Help me out Sis!

The Client
Our clients were two sisters who lived in and jointly owned a property together with their mum residing in the house. One of the sisters had recently gotten married and wanted to move out to purchase their own home. This meant removing one of the sisters from the deeds and therefore mortgage of the property so the newly-weds could afford a new mortgage and home together.

The Challenge
The challenge was affordability. The sister staying in the house would need to prove she could afford their current mortgage on her own salary. Although well paid, and having could career job prospects, at that moment in time she had some credit card and loan debt that meant any lender she approached declined her based on the mortgage not being affordable in her sole name.

The Solution
We advised our client to remortgage using a Joint Borrower / sole proprietor mortgage. This meant we could use more than one income on the application but keep the sister remaining as the sole owner releasing her sister from the mortgage. As their mum was happy to assist, we used a small amount of pension income received by their mum to increase affordability. By adding their mum on as a joint borrower and not an owner, there was not stamp duty to pay. Once the credit card debt is cleared, our client can remortgage to a new lender and remove her mum from the application without the need for a solicitor to change the title deeds of the property. TWO very happy sisters, both able to move on with their lives.