Case study: Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor

Michaela Norbury, Mortgage and Protection Adviser at The Penny Group discusses her experience with joint borrower, sole proprietor mortgage applications, diving into lending criteria and potential implications.

One of The Penny Group’s financial planning clients asked if we could provide advice regarding a property purchase that his mother-in-law was making.

The query was passed to Michaela Norbury in the mortgage team, who arranged an initial meeting with the client to understand the circumstances of the purchase and the desired outcome.

During the meeting, the client shared that he would be happy to be a guarantor in some way, if that meant enabling his mother-in-law and her partner buy a property.

He was aware that due to changes in their circumstance and income, it might not be possible for them to purchase a property without his help. This was due to the partner having recently gone through a period of unemployment, and then straight into contract work – meaning that most lenders were unable to use his income due to the gap in employment and short period left on the fixed term contract he had.

Michaela provided information on potential options, and as discussions progressed it became apparent that a “joint borrower, sole proprietor” mortgage would fit with the client’s requirements. Following this initial meeting, Michaela scheduled a meeting with the client’s mother-in-law and her partner. After spending time understanding their finances and future goals, she was able to make a recommendation for the mortgage.

Potential implications to a JBSP mortgage

There were several potential implications to a “joint borrower, sole proprietor” mortgage that needed to be considered:

Being a joint borrower on the mortgage could impact the client’s ability to remortgage his own property next year
The client would be a joint party to the mortgage for income purposes, and would therefore be jointly liable for the debt
The client would have no ownership over the property
Independent legal advice would need to be sought (due to the above points)
A positive impact would be that additional rate Stamp Duty charges would not be incurred (due to the non-ownership of the property)

Lending criteria for JBSP mortgage

There were a few criteria points that needed to be met for the joint borrowing, sole proprietor mortgage:

A lender that would offer the joint borrower sole proprietor scheme
A lender that would allow three people on the mortgage rather than the traditional two.
A lender that would allow the mortgage term to go through to age 85, which was possible as there is no reliance on the income of the applicant that would be age 85 by the end of the term of the mortgage.

The outcome

Michaela was able to source a lender that could accommodate these very specific requirements, and was able to submit the application and obtain a “joint borrower, sole proprietor” mortgage offer for the purchase.

Get in touch

At The Penny Group, we are able to offer support to clients with a variety of mortgage needs. From first time buyers, to buy-to-let, to more complex cases like this one. If you would like to have a chat about your plans and mortgage requirements, please get in touch:

Email : mortgages@thepennygroup.co.uk

Phone: 0203 839 7860

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

Most buy-to-let mortgages are not regulated by The Financial Conduct Authority.

Approved by the Openwork Partnership on 28/07/2025

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Published on September 9, 2024