Refused Consent to Lease by Halifax

yoink00

Hi Guys,

First post!!

First a little background - I was made redundant at the end of November after only a couple of weeks on the job market I got a couple of job offers (which in itself was quite impressive) one of which would require a relocation. This job was the better of the two and I decided that barring any complications I would accept it.

One of those complications would potentially be what to do with the flat my wife and I currently own. To put my mind at ease I went to see an advisor at the Halifax (my mortgage provider). I outlined my situation, pointed out that I was likely to be in negative equity (I bought the house at the top of the market in '07) and that I was looking for a consent to lease.

The advisor said that a consent to lease would be no problem and then proceed to outline my mortgage options (which include mortgages at ridiculous interest rates) but she assured me that getting a consent to lease would be no problem.

It's now a month and a bit later and I accepted the job where I had to relocate and have (mostly) relocated and I'm now ready to let my flat. I couldn't get an appointment at the original branch (local to my property) so I made an appointment at a branch local to my new job. The advisor there said that the Halifax wouldn't be able to give a consent to lease mortgage because my Loan-to-Value ratio was too high (> 85%).

I am now (as you might imagine) fuming. I have based several live-changing decisions on this information which now seems to have been false.

To make matters worse the advisor I originally spoke to isn't available, the Halifax won't talk about these consent to lease mortgages over the phone and the advisor I spoke to today wasn't much use!

I wasn't planning on making any money from this but I was hoping to limit the amount of money I would be venting 'til the market recovers (whenever that might be) but it now seems that I'll be lumbered with the full mortgage payment for the foreseeable future.

Does anyone have any suggestions? How could the Halifax got it so wrong? Is there a possibility that different branches can offer these mortgages at different LTV ratios?

Thanks,

Stu

pritsim

mmm not sure..its a bit of a shame i knw some one who got a consent to let bu he thought he had a LTV of 60%..and i think the initial consent grante was 3 years?

yoink00

Yes, unfortunately I'm in negative equity :-)

Really I'm just annoyed that I went to the effort of clearing my plans with the bank before going ahead and then finding out they were talking rubbish.

:mad:

jlfrs

There is one option you could examine though it isn't really the done thing which is to let it out anyway.

I was in a very similar siuation to you a few years ago and my lender wouldn't allow me to let my house out, and the "let to buy" mortgage would have been wholly inadequate and at a higher rate I couldn't afford anyway.

So, for the next 3 years I had my post redirected and let the house out anyway - I never told my lender a thing and it worked like a dream.

This isn't legal of course but if they won't help then I say help yourself!

Dan:_4

Lots of people do this without getting consent from the lender.

socrates

Do not let Miss Moneypenny hear any of you - you will all be sent to the gallows

melstar11

Stu - I asked the Halifax about consent to lease yesterday. I was told that as my LTV was 80% I would have to convert my mortgage to a CTL product (stupidly high interest rates + product fee) and then the consent would have to be applied for from a Business Assessor at Head Office. In cases where the LTV is over 75% it isn't an in-branch decision. If the information I was given is correct, then the person in branch who refused you CTL is not the decision maker in your case anyway. I sought some further clarification and was told that where LTV is over 75% they will consider a grant of CTL only out of necessity. Surely relocation in order to remain in employment is such a case? I'd go back to the branch and ask to make an application for CTL, but they do insist you change product.

On the product - I think the information you have been given is incorrect: they have two CTL products available for up to 95% LTV. One is a 3 yr fix at 5.94%, the other a 3 yr tracker at 5.99%. Both these products are classed as 'only to be used following business assessor approval. PT only' (whatever that means). You have to wonder whether the person you have dealt with is after a commission for selling you a product and only interested if they can do so. The other piece of information you could do with is knowing what figure they have your property valued at on their system - it may be different now then it was when you first took out the mortgage.

jsh99

I got CTL just after Christmas with Halifax - was a nightmare! I ended up having to get LTV down to 75% by borrowing money from parents and OH!

Did allow me to stay on the deal I already had rahter than the 6+% rate of switching to a BTL product.

Pring

When I got Consent to Lease from the Halifax I persuaded them to invoke a 'out of necessity' clause they have which allows them to give you CTL no matter what the LTV is. Not sure if it's available still but it's worth emphasising to them that you need CTL out of necessity, not just because you'd like to rent the flat out.

melstar11

Stu - just coming back to you as the new posts have reminded me that I was also told that if you have a mortgage product with the Halifax which has a fix they won't make you change onto a CTL product (first product takes precedence) so you would just make a case for consent down to necessity which would then be decided by a Business Assessor.

Tbonetone

NeilInglis wrote: »

When I got Consent to Lease from the Halifax I persuaded them to invoke a 'out of necessity' clause they have which allows them to give you CTL no matter what the LTV is. Not sure if it's available still but it's worth emphasising to them that you need CTL out of necessity, not just because you'd like to rent the flat out.

Out of interest, what exactly is out of necessity? We asked Halifax and they refused to tell us what they class as out of necessity.

Cheers