Buy to let mortgage query

Househunter2

Hi

We're in a slightly complicated situation where we are having to get a buy to let mortgage. We're not going to live in the house for a year or so but after then we do intend to. Is it ok to live in a house yourself on a buy to let mortgage?

Thanks

BitterAndTwisted

If you're not going to live in the property for a year or so does that mean you will be letting it during that period? Perhaps you could look into changing to a residential mortgage once you've taken up permanent residence.

Househunter2

Yes we're thinking about renting it during that time. We would do that however we will be tied into the other mortgage for 3 years so it will be easier and cheaper if we could just live in it. Very complicated unfortunately but our dream house and we intend to live there for a long time so the benefit should outweigh the cost!

kingstreet

Are you being advised to take a BTL mortgage so you can get around the residential income and affordability requirements? The Mortgage Works being recommended by any chance?

Many BTL applications are those trying to get self-cert by the back door and the FSA is aware of it and likely to act.

Househunter2

No not at all in fact we would prefer a residential mortgage but due to us not being able to live in the property for over a year we could only get a buy to let mortgage. We can afford both the repayments of the buy to let or residential.

prudryden

Don't forget to change your building insurance policy for that year.

ViolaLass

Have you tried getting consent to let for a year?

kingstreet

Househunter2 wrote: »

No not at all in fact we would prefer a residential mortgage but due to us not being able to live in the property for over a year we could only get a buy to let mortgage. We can afford both the repayments of the buy to let or residential.

Ok. What loan to value are you going to need?

BTL mortgages get expensive above 80% of the loan to value.

There is nothing to stop you living in the property once the tenants have gone. If you get a product with no/short early redemption penalties, you'd be able to remortgage onto a residential product that much quicker.

Do you have another property to live in? Many lenders won't offer BTL products to those who aren't already owner occupiers.

poppysarah

Househunter2 wrote: »

No not at all in fact we would prefer a residential mortgage but due to us not being able to live in the property for over a year we could only get a buy to let mortgage. We can afford both the repayments of the buy to let or residential.

Why not buy it when you can move into it?

King_Of_Bling

poppysarah wrote: »

Why not buy it when you can move into it?

Perhaps this is why?

Househunter2 wrote: »

"Very complicated unfortunately but our dream house and we intend to live there for a long time so the benefit should outweigh the cost!"

Househunter2

Hi everyone

Thank you so much for all of your replies very useful! We've already got everything sorted with the mortgage, just waiting on the offer letter. We've not gone into this lightly and have had a lot of advice about the house and we're 100% certain that it's our dream house, in fact in the area we're buying there is nothing else like it in its price range so we feel like we'll be missing too much of an opportunity not buying it now. We've factored in all of the extra costs and we're happy that we can make all of the repayments even if the house is empty. We've decided to go with the fixed 3 years rate so that we know exactly what we're paying over the next few years it just occurred to me that perhaps if we started living in it in a year the mortgage company wouldn't be happy. I think we will tell them that this may be a possibility before we sign the offer letter that way we will know for sure.

Thanks for the insurance advice - I will make sure I remember that!