Shared Ownership, Staircasing to 100% & Using my boyfriends LISA

little_miss_helpme

I bought my 35% share in my property in 2023. The value of the property now is valued at 270k, My boyfriend and I would like to move in together. We decided in the local area we cant find anything as nice as my house for the same value.

I have a mortgage on the 35%. To staircase to 100%, we would need to get another mortgage (jointly). I wouldnt have enough of an income to staircase to 100% on my own.

My boyfriend is a First Time Buyer and he has a LISA we would also like to use.

Therefore, we decided we wanted to staircase. I have since had a lot of questions raised by my solicitor who isnt sure we can do this.

Any experience in the area would be super beneficial to learn about.

Q1. Can we staircase to 100% together if I purchased the first 35% alone?

Q2. Can my boyfriend use his LISA? (according to this website he can)

Q3. The solicitor seems to think I will have to staircase on my own, and then complete a transfer of equity. How do we use his LISA if we do this?

Q4. How do we get the mortgage if we are doing this? As on my own I wouldnt get a big enough mortgage for 100% of the property, but combined we would.

I dont think this can be uncommon, but so far I have spoken to two different solicitors and both are unsure on the process, so any solicitor recommendations would also be super useful.

Thanks!

_Penny_Dreadful

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6653771/shared-ownership-staircasing-to-100-using-my-boyfriends-lisa

1. I can't see why you wouldn't be able to staircase together.
2. Providing he's meets the LISA requirements for a FTB and the purchase isn't over the LISA limit then he should be able to use his LISA but I'll caveat that by saying I am not a lawyer.
3. I don't think the solicitor is right about that.
4. You wouldn't.

HMRC governs LISA so you could contact HMRC yourself to get an opinion on the situation. HMRC is able to give you guidance, information, and support but they don't give you individual tax advice.