Best course of action

esthomizzy

I am a higher rate taxpayer (just) and jointly own a property with my partner as tenants in common on a 60/40split (I had equity in a previous property before we moved here). Our mortgage has 15 years to run but our base rate tracker has another 4 years before it runs out and changing the term is apparently not possible although we can make overpayments of up to 10%pa (the regular monthly payments are 1089pcm). I have some spare cash after outgoings and as I'm now a HRT I'm considering paying money off the mortgage. My partner does not have any spare cash and is not keen on me paying extra off the mortgage on my own as this will disrupt our agreed 60/40 split and "complicate things". This is not to say that we are considering splitting up at all but he doesn't want to reduce his portion of the property and he can't afford to match increased payments that I could. I have an ISA and was about to set up a regular saver account as well but am I right in thinking that mortgage repayments would be better than both of those as they would be worth the mortgage interest rate + 40% as my rate is 4.75% would this be worth 6.56%? (obviously I realise I wouldn't see that difference)

Before I found out we can't vary our term/amount/any other details of our mortgage I was vaguely considering the prospect of remortgaging for a higher amount and using the cash as a deposit for a buy to let property. Since it would probably not be financially viable to get a secured loan on the property for this purpose (more expensive?) this is probably not possible for the remaining 4 years unless I have a nice win on the lottery or the premium bonds (fingers firmly crossed). Should I pay whatever I want off the mortgage but keep a record of my payments. By doing this we would both benefit from reduced interest/more capital repayment than would otherwise have been the case and most importantly we benefit rather than Gordon Brown. When we remortgage in 4 years time I could then take back my share of the extra bit.

Does any of this sound like sensible planning or is it a stupid pipe dream?

If we were to eventually remortgage and take equity from this property to buy another can anyone confirm that we would be able to offset the interest on that portion of the cash borrowed as we would be able to with the regular buy to let interest on the let property? (This is the thread where I read you might be able to do that).
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=17788