Remortgage Options - Do I have any?

jimjams79

Hi

Hope somebody might have some good advice for me.

Current situation:
Bank or Ireland Firststart Mortgage with my mum
5 year fix (5.99%) ends 31/08/09
Outstanding balance ca £149,000 - 25 year remaining
SVR 2.99%

Bank of Ireland will offer 3 yr fix at 5.49% with £499 fee or 5 yr fix at 6.09% with same fee.

What i would prefer to do is to now put hubby on mortgage.
In order to do this we need an internal remortage and offers are as above less 0.5% with fees of £499 3yr fix or £299 5 yr fix or we can go have SVR

Problem is that according to Bank of Ireland - Halifax Pricing Index is only valuing our flat at £160k and we need 90% LTV for internal remortgage.

Last flat to sell in our block went for £210k but that was March 08 therefore irrelevant. One is sold stc at the moment and was on market at £190k when it sold (rightmove)

Is it worth paying for an actual valuation or would we be better throwing money at the mortgage while at 2.99% (could probably overpay £450 per month each month as there is no max or min overpayment and a £2k lumpsum off) and waiting to see what happens?

Sorry it's very long so if you make it through to the end any advice?

Gem x

beecher

So you only have to pay off £5k to be eligible for a remortgage? If you can pay £2k straight away and push it to £500/month overpayments then hopefully you'll be able to remortgage in 6 months. Obviously that's if house values don't go down further, and you run the risk of fixed rates being higher by then too. Only you can decide, but I'd be tempted to sit on the SVR, overpay like crazy and then look at where you are towards the end of the year.

Check your husband's credit report too in case there's anything which would cause a problem.

Mrs_Bumble

You could see if you could be put in touch with the local Colleys valuer for your area and see what he estimated the value of the flat would be. You can also have a look at sites like Zoopla that will give an estimate, but I suspect that the valuation will be in the region of the Halifax pricing index.

Good advice above from Beecher to check your husbands credit report, just in case as that could also have implications, also agree in relation to the other comments/advice above.

jimjams79

thanks for your input. I've checked Zoopla and it said £191k (which i don't believe) and Mouseprice which said £182k.

Hubby's credit record is fine and in terms of affordability there isn't an issue it's just the valuation.

I'm grateful that we're not in negative equity (yet) and i think moving straight onto SVR is probably the sensible option just would like an alternative.

We do have savings that we could use to get to the 90% LTV straight away but i'm reluctant to leave ourselves without a rainy day fund in case of swine flu and hubby going on SSP or redundancy or anything.

Gem x