Home Rights Notice & Remortgage

Since Covid19 hit I have been out of work.

I have been trying to remortgage the house, a process which I was lucky enough to start before I lost my job. The remortgage has taken some time but is now set to complete. Then I received a letter from my conveyancing solicitor that they are unable to continue due to there being a Home Rights Notice placed on the property.

What can I do?

At the moment I have moved out of the house, temporarily. My wife and 2 children (17 and 18) still live there. The mortgage is in my sole name; it always has been on account of my wife being older than me and not being able to get a mortgage with her name on it. She doesn't work. I have told my wife that without the remortgage, which puts our house on a lower rate and interest only for now, I am unable to afford the mortgage; I will default, and we will lose the house.

She is adamant that the Home Rights Notice must stay because her solicitor told her. But we will lose our house! And I will be the one with poor credit. How is that fair.

I don't understand how she can stop me from remortgaging the property, and force me into a position of not being able to afford the mortgage, without consequence to her.

Is there anything I can do?

>>Is there anything I can do?

No, apart from getting a divorce and settling the financial issues arising from the marriage once for all. For what it is worth your wife did not even need to register a Home Rights Notice to prevent you selling or remortgaging the property. She lives there with the children. Therefore she has an overriding interest in the property which means that any would be purchaser or mortgage lender would advance any money subject to her interest in the property. Your conveyancing lawyer would have had to obtain her written consent to any proposed transaction whether she had registered a Home Rights Notice or not and he/she would have been negligent if this consent had not been sought. The only way in which you can bring her interest to an end is within the context of a divorce. That is not to say that you will then be able to do what you wish with the property because the outcome may well be that she gets to stay in the house with the children.

Thank you.

I did receive Occupiers Consent to remortgage the property, signed by my wife.

And yes, I know she still has rights in the property. I am not trying to sell the house, only get a better mortgage deal.

Her solicitor gave her bad advice.

I guess it is time, I have no choice but to engage my own solicitor.

>>I did receive Occupiers Consent to remortgage the property, signed by my wife.

That seems inconsistent with your conveyancing solicitor's unwillingness to proceed. Provided that the occupier agrees to postpone their rights to the mortgagee that is usually sufficient for the transaction to proceed.

The conveyancing solicitor is claiming that the mortgage can not progress while the home rights notice is in place.

Is there any legal recourse against either my wife or her solicitor. It was her solicitor who told her that without the home rights notice in place I could sell the house from under them or remortgage and take out all the equity without her knowledge.

Surely I can have some recourse because in the long run this may bankrupt me. At present it is costing ME and extra £700 a month in interest fees due to an SVR mortgage.

>>Surely I can have some recourse

No. Your wife and her solicitor were entitled to put the notice in place and it is their choice whether to remove it in order to enable you to remortgage. If one spouse knows that her action or inaction is costing the other £700 a month for as long as the situation lasts then it can make good sense to do that if the effect is to put a lot of pressure on the other spouse to settle. Putting your opponent at a disadvantage is a perfectly normal negotiating technique.

Totally sympathise with you im going through a similar situation.. just doesnt seem any justice