Mortgage Relief Query

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pricilla

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I bought a house last year, and I'm due to close the sale and get the keys this week. I am the only person named on the mortgage (because at the time, my boyfriend had just started his business and didn't have enough audited accounts to qualify for a mortgage so they told me to apply on my own and say I'm renting rooms).
I didn't really like the idea because it's both of our house, but the bank manager said, "sher it doesn't matter anyway, when you get married he'll be on the deeds then so don't worry about it"

But the thing is, my boyfriend is a FTB also and we are missing out on his mortgage relief, which I don't really mind at the moment, but we are getting married in a few weeks and now I'm thinking about it I'm a little confused..... so finally, my question is:

Can we apply for mortgage relief for both of us when we get married?
Or will he no longer be a FTB because he will be married to a home owner?

And before you give out to me Clubman, yes I know there are PLENTY of posts about mortgage relief, but they are nothing like this situation, so don't get too cross, it's Christmas.
 
Easier question so, does anyone know where I could find more information about this? I'd really appreciate any help at all.
 
I didn't have a clue as to where to begin to ask about it, but I will ring the Revenue straight away, thank you Ccovich.
 
Hi Pricilla,

Sounds like you could do with talking to a tax advisor! From my limited knowledge, here's what i think.

When you get married are you going to elect to be jointly assessed for tax purposes with your husband? If so, then payments of interest made by you will be deemed to be made by both of you. Therefore, in your circumstances i think you are able to claim the married person amount.

The reason, i think, for this is that the residence you bought is a "qualifying residence" for tax purposes i.e. it is your sole or main residence. The amount of interest you can claim, provided that you are jointly assessed with your husband, is the amount of mortgage interest paid up to the limit of €8,000 @ 20% (or €16,000 @ 20% when the Budget changes kick in).

As this relief is now claimed at source, you should inform the Bank when your marital status changes so that they can arrange for the increased tax relief at source.

Where you do no elect to be jointly assessed with your husband, your husband would have to be paying the interest on the mortgage in his own right to qualify for the mortgage interest relief. It appears that, as he is not paying such interest, he is not entitled to the relief.

As your husband is renting from you, there are a couple of point to watch out for:

Firstly, taking in rent on a first time buy may have some nasty stamp duty clawback implications.

Secondly, your future husband may have been claiming rent relief on the rent paid to you, this has been addressed in the Budget and may not be available from now on where the rent is paid to "connected persons". From what i can gather husband and wife would certainly be connected.

One final point (sorry about the waffle), putting both names on the deeds and only one name on the mortgage seems like a very bad thing to do.

Hope this is of some help
 
Thank you so much for that Newby.
I really was not happy about putting just my name on the mortgage, but the bank wouldn't give us the money otherwise so we had no choice. His name is not connected with the house at all, even though he paid half the deposit and will be paying half the mortgage. They said they had strict criteria.
 
Hmmm... maybe see about getting the situation reviewed once your husband has audited accounts prepared.

It's just that... and i hate to say it.... but in a doomsday scenario someone gets all the debt and half a house (subject to even more debt being wracked up in solicitors costs!) which is completety unfair. I have seen it happen. I guess that you have to really trust that it doesn't come to that.
 
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