Taking on Parents mortgage

[SandyBanks]

My Parents live in Spain, as do I, however they are not in the best of health and are looking at moving back to the UK. They only have a small apartment here, but also have a small place in the UK (currently rented to my cousin) which they can move back into. They have said that I can have / buy the property in Spain for way below it's market value - even by today's standards. I was wondering if the Bank would allow me to take ownership of the mortgage as it currently stands, or if I would need to apply for a new mortgage entirely ? I can afford the current payments from my salary and give my parents some spending money to go back to the UK with.

[sharonw]

Hi SandyBanks,

Buying the property from your parents will be no different to if you were buying from anyone else in regard to costs so you would be looking at the 7% transfer tax and notary fees etc. You should be able to take over the mortgage, as long as the lender is still offering the product conditions that your parents originally took out. You will still need to meet the lender criteria and provide all documentation regarding income, debt commitments and credit status. As you will be buying at well below market value the lender may deem the current mortgage amount too high against the property so this could cause them to adjust the percentage accordingly. It may be worth seeing what is available as an alternative; there may be a product that has better conditions than what is currently in place.

Kind Regards
Sharon

[SandyBanks]

Thanks Sharon. I accept it may be a little naive of me, but I was optimistically hoping that it may be as simple as changing a name on the escritura and the same on the Mortgage agreement. Anyway, given what I can buy the property for, and the amount that I would need to borrow, I am happy that this should not be too much of a problem.