Residential Mortgage (consent to let)
Residential Mortgage (consent to let)
Author
Discussion

strippier

Original Poster:

92 posts

126 months

Tuesday 23rd March 2021
quotequote all
Asking for a friend!!! How come everyone has one of these friends!!!

John (my friend) took a residential mortgage out a good few years ago through an IFA broker who effectively advised to take a residential but that you can then rent it out. John now wants to be legit.

If he approaches BOI, is it as simple as show an AST and pay the annual £100 fee, or are there other implication?

Don't bother posting about the morality of the issue, the question is how to get from A-B (legit) in the least amount of worry!

Thanks

John's friend.

Sarnie

8,368 posts

238 months

Tuesday 23rd March 2021
quotequote all
strippier said:
Asking for a friend!!! How come everyone has one of these friends!!!

John (my friend) took a residential mortgage out a good few years ago through an IFA broker who effectively advised to take a residential but that you can then rent it out. John now wants to be legit.

If he approaches BOI, is it as simple as show an AST and pay the annual £100 fee, or are there other implication?

Don't bother posting about the morality of the issue, the question is how to get from A-B (legit) in the least amount of worry!

Thanks

John's friend.
If he wants to be legit, he can remortgage it onto a BTL product?

Condi

20,334 posts

200 months

Tuesday 23rd March 2021
quotequote all
Look at the bank's documents, all are different.

Nationwide won't let you remortgage and will charge an increased interest rate, for example.
Other companies are different though, so there is no single answer.

That said, asking for a consent to let is not unusual.

Killer2005

20,592 posts

257 months

Tuesday 23rd March 2021
quotequote all
Sarnie said:
strippier said:
Asking for a friend!!! How come everyone has one of these friends!!!

John (my friend) took a residential mortgage out a good few years ago through an IFA broker who effectively advised to take a residential but that you can then rent it out. John now wants to be legit.

If he approaches BOI, is it as simple as show an AST and pay the annual £100 fee, or are there other implication?

Don't bother posting about the morality of the issue, the question is how to get from A-B (legit) in the least amount of worry!

Thanks

John's friend.
If he wants to be legit, he can remortgage it onto a BTL product?
This.

If you try to remortgage on a Residential it would likely be picked up that the property is let so would need to move to a BTL product anyway.

millen

688 posts

115 months

Tuesday 23rd March 2021
quotequote all
fwiw, I act as 'UK postal address' for a friend who moved overseas some 8 years ago. He had a Santander residential mortgage on a UK property (his former home) at an amazing interest-only rate of Base Rate + 0.1% for 25 years. He let it out when he emigrated for good. After a couple years Santander got suspicious that he'd notified them of 'change of address' for correspondence to my address. They made enquiries and concluded that he was letting out the property and so was no longer entitled to the favourable interest rate and would have to revert to their then current BTL mortgage terms.

Friend dug his heels in raised it as a formal complaint against Santander. I wasn't privy to all the correspondence but eventually Santander backed down (can't remember if it went as far as the Ombudsman) and allowed his mortgage to stay on the original terms.

I don't actually approve of my friend's actions as he was gaming the system. But this does show that lenders will take steps to ensure mortgages are fit for their stated purpose.

And because banks exchange data with gov't agencies it means every couple of years I get intrusive enquiries (from Capita?) accusing me of no longer being a single-person household. Sometimes I wonder if friend like this are worth hanging on to......

leemarkadams

859 posts

244 months

Wednesday 24th March 2021
quotequote all
We are with Santander with a residential mortgage and when i was based away from the uk for 2 years I asked for a consent to let and they approved it so can be done. We did have a very good loan to value ratio however (mortgage was about 30% of value) so that may be a factor.

PorkInsider

6,583 posts

170 months

Wednesday 24th March 2021
quotequote all
millen said:
Friend dug his heels in raised it as a formal complaint against Santander. I wasn't privy to all the correspondence but eventually Santander backed down (can't remember if it went as far as the Ombudsman) and allowed his mortgage to stay on the original terms.

I don't actually approve of my friend's actions as he was gaming the system. But this does show that lenders will take steps to ensure mortgages are fit for their stated purpose.

And because banks exchange data with gov't agencies it means every couple of years I get intrusive enquiries (from Capita?) accusing me of no longer being a single-person household. Sometimes I wonder if friend like this are worth hanging on to......
He dug his heels in and raised a formal complaint against them for rightly stopping him scamming them?

Or have I misunderstood?

Sarnie

8,368 posts

238 months

Wednesday 24th March 2021
quotequote all
PorkInsider said:
He dug his heels in and raised a formal complaint against them for rightly stopping him scamming them?

Or have I misunderstood?
I don't think you've misunderstood.........

millen

688 posts

115 months

Wednesday 24th March 2021
quotequote all
Sarnie said:
PorkInsider said:
He dug his heels in and raised a formal complaint against them for rightly stopping him scamming them?

Or have I misunderstood?
I don't think you've misunderstood.........
As I said, I couldn't condone my friend's behaviour - morally on a par with people claiming 'compo' for all manner of their own failings. iirc, the issue hinged on the detailed wording of the originally tracker mortgage offer which I recall was shortly before the GFC so maybe lenders were less careful in their T&Cs in those gung-ho days.

Mammasaid

5,555 posts

126 months

Thursday 25th March 2021
quotequote all
strippier said:
Asking for a friend!!! How come everyone has one of these friends!!!

John (my friend) took a residential mortgage out a good few years ago through an IFA broker who effectively advised to take a residential but that you can then rent it out. John now wants to be legit.

If he approaches BOI, is it as simple as show an AST and pay the annual £100 fee, or are there other implication?

Don't bother posting about the morality of the issue, the question is how to get from A-B (legit) in the least amount of worry!

Thanks

John's friend.
BOI have been amenable for us to become landlords on a residential mortgage. Initially it was for 3 years, after we moved due to work, however each year they say are you still renting? Then that's £199 please.