Consent to lease problems...

chojinfire

Hi guys,
I'm new to the forums but I've got a bit of a problem and need some advice.
My partner and I own a one bed flat, which we live in with my our two year old son. My partner also works from home and as such we ran out of space a while back...
We are planning to rent our flat out and rent a bigger place until such time as it becomes viable to sell the flat without losing too much money... (could be ages yet). I went to Halifax to get my "Consent to lease", and the advisor was more than helpful, saying that it wasn't a problem and signing the form for me right there and then. I thought it was a done deal.

Last night she rang me at home to say that the application was rejected at head office and that I need to prove that I'm trying to sell the flat, or that they will assume the whole thing is for commercial gain and deny me Consent to lease. The advisor is going to try and fight my corner again but isn't overly hopeful.

Can they really do this considering I already have the "Consent to Lease" form at home, signed by the Halifax advisor?

The way I see it, they are trying to revoke a contract which is already in place rather than deny it before the fact.

Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated as we're set to move in just three weeks! This is more than a small spanner in the works as I'm sure you can imagine!
Thanks in advance!
Geoff

koexelek

chojinfire wrote: »

Can they really do this considering I already have the "Consent to Lease" form at home, signed by the Halifax advisor?

The way I see it, they are trying to revoke a contract which is already in place rather than deny it before the fact.

I'd play heavily on that fact.

It seems to me that the person who signed that did not have authority to authorise it.
However, you took that in good faith, so if the Halifax have cocked up internally, they should carry the can ,not you.

Good luck

silvercar

You have the necessary form, who are you going to show it to? Letting agent, tenant? No-one else is interested, even the inland revenue will let you claim the mortgage interest as an expense of the letting without consent to let. I would just go ahead - do get the correct insurance, gas certificates etc.

Conrad

You are an honest person. I find many people just let thier place without telling anyone, and no, no one I've ever heard of suffered later. One chap I know was found out to be letting, but they simply increased his rate a little.
Once a place is let and assuming the payments are being met, there is very little to gain from a lenders view point in persuing some legal remedy, especially if there is little equity.

As for the revenue - I used to let a place that didn't have a B2L mortgage and they were fine and I was allowed to offset against Tax.

chojinfire

Thanks guys,
I'll see what the advisor says when she comes back to me. Hopefully, they'll gloss over it. As it turns out we've just confirmed a tenant for our flat today, so hopefully Halifax will look kindly on that too.

Thanks again!

Geoff