Wondering would banks be willing to transfer a mortgage from a parent to a child that has a full-time job is married, has been previously approved for a mortgage but has since moved abroad on a 5 year contract?
Or would it be easier to just apply for a mortgage from abroad and pay out what the parents currently own?
Any help or knowledge would be appreciated.
Interesting question. The banks might be reluctant to transfer a mortgage in those circumstances. Who’s to say the son abroad won’t declare bankrupt in that jurisdiction in a few years. Or just never return. It’s hard enough to enforce the law in Ireland, never mind track down those abroad and enforce irish law there. As a start Maybe try and get a mortgage abroad as you suggest, but perhaps the child should mention that they are being moved back sooner than the 5year period. You can always push the period out when you get the mortgage.
It depends on how well serviced the current mortgage is. If the bank can be assured that you pose a smaller risk than the parents, id say they would be willing to discuss. Maybe if a lump sum was part of the package it would run smoothly. Another factor may be if it’s in negative equity or not. Unless there are arrears on the property, id say you would be low down on the long list of priorities.
Hi born_in_may,
any mortgage applications that I have seen always assume that the applicants are resident in Ireland (and have this as a clear condition on the application forms). Is there anything stopping you from just paying the mortgage and leaving it in (your?) parents’ names… or perhaps having your name added to the mortgage as well? There may be registration/tax implications as well since the bank would presumably expect you to be the owner of the mortgaged asset if you are going to “take on the mortgage” and you may also be charged a much higher interest rate as an investor (together with other PRTB charges etc if it is a rental property and you are allowing other people to live in it…).
It’s an interesting question and I am intrigued as to why you would want to do this and how the bank will react… keep us posted on how it goes!
-sammy 
while you may have your own reasons, for tax etc you might want to keep it in their name and give them a “dig out” if that is required. Bear it it mind
If its to help out your parents why don’t you just transfer the money monthly to them or directly to the mortgage account?
If this was do-able then why isn’t it being done already then?
Like a mortgage in one name being transferred to a spouse.
A mortgage in one name being transferred to the new owner’s name and so forth.
The fact that it is a within-family transfer wouldn’t really have any bearing on the financial arrangement surely.
If you were a bank, would you rather have an outstanding mortgage with Sean Dunne or Gayle Dunne? liquidity can be very different within familys.
We actually have been doing this for a while now and although we trust our parents it would be nice to have it in our name, we paid off all arrears for them and no it is not in negative equity the mortgage is about $100k lower than what it would sell for tomorrow.
What happens if the parents go bankrupt and it is in their name, it gets repossessed and all our payments were for nothing? If we could just transfer it over I thought it would be great. We both have full-time jobs abroad and do plan to come back to Ireland and one of us is guaranteed a $75-$100k a year job once we return… no kids, no other debts, good savings and excellent credit.
We are going to certainly ask the bank and I will keep you posted on what they say.
I took responsibility for a parent’s mortgage some time back, got a solicitor to draft an agreement which outlined each parties responsibilities and rights, very easy and did not have to mess with the bank. it was slightly different circumstances in that there was collateral outside of the property in return for paying the mortgage on the property so was not buying the mortgaged property.
I would imagine a legal agreement which respects the banks rights as mortgage provider should be good both legally and fiscally.