A little complex but wonder if anyone here has been in similar situation?

Father-in-law aged 77 lives in USA but wants to buy house in UK to live in for some of the year. He can put down a fair deposit (say one third of a house worth £300K) but would need to borrow the other two thirds.

Don’t expect at 77 he could easily get a mortgage so potentially wife and I could get one in our names and then he pays the mortgage repayments?

Or could he do it in his name and then we act as guarantors?

Or we do it all and he rents it from us (presume then there would be a tax liability)?

Will be getting some professional advice nearer the time

That’s an absolute can of worms.

If you get a mortgage in your name you might struggle to explain where the cash for such a hefty deposit came from. Especially from overseas with money laundering regs.

You would also need a cunning plan when the old boy can no longer pay, or shuffles off to the astral plane.

Good luck!

Best bet would be for FIL to raise a mortgage against his property in the USA to be able to buy the property outright in the UK.
Most lenders max age is 75, some are 85. Seek IFA iiwy.

Your FIL will also be liable to the new additional home Stamp Duty which is an extra 3% presuming he currently owns a property anywhere in the World.
That will be an extra £9k making a total of £14k.

one way of doing it would be as follows:

1. FIL payes £100K as one of gift under HMRC rules

2. You take out BTL mortgage yourself using the gift as the deposit

3. You then charge FIL rent (needs to be commercial rate) and declare proceeds less costs

If the FIL buys the property direct, assuming he’s resident in the USA for tax purposes there’s almost no way of getting a mortgage, the purchase would attract additional stamp duty and would create a further issue on death.

Assuming the OP already lives in a house, would he not be stung for additional Stamp Duty under BTL rules?

Would it not be a great deal simpler if FIL rents a house the old-fashioned way?

for 100k you could just buy a smaller house outright, may be not in the most desirable location.
or a flat.
or a Static Caravan?
or a timeshare?