If you own your home jointly with your former partner, you will need to either sell the property or transfer the property into your or your former partner’s name. The Family Court will generally not make orders providing for a home to remain in joint names (although there may be exceptions to this depending on your circumstances). In order to cut the financial string that is holding you and your former partner together, you may need to consider taking over ownership of the property and refinancing the mortgage in your sole name.
Can you handle the debt on your own?
The starting point is:
- Do you want to keep the home?
- If you want to keep your home, will a bank let you refinance the property into your own name? Can you borrow the money to keep the property and potentially pay out your former partner?
Before you can move your property settlement forward, you will need to find out the answer to both of those questions.
Bank or Broker?
You can go to your bank or a mortgage broker when you are refinancing your home loan. You may already have a good relationship with your bank and want to stick with that lender. Or you may benefit from switching to another bank or asking a mortgage broker to find you the bank with the best deal for you.
We are often asked what the benefits of a mortgage broker are. Some of the key benefits of having a broker are:
- Finance brokers already know the industry, the lenders, their products and their requirements, saving you a lot of time and energy on research. They will also put the time into finding out about your particular credit
- situation and have a wealth of experience to draw on to help you simplify it.
- A broker can translate the “bank speak” for you.
- Brokers will determine your borrowing needs and fiscal ability and choose the best product to suit your requirements.
- Brokers have a larger selection of loan products to offer. While a bank can only offer you its own products, finance brokers can help you choose from a selection of loans provided by different lenders.
- Help you compare apples, oranges and the whole fruit basket – Finance brokers have the knowledge and tools to compare hundreds of products and you get the right loan for your circumstances and needs.
For more, click this link.
We can provide you with a referral to either a bank or mortgage broker. We have relationships with some of the major lenders including mobile lenders who can come to you. The choice is yours. We can help by giving you the options.
To get your property settlement moving in the right direction, give us a call to book a fixed fee initial consultation with one of our family lawyers.
