Remortgaging with cancer

Athomas

Hi people, I wonder if anyone can help.

We are due to remortgage this spring. In the autumn I was diagnosed with cancer and have just finished my chemo treatment before starting radiotherapy. My general prognosis is good. I'm 45 yrs old.

I have been signed off work since the 29th September 2011 on full pay for 6 months, after which I will be on half pay.

I'm due to return to work 2 or 3 months after my radio therapy finishes in mid February (so will be back to work around June) on full pay.

Details:
Joint mortgage with combined salaries of £106,000.
(when I go down to half pay in March this will decrease by 25k)
We have 209,000 remaining on our current mortgage which is a fixed rate with Alliance and Leicester.

My question is:

- how do you think this situation will affect any mortgage application?
- Should we wait until i'm back on full pay before making any new application. We will revert to the current bank rate once our mortgage runs out in April.
- Should we just go ahead with full disclosure of my illness and situation and apply for a new mortgage?

Any advice from people who have experienced anything similar greatly appreciated.

all the best

tom

Wh05apk

Sorry to hear off your predicament, hope you manage to beat it.

It sounds like you may be able to remortgage without your income being taken into account as unless you have a lot of other debt, or numerous kids your partners income should be sufficient, it then simply becomes an issue of whether you are comfortable commiting yourself now, given potentially changeable personal circumstances ahead.

mij544

As wh05apk said, you may be able to remortgage as you are anyway, or if it is too much hassle for you at the moment while you go through your treatment, (I am in remission from testicular cancer myself and had chemo so I know what you are going through) it won't hurt to sit on the standard variable for a bit while rates are so low.

Good luck with it all, I found that as long as you can keep your sense of humour you will be fine.

Athomas

Thanks for the super speedy response.
The option of just relying on the wife's income hadn't occurred. Something to consider.

opinions4u

What's the "go to" rate with A&L?

While their SVR is relatively high, they sold a lot of tracker based deals with low margins so it's possible you might not want to remortgage.

All the best with the recovery.

Athomas

opinions4u wrote: »

What's the "go to" rate with A&L?

While their SVR is relatively high, they sold a lot of tracker based deals with low margins so it's possible you might not want to remortgage.

All the best with the recovery.

Currently standard variable rate 4.24%, which is less than we're paying (we were locked into a fixed rate 5yr) but more than we could get for a good tracker.

Errata

Wishing you a good and speedy recovery. In your shoes I wouldn't do anything until I had a year back at work full time by which time I would know how I was faring, what I could cope with and what the future looked like.

anokayperson

hi everyone - my partner has just been diagnosed with cancer also and has immediately started chemo. unfortunately my partner changed jobs recently and is therefore only entitled to ssp. I am still working and can cover the mortgage etc but I know there will come a time soon where I won't be able to. will the bank look favourably on us in asking for an interest repayment mortgage until we sell our house? any advice please fire away!

anokayperson

can I bump this post up for advice please? really worried!!!

Wh05apk

anokayperson wrote: »

can I bump this post up for advice please? really worried!!!

Speak to your lender before you start struggling, most lenders will allow you to go onto interest only for a short period (6 months) in cases of financial hardship.

Errata

anokayperson wrote: »

can I bump this post up for advice please? really worried!!!

Wishing your OH a good and speedy recovery. Speak to his Macmillan nurse, they are pretty good on the financial side of things. HTH