- Hi, I'm Connie from Prosperity Finance,
sharing the best financial tips
so that you can be more successful
with achieving your financial goals.
Now recently, we had some inquiries about
changing the ownership of the property.
One of the example is,
where the wife own a property
and she used to have a good income,
but, because she has a family right now
and she works less hours,
and as a result her income has reduced.
Now, the wife want to refinance
to improve her loan structure,
but she can't do it on her own,
but with her husband income, it's going to be fine.
Now the only challenge is the property
is actually owned under her own name,
the bank doesn't allow the title stay under her own name
while the borrower is joint personal names.
So, in this case we refer clients
to our long term referral partner, Joy Yuan.
Joy is Senior Solicitor at Turner's Hopkins.
Now, she used to be our assurer as well,
to give us some lot of legal insights.
There's other occasions people need to change title.
For example, transfer existing property
to another entity etc.
So, it all come down to change the property ownership.
Today, I am really lucky to invite Joy Yuan.
Firstly, let's welcome Joy.
Hello, Joy.
- Hello Connie, thanks for the invite.
- Thank you for coming to this episode.
I just would like you to share with us.
So, when a property need to change ownership,
what is the process and what do you
need to do from a legal perspective?
- Yeah, Sure.
Thank you, Connie, so first, we often get inquiries
from clients asking change of ownership names.
And in fact, some people may think
it's just a very simple job.
Do the application and the names can be changed.
But in fact, the legal process involved is more than that.
The first question we will ask clients is why?
What's reason of the changed name.
And the most common reasons we've found
is selling and purchasing property is,
of course, involved changing names.
Selling the property from the joint names,
personal names, to trust or to their companies.
These transactions also involving a change of names.
Apart from the sell or purchase, when people
want to they can also apply for correction of name
and change name due to change of their legal names.
So, you can do all those applications.
Other category, is people just simply want to remove
or add one more person to the title.
So, what is the legal process for it?
Just like the example that Connie just shared with us
in a property in a wife's name, and they want to
transfer into the joint name.
So, in this circumstance, the legal place
really is in the sale and purchase agreement.
In the sale and purchase agreement in place.
Now the wife is the legal can sell the property
to the wife and husband is the purchasers.
Of course, the purchase price will be the market price.
But through that legal place allow the basis,
you know for the transfer to take place.
The wife and husband is the purchaser, of course,
need to contact Connie to arrange their finance
in their joint names to enable the transfer
and the settlement may take place.
In terms of the equity, you know the equity
for the property of the person would offer
can be dealt by other legal documentation
such as legal gifting or legal forgiveness of debt.
So, lawyers will help you prepare these legal documentations
to ensure the transfer the can go smoothly.
But in fact you can also see it's a sale and a purchase.
- Great, thank you, Joy.
So what other situations that involve changing names?
Can you give us an example?
- Yeah, often we also come across quite often
is the couple want to set up their family trust,
and want to put property into that trust.
So, the legal documentations, they're similar
like the last example, but can do a sale
and purchase agreement to sell the property
from the couple's name into their trust.
And also do a deed acknowledgement of the debt
to forgive that debt.
So the property is properly gifted into the trust.
- [Connie] Great.
- Yeah, other circumstances we come across
is another example I can share with you,
early this year a client had come to us and say,
"Joy, can you help us to remove
"my wife's name from the title?"
And I asked them, "Why do you want to do that?"
After a more in depth discussion I found out actually
the parties are going through a separation.
And they simply just, you know, had a sort of agreement.
One person is going to take over the property.
But, these kind of situations we were stuck.
We were not able to simply do a sale or purchase agreement.
The separation needed to be dealt with,
you know, by a family lawyer
through the separation agreement to document
the separation of assets properly.
And through that base agreement, then the lawyer,
the convincing lawyer can process the transfer.
That's really different from normal
sell and purchase agreements.
So, I think as clients, you need to have
very clear message to your lawyer about
what you are trying to do.
What are you trying to achieve?
And your lawyer, along with other professionals,
such as Connie, the broker, you know,
the bank, as well as your accountant can ensure
that all the right documentations is in place.
And all the tax, all the legal, all the financial
in effect is all taken into account
to make sure the transfer is done properly.
- Great, Joy, thank you so much.
So my take away is always tell your solicitor
the reason for the request, 'cause you might not know,
there's, you know, different documents required
to achieve that outcome.
And also get solicitor involved as early as you can
so that you can make sure the whole thing happens smoothly.
It's also a good idea to talk to your finance broker
like Prosperity Finance because we can potentially
look at the refinancing which potentially
give you more cash back to cover some
of the legal costs and other costs as well.
Okay, Thank you so much Joy
and thank you so much for watching.
If you want to get some legal advice, you know,
personalized legal advice for your own situation,
or any other legal advice in terms of business
or property transaction or family matters,
Joy and the company she work for has all
the services that covered.
So, please feel free to contact her.
Her contact details are listed in the video below.
And, thank you again for watching.
And please, if you're not, please subscribe
to our YouTube channel, because every week
we have really good content waiting for you.
Thank you, bye for now, bye Joy.
- Thank you, Connie.
Thanks very much. - Bye.