Going through a Separation / Divorce or Property Settlement?

Here’s what you need to keep in mind from a finance perspective.

  1. You can absolutely talk to a mortgage broker early in the piece. We’re here to help.
  2. When you make arrangements to take over an existing property owned in dual names remember:
    1. It’s best if you have spoken to a broker first or gotten pre-approved so you have an understanding of your borrowing capacity.
    2. While a broker can get a valuation done on your property on behalf of a bank they cannot provide the valuation to you for your negotiations for your separation.
    3. If you are keeping a property that was previously in dual names the bank will want to make any approval conditional upon you receiving confirmed legal separation documentation or consent orders as signed off by the court.
    4. When making an agreement to take over ownership of a property be sure that your court agreement does not have an unnecessarily restrictive finance time frame – check with your broker and unless you’re already pre-approved do not put less than 60 days. This should be an over estimation but it is safer for you than too little time.
    5. Remember if you are still living with your ex-partner it can impact things like family tax benefit payments which can be important in figuring out your borrowing capacity.
    6. Remember any debts that have your name on them (home loan, shared credit cards etc. ) will impact your credit report if payments are made late, or accounts are overdrawn.
  3. Finance separation agreements or consent orders can be done through a lawyer or through the courts. Please know that these can often take a long period of time to get signed off on even when all parties are amicable.
  4. Yes, a mortgage broker can act for both sides in all parties wish as far as arranging for one partner to take over the existing property while helping another purchase. All information is treated as confidential.

This is often a very emotional time and we do all we can to be supportive and helpful for anyone going through this process. It is an area we specialise in and we’re happy to guide you through it.