Northern Rock Together Mortgage?

lawsmoneysaver

Can I ask everyones honest opinion on The Northern Rock Mortgage.

We are wishing to remortgage because our current lender cannot give us the sufficient further advance we require because of a very low valuation (55k less than we were hoping for).

With the Northern Rock Mortgage we could risk a low valuation because of the additional unsecured loan on top but various people have warned us off.

Advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

*vanessa*

from a purely personal opinion, We are very happy with them. We took out a Together Mortgage through a broker originally, then when the offer finished we re-mortgaged with them. We've had no problems at all. Good Luck!

Vanessa
xx

HelpWhereIcan

As long as you know what you are doing, and you are aware of the way it works (the mix of secured and unsecured); the Together mortgage certainly has it's place.

On the plus side, it is very flexible with unlimited overpayments, underpayments, borrow back, payment holidays and a further facility. The amount Northern Rock will lend on this scheme can be very generous, particularly on a 5 year or longer fixed rate.

On the downside, rates tend to be higher than is generally available, it can be an expensive way to consolidate debts (as can all mortgage based borrowing) and Northern Rock's processing can be very hit and miss.

What I would say is that it is important to ensure that you investigate all options regarding the valuation. Just cos one surveyor has valued it at 55k less than you thought, does not mean they all will. Who did your current lender use? Have you checked sites such as http://www.housepricemaps.co.uk/ to see if you are able to provide the surveyor with evidence that comparible properties in the surounding area have sold for the figure you thinkthe property is worth.

Normally, as long as you are able to provide examples of 3 that have sold with 500m of yours for the value that you are looking for, a surveyor may be willing to reassess their valuation. Investigate this sort of thing and/or use a broker to look at all your options before you plum for NR just cos they offer Together.

Hope this helps

lawsmoneysaver

Thank you both for your response.

Unfortunately, our house is the only detached on a road of terraces. We have 5 bedrooms as apposed to the terraces which usually have 2 or 3. We have 3 large outbuildings, parking for 7 or more cars, 2 accesses (potential to convert the outbuildings, divide the garden and have 2 dwellings) and although work is still being done to the property, its in a good state of repair. We have recently rerendered the property, built a porch on the front (yet to be knocked into the main body of the house) and so with all these things, the house is obviously difficult to compare with those around it.

We really are stuck. I have considered a broker but really not sure where to start, can anyone suggest any that may be able to help with this valuation problem?

loveandlight

We are exactly in the same situation as you lawsmoneysaver. We had our property downvalued three weeks ago by £50k and ours was a re-mortgage also.

To say we were gobsmacked at the extent of the downvaluation was an understatement. We did challenge it sending off comparables as various people told us it does work sometimes. Unfortunately for us though the surveyor refused to change his opinion even though his valuation meant that all our neighbours properties are worth more than ours even though they're all in need of modernisation ( a lot of old people live here) and we're the only one with two bathrooms and ours is the only one that has been refurbished to a luxury standard throughout.

We wanted to re-mortgage to the Northern Rock Together mortgage for the same reasons you have mentioned so it will act as a buffer in the event of a downvaluation again etc. Unfortunately for us though we are self employed and can't provide accounts so we aren't eligible to apply but if we could we definitely would!!!

Now we are going through another lender and are hoping we don't get the same surveyor as before!:rolleyes:

densol_2

We had our property also down valued by a surveyor £435k to £400. This was two weeks ago. We are moving in in two weeks but had to have £10k less on the remortgage. A bit of a complicated story but this is being bought ( equity buy out ) from my ex partner who lives there - so currently my husband 2 b and I live in rented.

This rented house is also being sold by the Landlord and the purchaser had a survey done last week. As it didn't effect me one bit - I asked the surveyor loads of questions about downvalueing lately. He was happy to chat. He stated HE is buying a house and the valuer actually downvalued his as well- he said he does not downvalue if he can help it - but it is all about "comparables" if they cannot find them to protect themselves they are more likely to downvalue the property than take the risk.

I have ( or will have ) a flexible mortgage with Northern Rock. I like the fact we can overpay when we like ! It also gave me the best income multipliers !