Transfer of equity
Changing who is named on the title of a property while at least one existing owner stays. Adding a partner, removing a former one, or passing a share to a relative are all transfers of equity.
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Lender consent
- Required where a mortgage is in place
- Lenders covered here
- 66
Part 2 of the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook is amended by lenders without notice. Check the current version before relying on any requirement described here.
Where the mortgage changes things
Without a mortgage, a transfer of equity is a conveyancing job and a Land Registry application. With one, the lender is a party to the outcome: the people bound by the mortgage are changing, and that is something the lender agrees to rather than something it is told about. Lenders set their own criteria for that agreement, and they differ enough that the answer for one is not a guide to the answer for another.
A lender will also normally require the work to be done by a firm it has approved. That is the same panel that governs a purchase or a remortgage, which is why the search above starts with the lender rather than the town.
The four questions worth settling early
Will the lender agree
Consent is the gating item. Everything else is arrangeable; a lender declining to release an outgoing owner, or declining to accept an incoming one, changes what is possible rather than what it costs.
Is anyone being released
An owner who comes off the title is released from the mortgage covenants only if the lender agrees to release them. Where it does not, they remain liable on a mortgage secured on a property they no longer own.
Is there stamp duty to pay
Taking on a share of the outstanding mortgage debt counts as consideration for stamp duty land tax, so a transfer where no money changes hands can still be notifiable. The figures turn on the debt assumed and the buyer’s own circumstances, so treat them as a question for your conveyancer rather than something to estimate.
Who else lives there
An adult who will occupy the property and is not on the mortgage is normally asked to sign a consent postponing any interest they may have to the lender’s charge. It is a routine document, and it is easier to arrange early than at completion.
Written as general information for England and Wales, not as advice on a particular transfer. What a specific lender requires sits in Part 2 of the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook, which lenders amend without notice.
Requirements by lender, for 66 lenders
Each page below covers transfers of equity for one lender, written for the conveyancer running the file, and says which Part 2 question holds that lender’s own answer.
For firms
Panel membership decides whether a firm can be instructed on a transfer of equity at all. LenderPanel maintains the directory borrowers search when they are choosing.
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