A transfer of equity occurs when one or more property owner(s) sells their share to another co-owner. The process can be incredibly straightforward, as long as everyone involved understands the terms and conditions and the right legal advice.
All homes are owned on either a freehold meaning you own the property or leasehold basis, meaning you have a lease from the freeholder to use the property for an agreed number of years. DV Solicitors will help you with all the normal legal work involved in buying a property and thoroughly look at the lease and its terms. Dreading to deal with the landlord, vendor’s solicitor and/or management company? Leave it all to us, we got you covered!
Include your spouse in your property’s deed if you have married or remarried.
As your solicitor, we need to check on the length of the remaining lease and make a number of enquiries about your lease to the landlord, such as:
Note: If there are no mortgages on the property, the existing and new owners of the property sign the transfer deed in the presence of a witness and the conveyancer registers the transfer deed at the Land Registry. A stamp duty certificate is needed if the value of the transaction is above £40,000.
If there is a mortgage on the property, the consent of the mortgage lender is needed before proceeding with the transfer because if you are including someone to the title, they will become equally liable for the mortgage. It goes the same way If you are excluding someone from the title, the liability will be passed on to the remaining owners of the property. The remaining owners will be checked by the mortgage lender if they are able to maintain mortgage payments before agreeing to the transfer.
As your conveyancer, we will get in touch with the mortgage lender and request written consent to the transfer. The mortgage lender may want to make amendments to the terms of the mortgage before agreeing. The process can continue once the written consent is received. However, if the mortgage lender did not give their consent for the transfer, you have to repay the mortgage before continuing with the transfer either with a cash payment or acquiring a mortgage with a different lender who approves the transfer.
