I know someone who has done the “charge on the property” thing. Seems like the simplest way and treats your son and his good lady the same, which is probably a good thing for their relationship.
Only that if the girl were to become a common law wife and there was a split, she'd be entitled to half of all the assets.
You may already know, but need to be careful around presumption of what 'rights' and myths exist around the use of common law wife as a term and status. This for example, is interesting reading - but careful research is needed if one is placing any reliance on an assumption of a person being a common law spouse and assuming/presuming any subsequent rights. How does one 'become' a common law wife- what legal step is entailed? worth thinking about... https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn03372/ IANAL
This is all useful info. https://www.land-search-online.co.u...ThOF4B0zYHV8P_8mWJzLpduZQcKLHPHMaAlJ-EALw_wcB
If you want to avoid being bent over and interfered with by the tax man then not sure a buy to let is a good option. Despite the covid stamp duty relief at the moment that doesn't extend to second homes/buy to let so on a £200k property you'll have to pay £6k stamp duty, then you'll have to pay tax on the rental income from your son, then in the future if you sell the property to him or anyone else, you'll have to pay capital gains tax on it too. wether you could gift it to him to avoid tax I'm not sure? Oh and when you say "it'll all be his in the end anyway" yes it will but he'll have to pay inheritance tax on it and chances are the properties are going to the the greatest chunk of your estate? I think the easiest option, if it still allows them to get onto the property ladder is for them to put the same in at the start, if that means them buying a place and him still having (£10k for example) in his savings account then so be it.
The stamp duty holiday does apply to second homes. The stamp duty on for example a £200k second home is £6k until September. After the end of the holiday it will raise to £7.5k.
I'm certainly no expert, but inheritance taxes don't appear to be too draconian. https://moneytothemasses.com/tax/inheritance-tax/the-10-best-ways-to-avoid-inheritance-tax
In terms of protecting your sons interests should things go Pete Tong, a declaration of trust may help. https://www.co-oplegalservices.co.u...aug-2017/what-does-a-declaration-of-trust-do/
To close this off, my lad and his partner agreed to an equity share deal (and not prompted by us, just good adult sensible conversation between them) as he is putting most in and we top up the deposit. Seemed silly not to use as much govt money as poss and in the meantime reduce tv so better loan offers were available. They are happy. New home, 3 bed, 3 story eot with reasonable garden and paying £100 less pm mortgage than the rent on their old 2 bed eot house which is old, cold and very expensive to heat. We are happy.
To my way of thinking, any assistance given now to aid house purchase, only fans the flames of house price inflation. Look at the gov’s first time buyers scheme, it only helped Redrow make record profits as house prices shot up. What the answer to this problem is I don’t know, but I do feel sorry for some youngsters.
Govt giving 20% deposit interest free…at least he gets something from all the tax I’ve paid over the years
It is crazy wrong and not as if the councils has a housing stock of old to cover the gap anymore. It seems for decades now I’ve said somethings got to break but even a global financial crash didn’t seem to make much impact, it just seemed to slow the growth a little. Maybe there will be a housing value dip and the banks are hedging their bets with high deposits so that they don’t take the hit but I really can’t see it happening any time soon. I may sound old but it’s crazy than a VW camper van costs more now than my first house, a detached 2 bed bungalow!
When my elder brother bought his first house, which he still lives in, it cost him £700. But he found it very very hard to keep up his mortgage repayments at the time even though he was in a good job. My friend who now lives in Germany once told me that in Germany they mostly rent. Is owning your own house really worth it ?
