Can my girlfriend use her H2B bonus to join my mortgage?

[Chrisatronic]

Hi all, as the title states really.

I’m finally in the position financially to buy a house. Aiming for 15-20% deposit on a 250-280k house. I have it saved and ready with salary to meet 4x.
My girlfriend however is still in training / between jobs, so could not really join the mortgage in any capacity from the get go. Shes been self employed / part time up to now so has minimal savings / credit history etc.

What we’re trying to work out is...

1) I buy now, 100% my name and ownership
2) GF continues to save into H2B until her salary/credit is consistent enough to get a mortgage.
3) GF then ‘buys in’ do X% of the house, using her savings as a deposit then mortgage for the rest. Mortgage changes to tenants in common.

Question is will the H2B bonus be accepted? Or is it lost to the ethers as it’s not technically a property ‘sale’?

Thanks for any help!

[Chilly for June]

If her income isn't suitable or self employed less than 2 years, You could try putting her name on the application for the mortgage with 0 income.

If your affordability is strong you may still sneak over the line and then you could benefit from her HTB cashback on completion. She wouldn't need to go as an dependent as she is working it's just the lender does take her income.

You mentioned her credit history is minimal, that doesn't always mean it is bad though. I would get her to check with a reference agency. If her credit history is bad then leave her off completely.

[Chrisatronic]

Chilly for June said:

If her income isn't suitable or self employed less than 2 years, You could try putting her name on the application for the mortgage with 0 income.

If your affordability is strong you may still sneak over the line and then you could benefit from her HTB cashback on completion. She wouldn't need to go as an dependent as she is working it's just the lender does take her income.

You mentioned her credit history is minimal, that doesn't always mean it is bad though. I would get her to check with a reference agency. If her credit history is bad then leave her off completely.

How would that work equity wise though? She just pays random amounts in to the mortgage when she can and we keep track manually?

[Sarnie]

She doesn't need an income to be on the mortgage............

[Chrisatronic]

Sarnie said:

She doesn't need an income to be on the mortgage............

I’m obviously missing something. I assumed if we wanted for example 80/20 tenants in common, she would still need deposit & income checks to pass for her 20% portion?

[hajaba123]

Chrisatronic said:

I’m obviously missing something. I assumed if we wanted for example 80/20 tenants in common, she would still need deposit & income checks to pass for her 20% portion?

Not her portion as far as the lender is concerned. You’re both jointly and severally liable for the whole loan

[Chilly for June]

I would say if your looking at getting a mortgage with someone then you should be committed for the long haul and not already thinking about who gets what should it all to wrong etc

If you go joint and get the cashback then as said above your both liable if you want to go separate ways and it then can get messy.

[Sarnie]

Chrisatronic said:

I’m obviously missing something. I assumed if we wanted for example 80/20 tenants in common, she would still need deposit & income checks to pass for her 20% portion?

No, as someone posted, you would both be 100% severable and liable for the mortgage..........you can't have an 80/20 mortgage.....

[Nickbrapp]

You cannot have a spouse on the mortage with no income, if you do she becomes a dependant and all her outgoings become your outgoings and it reduces your affordability

This is exactly what we wanted to do, but it just can’t be done.

We found that bank of Ireland will take a 6 month contract that’s been renewed once into account, and may offer a mortage to her based on that

Also if you are buying now and she’s not, convert hers to a LISA as you’ll get more bonus that you can actslly use

You can pay in £4K a year and you get the government top up of £1000 as you go along and it can go towards the deposit

The bonus on a HTB ISA only goes to fees or off the equity

The other thing you can do. If you can find a bank which accepts it. (The only ones I know of) RBS and NatWest, Is she can give you the money and have it protected by a deed of trust, so that if you split up and the house was sold she would have a charge to get her money back. This is what we did in the end but be careful only a select few do it.

We successfully sued a mortage advisor as she got us a mortage with Halifax who didn’t accept it as she said it was a gift and he would have had no comeback in court even if we had a deed of trust after. But again you couldn’t use the ISA for this, only cash.

Edited by Nickbrapp on Sunday 15th November 11:23

[Sarnie]

Nickbrapp said:

You cannot have a spouse on the mortage with no income

You can......

[Nickbrapp]

Sarnie said:

You can......

Well you can, but not without it taking your affordability right down.

[Chilly for June]

Nickbrapp said:

Sarnie said:

You can......

Well you can, but not without it taking your affordability right down.

As I stated in my first answer

[Chrisatronic]

Nickbrapp said:

Also if you are buying now and she’s not, convert hers to a LISA as you’ll get more bonus that you can actslly use

You can pay in £4K a year and you get the government top up of £1000 as you go along and it can go towards the deposit

The bonus on a HTB ISA only goes to fees or off the equity

Edited by Nickbrapp on Sunday 15th November 11:23

But can you use a LISA to buy into my mortgage? Or rather can I sell a share of my house to her, which she can use a ISA towards. That’s why I’m tempted to stick with H2B as it’s specifically a mortgage deposit not an exchange deposit?

I’ll be using a LISA myself, but her H2B only has about a grand in so would rather keep saving until her income is consistent enough for a mortgage then get the bonus on top.

[Jackals]

Chrisatronic said:

But can you use a LISA to buy into my mortgage? Or rather can I sell a share of my house to her, which she can use a ISA towards. That’s why I’m tempted to stick with H2B as it’s specifically a mortgage deposit not an exchange deposit?

I’ll be using a LISA myself, but her H2B only has about a grand in so would rather keep saving until her income is consistent enough for a mortgage then get the bonus on top.

I'd be surprised if you can do what you're stating OP, but you need to remember you can only use H2B ISA on properties up to £250k outside London.