buying house with brother

not sure if this should be in the tax or motgages section, but basically my brother is in the process of buying his ex wife out of the family home. They have agreed a price, but he will need to top up on the mortgage to fund it. not a huge amount maybe 30-40K, the problem is this will take him over the threshold the bank will allow him to hold the morgage in his own name (based on earnings etc), so he either needs to find the funds elsewhere or I need to go in on the mortgage with him.

Now heres the issue, if I just go guarantor the application will not be a strong, so therefore I need to make a joint application with him to give the application its best shot.

The questions are,
1. is there a stamp duty implicaiton on this ? He is refinancing his own home, but I'm buying into it?
2. if you are refinancig your own home (in his case), are there the usuall solicitors fees, valuation fees etc ? If there are we'll need to factor these in.

Neither of us are first time buyers, I have my own home/mortgage which I share with my wife. Is there anything else we should be looking out for.

thanks
B
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bruce wayne said:

... 1. is there a stamp duty implicaiton on this ? He is refinancing his own home, but I'm buying into it? ...

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For you, not a PPR purchase, not a new house, not a FTB - SD will apply depending on the size / value of house I believe - see here for a quick summary - [broken link removed]

bruce wayne said:

... 2. if you are refinancig your own home (in his case), are there the usuall solicitors fees, valuation fees etc ? If there are we'll need to factor these in...

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You are not "refinancing your own home", this is a new, unique property transaction for the mortgage comapny. There will be valuation fees, legal fees, medical exams, life insurance, etc AFAIK.

bruce wayne said:

Is there anything else we should be looking out for.

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It's a bad idea in general. What happens if you and your wife need to move on at some point in the future- or if your brother defaults on his loan- you are jointly liable for his mortgage, you will be assessed in the future as if you had to contribute to his mortgage, which will limit your credit potential.

I'm all for helping out family but you are tying yourself into something for possibly up to 20 years.

Thats kinda what I figured re the stamp duty...assuming a 50 50 split on the property with the mortgage of 300K (my share = 150) is the first 125K exempt for me and then balance on the 25K at 7% = 1750?

Could we get around this by splitting the ownership percentage....bank lends him the max they will allow...say 280...and lend me the balance of 20-30 K, which is below the exemption threshold and therefore no stamp duty?
this way he owns 90% of the property and I own 10%