Do both partners have to be on the Mortgage for Shared Ownership?

Short-n-Sweet

Previously when applying for a shared ownership mortgage we have had no problem. My partner wants a single mortgage as he has a decent income and I am only self employed so wanted to avoid the finical commitment and it worked for us (we thought it was sometimes normal as his parents have a mortgage but only in his dads name) and Yes I may effect the amount they would lend slightly and decrease it so we Just wanted to do it that way.

We have never lied about it. We always stated I will be living there. However I have had an email today from a company that deals with lenders / finances for the housing association and they have stated:

"Yes, it does matter, as there are rules around this within the shared ownership scheme."

Could anybody advise me on these rules as it's the first time since we started looking that it has come up. :rotfl: I mean I can go on the mortgage no big deal but would like to know if this is real and why nobody has mentioned it until now. When this person was on leave a colleague of theirs said it should not be a problem.

kimbyanne

I am not entirely sure how to answer your question but with our S/O house, both our names were on everything as bought it together and we are both on the mortgage.

I know a neighbour across the road bought his S/O house on his own and its only him on the mortgage but his girlfriend lives with him. I have no idea if he ever told the HA that she would be moving in with him straight away or not.

Only thing I can think of is if your partner is earning a "decent" income, that they are near the top end of the maximum income you can have with S/O, and that with your salary it would push you over the maximum, meaning you are not eliglibe for S/O. If you have told the HA that you will both be living there, they will want all your information, including your salary which they will combine with your partners and that will be count towards the maximum salary you can have (think its about £60k outside of London and £80k inside London?) unless that has changed since we bought ours.

AdrianC

So what do the shared ownership scheme's rules actually say? You must have access to that paperwork, right...?

kingstreet

Phone your local HTB Agent and ask them.

As you must have been through their qualifying process to be able to look at SO they will have a record of you.

You will be unable to have someone named on the property ownership who isn't party to the mortgage so this is a sole borrower, sole proprietor case and this may impact the type/size of property you can purchase.

neilio

I bought a 35% share in a flat on the shared ownership scheme nearly 6 years ago. The reality is, my partner was earning far too much money to qualify for SO, but I was earning little enough to qualify. So, everything was in my name. His name was not included on anything otherwise he'd have to be assessed as well and we'd not qualify for SO in the first place. We were very open and honest about this fact with the housing association-appointed financial advisor. Property was in my name, mortgage was in my name, and he moved in with me and paid half the mortgage.

We eventually got married, giving him marital rights to half of everything we had between us, including presumably the 35% property that was mine.

When we staircased, as part of the re-mortgage process, we had to do an equity transfer, which meant half the equity would be "allocated" to him, and the new mortgage and staircased property was in both our names and his name was added to the mortgage.

I didn't face any problems with any of the above.

I would say, you shouldn't be added to the title nor the mortgage, in order for your partner to be eligible for SO. But, remember, this also means you won't have any legal rights to the property. So, you might want to start having some important conversations #weddingbells