How would a lender know if you are not a first time buyer?

Hypothetical question!

Person A sold the family home for specific reasons, little to no equity in it.

Role on 7 years later they want to buy again, but as a second time buyer they would obviously need 20%. But, say person A can only afford 10%.

Presumably the mortgage is now gone from credit score, how would a potential lender know that person A is not a first time buyer?

Second time buyers only need 10% now.

I suppose the up to date version of this query is if someone previously bought a property and sold it more than five years ago - What's to stop them pretending to be a FTB to get an LTI of 4x?

It seems the CCR would not have a record of the previous loan. If you applied to the same lender they might have an internal record of the previous mortgage but it's not clear to me how a new lender would find out. Perhaps your solicitor might have to declare it but that's not exactly fool proof.

Likewise 5 years after I pay off my mortgage what's to stop me claiming I bought for cash and so am entitled to still be classed as an FTB?

Would there be a record in Revenue? Did FTBs get additional tax relief at one time?

DannyBoyD said:

Would there be a record in Revenue? Did FTBs get additional tax relief at one time?

Click to expand...

There probably is for the various vintages of the FTB grant but it's not necessarily a joined up system that lenders can access. To complicate matters the definition of what an FTB is for tax purposes (never previously owned) doesn't match the mortgage measures (never held mortgage credit).