Switching & Moving from single to joint mortgage

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leonmahon

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We're a couple considering switching mortgage. Currently mortgage is in one persons name, and if we switch we would want either a joint mortgage or to move the mortgage to the other person.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Anything to consider?

We are not married but signed a legal co-ownership agreement when we first bought the house.
We are looking at AIB SVR 2.75% <50% LTV (coming from BOI 4.05% SVR).

Thanks.
 
Are you saying that the mortgage is in one person's name but the title deeds are in both names?

If the title deeds are in one person's name only, he will have to buy 50% of her share in the house and pay legal fees and stamp duty accordingly.

Brendan
 
How is the property owned? Is it in single name? There are stamp duty impacts of transferring to jointly owned, and bank wouldn't be willing to grant a mortgage to a different person than owns the property.

Personally, I'd just move to BoI fixed rate at 3%. If it takes you 3 months to switch to AIB it'll have cost you more than you'll save between the 2.75% and 3% rate. Simple solution.
 
Should also consider talking to BOI and tell them you are thinking of moving and can they match AIB rate - i did that and got a 5 year fixed for 2.8% (please no one tell me rates are going to fall significantly again)!
 
Thanks for the feedback. I had not considered the impact of Stamp Duty, which complicates matters.

I have no interest in a fixed rate product - unfortunately as with everything in life there appear to be no simple solutions..
 
leonmahon said:
I have no interest in a fixed rate product
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Do you mind me asking why?
I'm always amazed at the number of people in BOI SVR rate that could save over 1% by fixing, so it would be great to understand the reservations that people have, which in turn allow the banks to keep SVR high.
 
RedOnion said:
Do you mind me asking why?
I'm always amazed at the number of people in BOI SVR rate that could save over 1% by fixing, so it would be great to understand the reservations that people have, which in turn allow the banks to keep SVR high.
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Sure - my reason is that I want to overpay my mortgage. If I move to a fixed rate I won't be able to do that without incurring penalties.
 
In BOI you can over pay by greater of 10% of monthly payment and €65 - I also reduced term by a couple of years as i know what the payments for the next 5 years are going to be - something to consider but everyone has their own preferences.
 
Thomas said:
In BOI you can over pay by greater of 10% of monthly payment and €65 - I also reduced term by a couple of years as i know what the payments for the next 5 years are going to be - something to consider but everyone has their own preferences.
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Thanks for that info. I will review all my options and good to know everything that's on the table.
 
Thomas said:
Should also consider talking to BOI and tell them you are thinking of moving and can they match AIB rate - i did that and got a 5 year fixed for 2.8% (please no one tell me rates are going to fall significantly again)!
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Agreed to ask BOI - they appear to be open to negotiation than most other banks, even if it takes effort and sometimes luck to get it done

leonmahon said:
I have no interest in a fixed rate product - unfortunately as with everything in life there appear to be no simple solutions..
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You could get married :) although I am not sure that is a simple option

Thomas said:
In BOI you can over pay by greater of 10% of monthly payment and €65 - I also reduced term by a couple of years as i know what the payments for the next 5 years are going to be - something to consider but everyone has their own preferences.
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Agree here - if you wish to stay with BOI you really need to consider fixing. I would ask how much you overpay the mortgage by on a regular basis and does it make sense to be paying an extra 1% for this facility. You can always fix for 3 years, save the overpayments into a regular savers account and pay down at the end of the fixed period, before you fix again.
Worst case if you overpay aggressively, you could at least split your mortgage so a block of it gets the benefit of the cheaper rates

leonmahon said:
We're a couple considering switching mortgage. Currently mortgage is in one persons name, and if we switch we would want either a joint mortgage or to move the mortgage to the other person.
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As an FYI - when we switched from BOI to KBC the house and mortgage was in a sole name. As we were married and the house was the family home, we had to change this to joint names - both on the mortgage and the title deeds. It was a condition of the mortgage with KBC that it was joint names only on family homes. No tax implications as we were married.
If you look to switch providers, you may end up in a similar situation with family homes ! Worth keeping in mind !
 
Similar to @gnf_ireland advice, but I'd only fix for 1 year. Pay off a lump sum first, then fix. Overpay by the 10% per month which gives you flexibility to stop if you need to. Build your emergency cash fund back up if you've depleted it to pay off a lump sum up front.

At the end of the year, pay a lump sum, rinse and repeat.

Then make sure you understand how break fees work. The 12 month market rate is -0.191%, and the 6 month rate is -0.271%. If rates remain like this in 6 months time and you wanted to repay 100,000 the break fee would be less than 50 but you would have saved 500 in interest in that time (if that was entire balance). The 6 month rate has never been below -0.278 so it's take another financial crisis to result in a large penalty.

Another option would be to shorten the remaining term before you fix, but that's a permanent decision.

If you can't easily switch lender, you've lots of options rather than paying over 4% SVR.
 
Thanks to @gnf_ireland and @RedOnion. Sage advice and plenty to consider. I was in touch with AIB today and they were of the opinion that there would not be any tax/stamp duty implications of switching from a single to a joint mortgage - obviously I would like to have this validated. I am going to proceed with the engagement, but if it doesn't work out I will definitely consider an approach mixing periods of fixed rate payments with intermittent lump sum repayments suggested above.

gnf_ireland said:
I would ask how much you overpay the mortgage by on a regular basis and does it make sense to be paying an extra 1% for this facility.
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Currently overpaying c. 150% of the standard monthly payment - I do need to understand more on the topic of break fees.

gnf_ireland said:
You could get married :) although I am not sure that is a simple option
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By far the most complicated and least cost-effective option on the table :)
 
Thomas said:
Should also consider talking to BOI and tell them you are thinking of moving and can they match AIB rate - i did that and got a 5 year fixed for 2.8% (please no one tell me rates are going to fall significantly again)!
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Did you just ring them up and say you were thinking of switching and they offered you this? Or did they wait until you called in the deeds before they came back with the 2.8% rate?
 
I rang them up and told them I was thinking about moving and i could move to Ulster bank and get 4 year fixed for 2.6 or 5 year fixed for 2.5% and could they match to stop me moving (same approach I take with all the utility companies). I had done nothing else except rang them. They said they could give me 3% over the phone but as that wasn’t going to be enough they would revert to another section and call me back. Got a call back next day with 2.8% for 5 years. As they had always treated me well and I had a good record with them I decided to stay - also there was a risk Ulster might not take me for whatever reason !!
 
Thomas said:
I rang them up and told them I was thinking about moving and i could move to Ulster bank and get 4 year fixed for 2.6 or 5 year fixed for 2.5% and could they match to stop me moving (same approach I take with all the utility companies). I had done nothing else except rang them. They said they could give me 3% over the phone but as that wasn’t going to be enough they would revert to another section and call me back. Got a call back next day with 2.8% for 5 years. As they had always treated me well and I had a good record with them I decided to stay - also there was a risk Ulster might not take me for whatever reason !!
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That's brilliant, I'll try the same thing, thanks very much for the info
 
Thomas said:
I rang them up and told them I was thinking about moving and i could move to Ulster bank and get 4 year fixed for 2.6 or 5 year fixed for 2.5% and could they match to stop me moving (same approach I take with all the utility companies). I had done nothing else except rang them. They said they could give me 3% over the phone but as that wasn’t going to be enough they would revert to another section and call me back. Got a call back next day with 2.8% for 5 years. As they had always treated me well and I had a good record with them I decided to stay - also there was a risk Ulster might not take me for whatever reason !!
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I think this can be hit and miss with BoI. It really does depend on who you get to talk to and sometimes you have to ring a few times.
When they initially introduced their 3.9% LTV rate in January 2015, I rang them 3 times to move onto it - in all cases declined, it was not available. I could see from here that some people were getting it and others were not. I was nearly complete with my switch to KBC at the time and I rang them to move my house insurance to KBC. The person asked were they competitive and I said yes as I am switching the mortgage to them. We got into a discussion around switching and I said I was nearly complete in the process, and was just waiting to agree the draw down date. They asked if they could review the account and came back with the 3.9% offer to me more or less straight away. I declined it, saying I had asked for it three times and declined and would still not match the KBC rate. They offered to move me to the 3.9% rate until I switched (which they did to be fair to them).
I had told them on the previous calls if they had given me the 3.9% rate I would not have switched.

So try a number of times with them if not successful, but you have to be willing to call their bluff also !
 
Coldwarrior said:
That's brilliant, I'll try the same thing, thanks very much for the info
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Called them said I was planning to switch to Ulster Bank, they were very eager to try and match the rates and rang me back within an hour with offers of 2.8% for either 3 or 5 years fixed or 3.2% for 10 years. Not quite as good a rate as Ulster Bank but with the 1% cashback in 5 years time it works out better, so will likely fix for 5 years with them.
 
Hi @Coldwarrior
Just to clarify, was this with BoI you were able to negotiate?

Edit: apologies - ignore. It obviously is when I read the thread properly!
 
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Coldwarrior said:
Called them said I was planning to switch to Ulster Bank, they were very eager to try and match the rates and rang me back within an hour with offers of 2.8% for either 3 or 5 years fixed or 3.2% for 10 years. Not quite as good a rate as Ulster Bank but with the 1% cashback in 5 years time it works out better, so will likely fix for 5 years with them.
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Be sure to get written confirmation you will be getting the 1% cashback in 5 years time off them!
 
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