Are we "first time" buyers?

honey9

Well, following our bad experience with one EA we went to another much better one and have now found a flat!! Our offer has been accepted Anyway the place we are hopefully buying is over £250K so am I right in thinking we would not count for the stamp duty exemption? Also my husband owns a property back in New Zealand. He rents this to a friend for just enough to pay the mortgage on it; the idea there is to hang onto it for the kids' inheritance.

The thing is - Should we mention this to the bank? Obviously they want to know our outgoings and as we actually bank with them they can already see that we are not in debt and can cover repayments but will him having the house in NZ make a difference with our application? Will they ask if we're first time buyers, and if so, what should we say? Since we're spending more than £250k, is it relevant? We don't want to blow this opportunity by being "found out".

Salz

If it's over £250k it is irrelevant anyway as Stamp Duty relief is only for properties under this.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/mortgages-and-homes/stamp-duty/article.html?in_article_id=501806&in_page_id=80 states that

As long as you are a first-time buyer and have never owned a property here, or anywhere else in the world, then you will also qualify for stamp duty relief below £250,000.
So you will have to pay Stamp Duty

mynameisdave

And it doesn't matter if *you* have never owned property. If you are a joint buyer and one party has previously owned then that rules you out of stamp duty relief.

honey9

Yes I thought that was the case! What he's worried about is that it will somehow reflect on our eligibility because he owns a house overseas and has to occasionally send money back to pay for repairs etc. Will they care that he has a place in NZ and is letting it out?

mynameisdave

If you declare you're monthly outgoings accurately I don't see it a problem not telling them what the outgoings are for. However, and direct question would have to be answered honestly.

Whether it would affect if they did know well that would be down to the figures and margins between income and expenditure and their own criteria will be different from lender to lender.

honey9

Thanks all for your replies, it's helped to set my mind at rest!
I had one last question (hopefully the last!), in recent months my OH has sent more money than usual back to NZ to help pay for the kids' school trips (they are going to China and Japan - lucky!) As we need to put down our usual monthly outgoings for the mortgage advisor, will the fact he has sent back more than usual lately skew things? Normally he sends about £100 a month but in the last couple of months it's been more like £600 (over 2 or 3 months). We can afford to do this so it hasn't caused any problems financially. He is really worried that the lender will start looking at his finances in New Zealand (even though he's not in any debt and covered by rent from his tenant and the amount he sends back each month) and worries this could mean we get declined. Surely people from overseas have bought property here while still having a few obligations back home?

PasturesNew

Owning an investment property abroad and wanting to claim as a FTB here isn't in the spirit of the relief.

The relief was intended to assist FTBs who are buying their first home, to live in, because they are new to home ownership and therefore poorer than established owners, so giving a little helping hand by removing this one large bill for the first place they buy.

It is not in the spirit of this relief to have properties dotted around the world, as investments, because you're posh/rich ... and still want to scoop up this tax relief greedily for yourselves.

I am clearly in an angsty mood today ....

honey9

We're not intending to claim as FTBs, because we're not (well he isn't) and anyway the place we are buying is well over the 250K threshold so it's irrelevant anyway as more helpful people have pointed out. Also, his house back in NZ is his home (or was) that he is renting out to a friend till we move back there in about 10 years time. He is from New Zealand and obviously lived there rather a long time before coming over here for work. Rather like our current home is owned by Brits living in Australia for a few years, when they come back they will move back in. The place we are buying will be my first home as I have never owned before and I resent the implication that we're some kind of greedy millionaire landlords wanting to get fat at the expense of others. We are hardly rich or posh, it's taken us seven years to save our deposit, and we are certainly not greedy landlords trying to nab tax relief for people who need it.

What my husband is worried about is that the bank will look unfavourably on him owning a house elsewhere as there are various expenses associated with it (ie recently he had to get a new oven) that the bank might think will impact on our ability to pay the mortgage here.

PasturesNew

Oh - your title mislead me then. Asking if you're FTBs would only really be about the stamp duty relief, which you did mention in your first paragraph.