50/50 ownership property but responsible for ALL debt to Lenders.

[Jason Fontes]

Hey biggerpockets forum, 

I am currently looking to get into my second multi family home. My first property is a multi family joint owned between me and my business partner, we have an equal stake in the property. Naturally we split the income on our Tax Returns, but have never had to pay a mortgage payment out of pocket, our tenants cover the entirety of the mortgage payment. 

In trying to get my second multi family I am working with a lender that is currently running my income and debt numbers. For their calculations the lenders are making me responsible for the ENTIRE debt sum of the first property (not half). Which I totally understand, considering their reasoning is if something where to happen to my business partner I would then be responsible for the whole mortgage payment. However, they are only allowing HALF of the income (mine) to be valid income. When in their "worst case" scenario of the other business partner not being a factor, I then would inherit ALL of the income and it wouldn't be an issue. 

I'm curious is this is a standard of ALL lenders? Or is this lender just not really making sense? Are there ways to work around this? To me it would seem that the debt from the first property should almost be null and void considering it doesn't effect my current income in any fashion.