a good job (relatively).

antoinolachtnai

Definitely get the advice before you sign anything.

Don't be afraid to say 'no'.

This is a pretty typical thing to happen in the country, I would think. There must be a common resolution to this, but I don't know it.

If you are paying toward the building of the house, you should have a direct claim on it.

One way of doing this might be to structure some sort of option agreement on the land and the house. This would mean that you would have the option to buy an interest in the land at its current value and the house at build-price in the future, if anything went wrong. I've never heard of this being done before for this specific issue, but it is worth discussing with a solicitor.

Get a recommendation and find the best solicitor you can, who is used to dealing with property issues. This is not a straightforward situation.

Normally when you buy a house, you must engage a solicitor, and the solicitor acts on the bank's behalf as well as on your behalf. There are special rules to ensure everything is above-board. If this isn't the case in your situation, you should find out why. You should not enter a mortgage without legal advice. The bank should not let you do this.

If you ask me, this looks like a hairy situation, because you have to think about things like what would happen if there is a problem with the building of the house, and you have to go looking for more money. Will you then need to increase your mortgage? I don't mean to be negative, but this sort of stuff does happen.

Best of luck with your house-building and your marriage!

marielle

yep, i'm definitely getting a solicitors opinion on this. Can anybody recommend a good solicitor with experience with property issues in Galway?

hawker

Just to let you know that this happened me when I was building my house five years ago. As we received the site off my wifes parents the site could only go to her name due to the reasons you said above.

My name was then included after either 3 or 5 years so everything worked out ok.

davidoco

I don't know what taxes and fees they are talking about but situation should be transfer from parents to son - no gift tax or anything like that just some stamp duty and transfer fees. Son then transfers his sole interest in the site to a joint interest with the girl and in the same deed there will be the charge from the against both of them - again only stamp duty and transfer fees.

Property is then in the joint names of the couple. My own brother did this in 2000 with no problem.

What tax are they talking about? I would not UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES appear on a mortgage without a legal interest in the property it is vested in no matter how much "love and affection" there is.