I've Never Taken My Ex's Name From The Mortgage. He's Never Paid This. Will It Be Difficult To Have His Name Removed?

Blurtit gets questions from people in many different countries, so it is a bit hard to answer this question reliably without knowing exactly where you live. Plus, the people answering these questions are not financial experts. So you will always be better off getting legal advice from a qualified expert (soliciter or similar). So following is just a guideline.

In most cases, it is up to the lender and the other person who can claim to own the house (your ex). Whether or not he ever paid a penny on the mortgage is not very important, he has legal co-ownership.

If your ex- is amenable, and if your lender is satisfied you can afford the payments on your own (evidently you can!), then it should be possible to transfer the deeds into your name alone. Your ex- may want some compensation for this; you might have to increase your mortgage to pay him off for his "share" of the property. Contact your lender and your ex- about this option.

If you ex- is amenable to just give you his part of the house, but lender won't let you change the deeds (they still want someone else to be jointly liable for payments), you could set a legal agreement with your ex- that you'll pay the mortgage and they won't claim any part of the proceeds when you sell. See a lawyer.

If he wants his share but you can't afford to buy him out, you may be able to set up a legal agreement that you will pay him back his share when you sell at some point in the future, or you could set up a regime whereby you just buy him out in instalments (rather than paying the bank more on the mortgage). This would need to be put down as a legally binding agreement on both sides (see a lawyer).

If he's an ogre who wants his share NOW in spite of never having paid anything into the house, you may try to take him to court to prove that he's not entitled to as much as he claims. This can get really complicated to prove, your chances of winning are poor. You must seek trained legal advice if you are in this situation.

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