I own an investment property jointly with my wife, my sister and her husband (i.e. two married couples, each of us owning a 25% share). My wife and I took out a buy-to-let mortgage to fund our share of the purchase, and we are making the monthly repayments. My sister and her husband paid cash for their half and are not making any of the mortgage repayments. However, at the insistence of the lender, all four names are on the mortgage deed since we are all co-owners of the property. Can we claim all the loan interest relief (because we are paying the interest) or are we restricted to 50% of it because four names appear on the mortgage deed?

Arthur Weller replies: 
Look at HMRC’s Savings And Investments manual (at www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/savings-and- investment-manual/saim10030), where HMRC states: 'Claims for interest relief can only be made by the person that: 
• takes out the loan, and 
• pays the interest on the loan, and 
• applies the funds from the loan in a form that meets the qualifying conditions. 
Where a husband and wife take out a joint loan but only one spouse uses the loan in a form that meets the qualifying conditions, thatspouse would be entitled to full relief on the relevant amount of interest paid.' See also SAIM10040 at Example 1.