A Home Counties couple, in their early sixties, were negotiating the split of assets due to their impending divorce. She complained that the, so far amicable settlement, was not allowing her to buy the property she wanted to buy in her chosen village. He was keeping the family property and giving her a weighted amount of the other assets (as much as he could afford without needing to sell the property) and 50% of his pension. He could not get a standard high street mortgage and refused point blank to sell the property.
On review, the pension split was creating a £109k penalty against the transfer value calculation.
The solution was for him to keep the whole of the pension and recalculate the split using all of the assets, including the nominal cash value of the “uncrystallised” pension.
Then the shortfall in the payment to her was made up by a Lifetime Mortgage secured on the family property. Lifetime Mortgages do not require any affordability or credit checks. Consequently she got the full amount of her settlement in cash.
However, on hearing about Lifetime Mortgages first hand and how they worked, she also took one out to buy her “Ideal” village property and forever home.
Getting a Tailored quote is the best way to see how much you can borrow and how much it will cost you.