How a divorce affects your mortgage?

When you make the decision to divorce, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that you will have to arrange a lot of things, especially when there’s a house in both names. If one of you wants to continue living in the house, how does that work exactly? And what happens to any surplus value? We’ll give you the answer!

There are several scenarios for those getting a divorce with an owner-occupied home. Obviously, what we all hope for is that your home has become more valuable since buying the property. When you both own half of the house, you are of course also entitled to half of the profit when the house is sold. Although excess value sounds like music to our ears, it can also create a tricky situation. Will you or the other person stay in the house? Then the other one will have to, and be able to, buy the other out.

Will you be able to get financing if you continue to live alone in the house?
Despite good earnings, it may happen that you cannot afford the home you would like to stay in on your own. Or perhaps you are able to bear the monthly costs alone, but it becomes harder to buy out the other person and, therefore, you cannot put the house in your own name. A mortgage consultant is then the solution for you: he/she can calculate for you what the possibilities are.

How to buy out your ex-partner?
As mentioned above, the departing partner is entitled to half of the surplus value of the house. Is there any surplus value and do you wish to continue living in the house yourself? Then you will have to buy out the other person. One solution may be to finance it with an extra mortgage, provided the bank is willing to grant one to you. This depends entirely on your income. Alternatively, you can always offset the surplus value with other joint possessions, such as the joint car or share of the inventory.

Will you have higher monthly costs if you continue to live in the house?
That could happen, but it absolutely doesn’t have to be the case. When one of you gets the house and the mortgage in your name, the old mortgage will be terminated. The person who stays behind takes out a new mortgage in his or her own name, and from then on only carries the charges that you were previously able to share together. If an additional mortgage is taken out to buy out the partner, there will be extra costs. However, it is also possible that the new mortgage will result in lower mortgage costs For example, because the interest rate is now a lot lower than when you bought the house together.

What happens when you’re looking for a new home?
If you decide to leave the marital home, you at least have the advantage of being able to start again. You can use any surplus value that you may have acquired from the property to invest in a new home. This makes you eligible for mortgage interest relief. However, you should bear in mind that the divorce must be finalised before you can buy a new home. In addition, we should not forget that it is currently only possible to borrow a maximum of 100% of the home value. . If you do not have enough savings to finance costs such as the notary, estate agent and transfer tax, you will need to find another solution.

What if neither can buy out the other?
Having a large surplus value is often good news, but it can also be bad news. If both parties are unable to buy out the other, the only solution is to sell the house. The advantage is that the surplus value is paid out, but it means neither will get to keep the house.