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Case Study · Residential / Alternative
Buying Out a Half Owner in Maple Ridge: An Alternative-Lender Refinance at 70% on Homestay and Suite Income
A couple with two young children co-owned a nine-bedroom Maple Ridge house worth about $1.5 million with a half owner who lived in the basement suite. The family had hosted high school students since 2016.
Closed in 2021 · Published October 18, 2026
Residential
Alternative
Refinance
Co-owner buyout
Co-ownership
Homestay income
Home value
about $1.5 million
New mortgage
$1,050,000
Loan-to-value
70%
Credit scores
857 and 827
Term in 2021
One-year fixed, 30-year amortization
01
The Situation
A couple with two young children co-owned a nine-bedroom Maple Ridge house worth about $1.5 million with a half owner who lived in the basement suite. The family had hosted high school students since 2016.
02
The Challenge
The buyout needed 70% of the value. One spouse's salary was fixed at $90,000, leaving little room, and the other income, about $15,000 a year from hosting students, was non-taxable, with no contract or regular pay stubs.
03
The Solution
In 2021 we placed about $1.1 million with an alternative lender on a one-year fixed term, 30-year amortization, qualified at the Bank of Canada benchmark rate. Not every lender allows it, so we chose one that would gross the non-taxable homestay income and child benefit up by 25% and accept a total debt-service ratio close to 60%. At its discretion it took the homestay income on payment history and email confirmations, added $2,500 a month of rent from the suite and two rooms, and scores of 857 and 827 stood behind the file.
04
The Outcome
The couple own the whole house, with rooms to rent and space to keep hosting students.
Run the numbers
Spousal Buyout Calculator
This refinance bought out a half owner's share of the house. Cost a buyout against selling on your own numbers.
What it would appraise at now — not what you paid for it.
$
Everything secured against the home that gets cleared.
$
Some agreements deduct notional selling costs before splitting. Many use $0 — whatever yours says.
How your agreement states the split
The split comes from your separation agreement and your lawyers — never from this tool. We do the arithmetic on what was decided.
%
Debts cleared in the buyout
Joint cards, lines, loans — each with its own split of responsibility, because it often isn’t 50/50. The split comes from your agreement.
Room left under the 80% conventional ceiling right now: $60,000 — the most that can still be rolled in before the line.
A lump sum in the agreement
An equalization payment, support arrears — a one-time amount owed either way. “They” is the departing spouse.
$
Penalty, legal and appraisal costs — plus any other debts or amounts you're clearing: under 80% of value that's the conventional route, and past it the insured buy-out route can carry shared debts through the private insurers (CMHC's version is equity-only). The tool shows the room left under each ceiling. Estimate the penalty with the Mortgage Penalty calculator.
%
yrs
Net equity to split
$460,000
Home value − mortgage balance.
Stays in the home
$230,000
50.0% of the equity — it stays in the house rather than being paid out.
Leaves with
$230,000
Paid as a cheque of $230,000 at closing.
The new mortgage — for the spouse who stays
Current balance cleared$390,000
Buyout cheque$230,000
New mortgage$620,000
Against the home’s value72.9%
Fits under the standard 80% ceiling— a refinance can usually go to 80% of the home’s value ($680,000 here), and there’s $60,000 of room left under that line. This is the conventional route, where most buyouts land, and it works for insured and uninsured files alike. Whether the file works comes down to income.
Not just for spouses.Any co-owner can be bought out this way — CMHC’s own name for its program is “dissolution of relationship,” and it covers anyone on title: a parent buying out a child, siblings, friends, former partners. One boundary to know: at CMHC, the insured financing can cover only the departing owner’s share — nothing extra rolled in — while the private insurers take shared debts on qualifying files, and can differ on who can buy out whom. And it isn’t a specialty product: every lender we’ve asked participates. Which insurer and lender your file lands with is a placement decision, and that’s our job. Confirmed with CMHC, February 2026; private-insurer debt treatment and lender participation confirmed August 4, 2026.
The professionals rule:a lawyer for the legal advice, a mortgage broker for the mortgage, an accountant for the tax — and try not to make these decisions alone. This tool does honest arithmetic on the agreement you already have; it is not legal advice, and it can’t tell you what the split should be. The 80% ceiling is the standard federal refinance limit (Financial Consumer Agency of Canada — checked August 4, 2026); the insured equity buy-out route is sourced from insurer underwriting policy — treated as a purchase, up to 95% by program, with the real ceiling set by the federal minimum down payment (5% of the first $500,000 + 10% of the rest — so 95% holds to $500,000 and tapers to about 91.7% at $1,499,999), both parties on title, a purchase agreement, finalized separation agreement or court order, and a full appraisal (verified August 4, 2026; insured territory only — above $1,499,999 of value the insured route doesn’t exist and buyouts go conventional: 80% ceiling, no insurance premium, no price cap; the insured route adds a mortgage default insurance premium). Insurers differ on what that route can include — at CMHC it covers only the departing owner’s interest, no new funds for any other reason (confirmed with CMHC, February 2026), while the private insurers take shared debts on qualifying files (confirmed directly, August 4, 2026). Shared debts and lump sums come from the agreement too — each debt’s split nets out of the departing cheque, the balances ride into the mortgage (past 80%, through a private insurer), and an equalization or support-arrears lump moves the cheque dollar for dollar, in either direction. Debts and rolled-in costs are checked against both ceilings live — the tool shows the room left under the 80% line and the tiered insured ceiling, and past them it says what has to be settled outside the mortgage. Arithmetic verified by 180 automated checks, August 4, 2026.
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What this calculator does that most don't
✓Takes the split exactly as your separation agreement states it — a percentage of the net equity OR an agreed dollar figure — and shows both sides to the dollar, instead of assuming 50/50
✓Prices the staying spouse's real next step: old balance + buyout cheque + any penalty and legal costs rolled in, checked against BOTH ceilings — the standard 80% refinance limit and the insured equity buy-out route (95% by program, trimmed by the federal minimum-down tiers above $500,000 — verified against insurer underwriting policy) — with the overshoot in dollars
✓Shows the payment twice — at your rate AND at the stress-test rate a lender actually tests one income against
✓Flags the states most tools hide: negative equity, and an agreed figure bigger than the equity that exists
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Want a real plan, not just an estimate?
Talk to a Mortgage Guru specialist about your spousal buyout numbers and get tailored next steps.
Calculators give estimates. We give exact numbers — based on your income, credit, and the lender most likely to say yes. Free, no obligation, same-day reply.
In this 2021 file the couple refinanced: an alternative lender placed $1,050,000, 70% of the Maple Ridge house's value of about $1.5 million, and the couple came to own the whole house.
Does homestay income count for a mortgage?+
Here it did, at the lender's discretion. The income, about $15,300 a year from hosting students since 2016, was non-taxable, with no regular contract or pay stubs, so the alternative lender accepted it on its payment history and email confirmations and, because it is not taxed, grossed it up by 25%, as it did the child benefit, alongside a fixed $90,000 salary.
Can rent from a suite the co-owner lives in count?+
In this 2021 file it did: the suite, occupied by the half owner, was counted at market rent, and the lender added $2,500 a month of rent from the suite and two rooms.
What debt-service ratios did the lender accept?+
A total debt-service ratio close to 60%. Not every lender goes that high, or grosses up non-taxable income, so with one salary fixed the file went to a lender that allowed both; the credit scores were 857 and 827.
What were the terms?+
$1,050,000 on a one-year fixed term with a 30-year amortization in 2021, qualified at the Bank of Canada benchmark rate.
