Joint mortgage when only one of us is first time buyer?

Crubeens

I'm hoping to buy a house with my g/f but I'm not a first time buyer and she is. It looks like we won't avoid stamp duty, but as anyone else had any luck in this area?

Is there a way we might be able to avoid paying stamp duty?

thanks in advance

BoozyBabe

Also interested in answers to this, as I'll be in a similar situation.

My bf & I will be building our own home shortly. I'd imagine we'll need both incomes to foot the bill & to get the mortgage we need.
He's never owned a property before, but I have a rental property.

How will this work?

Could we possibly keep the mortgage in his name, but that I act as guarantor, that way it's still a 1st time buyer application, but with enough available funds for big enough mortgage?

Maybe a self build is exempt from stamp duty?
What other benefits do 1st time buyers get? I don't remem getting all that many benefits.

The_Conductor

The only way to avoid stamp duty is if your girlfriend's name is the only one on the deeds. You could do up a seperate legally binding document stating what is to happen to the house, or its proceeds, in the event of you splitting up. It might be a good idea not to use the same solicitor for both items (as solicitors are duty bound to report your beneficial ownership to the Revenue Commissioners). You might then have an issue with the bank though- as you cannot take out a loan against an asset or an event in which you do not have an interest- which might mean that the mortgage would be in your girlfriends name, and the mortgage would be assessed solely on her income.

To be honest- you would be creating 3 problems in order to solve one- and one of the three problems created could potentially have legal implications (other than problems should you split). Its probably easier to bite the bullet and pay the stamp duty.

The_Conductor

Boozybabe- acting as guarantor on a mortgage does not confer any beneficial rights on you, it simply denotes an obligation to the bank should the named person on the mortgage not honour their debts.

Banks normally only accept someone acting as guarantor when they have assets that could be drawn upon in the event of it being necessary (e.g. a house that could be sold or whatever).

Selfbuilds are charged stamp duty in a different manner than residential property transactions. Providing there is not a pre-existing house on the site- stamp duty is charged on the price of the site on a sliding scale (starts at 1% between 10 and 20k up to 9% for any site valued at over 150k). If there is a pre-existing building on the site- whether the transaction is viewed as a land transaction or a property transaction is determined by the amount of land (any area under 1 acre is considered residential, over 1 acre is land transaction). Talk to a solicitor about this though- as it was all updated 2007 Finance Bill.

For your self-build itself then, its an exempt development for stamp duty (as you already own the site), but you will get charged the full whack of VAT on the transaction.

Shane

sparkyjo

hey there i was in this situation last year is the house you are looking to buy new or old and are you both going to be moving in to it and how long have you had your original house all these can effect your situation


also i had a problem with the companies that would give me a morgage as my wages didn't cover the price of both the house but the equity did

if it is a new house and you going to be both moving in no stamp at all except on your old house may have to pay stamp duty on that if you are planing to rent

if it s second hand and you not going to go on the deed be very careful as even a perfect contract in ireland is easy broken and if there is a chance of breaking up even a remote chance be very careful

i ended up buying a new one solved a lot of problems i could go on deed and now even if we break up i have a good come back and i don't have to pay stamp duty on my first for 1 year after i moved out if i don't sell it in the mean time 3 months left