Not a ftb but buying a house for 1st time

[Firefretted]

Hi there, perhaps someone could help. I am very fortunate to have come into an inheritance (approx 20k) that will allow me to put down a deposit on a property.

It will be the first time I have bought a property of my own but I am not an official 'First Time Buyer', as my siblings and I own our family home and rent it out. (I have argued heavily to sell this but am outvoted, so this is not an option).

This will cut down the amount of inheritance I can use on the deposit significantly, as I will be liable for the higher rate stamp duty on second properties. It also means I'm ineligible for schemes like Help to buy, LISA etc.

I will be looking to buy in 1-3 years and would like to grow this sum as much as possible in that time to help mitigate the stamp duty hit. I know that for investing you're meant to leave it for 5+ years, so am at a bit of a loss to know what to do in the short term. Should I be splitting it into high interest current accounts? All suggestions welcome and appreciated! Thank you.

Tell your siblings you want your share out of the house now and get it all sorted. They either buy you out or you sell it.

In 1-3 years the best you can do really is keep pace with inflation. If you can split the money between the highest rated accounts it will help a little but it's not going to make a massive difference.

Why don't you do some example calculations to show your siblings how much the extra stamp duty is going to cost you, how much to buy you out and then how much more rent they will receive if you are no longer an owner of the family house. Lay it all out for them?

Can you be made to keep a stake in a property? Be interesting if other posters know if you could force a sale, though obviously that might not endear you to your family despite them being a little shitty with you!

You are likely to be able to force a sale unless you have an agreement between you to the contrary or the purpose of holding the property is to house someone like a family member. If it is simply let to a third party at full market rent you are likely to be able to force a sale as it is simply a joint investment now. You will need a court order though.

If you don't want to do that, it is quite tough to grow a deposit in the current market. Years ago I put a small amount of money in a stocks and shares tracker ISA intending to grow it for a deposit. It lost money and only recovered to its original amount 7 years later, so you may want to make it low risk.

If you inherited the jointly owned property recently you may be in the grace period before the extra stamp duty kicks in.

Thank you both. They're not in a position to buy me out and I don't want to ruin family relations forever by forcing the issue in court so I'm not going to pursue that line of thinking. Sounds like I'd best plan to stay ahead of inflation.

They might not be in a position right now to buy you out - but could be in a year or so? Getting a BTL mortgage just for your share?

Tricky...how hard have you tried to persuade them?
I would try again.