Halifax portable mortgage

columbo360

Hello,
We are looking to purchase a shop with a flat above. To do this we are going to buy the leasehold flat and then the freehold shop. Our current fixed rate deal is with the Halifax and as we were concious about possible early repayment charges we contacted them early on in the process to make sure we could port or mortgage over.

Fast forward 6 months after a bit of negotiation over the price and accepting an offer on our house we are finally in a position to proceed. We proceeded to contact Halifax, and had the valuation carried out. Valuation came back fine. We then had a phone call out of the blue saying that we couldn't port our mortgage over. The reason? Because if we own the downstairs shop we could in theory make it difficult for Halifax to sell the flat if they repossessed.

I know we entered a contract with early repayment charges, and i'm also aware that no doubt they have the right to deny porting mortgages. However, we feel that we have been totally strung along and that they are looking for any excuse not to honour porting the mortgage. I even suggested buying the shop in parents names etc but they wouldn't listen. I then questioned how they would even know we would own it, as we would be buying the shop after, and they said since we've told them and they now know then they can't port over. The police have to say "Anything you do say may be taken in evidence"!!!

Anyway, rant over. If anyone could give us any advice as to where we stand then it would be most appreciated. It's also probably useful to not that during the 6 months we have spent considerable amounts on drawings, structural surveys etc etc which all may be in vein as we won't be able to afford to move!!

Post rant over.

Cheers,
Columbo

opinions4u

I'm amazed that they'd consider lending on a flat above a shop in any circumstances. It always used to be an absolute no for them.

Simon_gloster

Semi commercial mortgage all the way. Suprised they got a far as the valuaion.

columbo360

But there's nothing semi-commercial about it. I'd agree if we were buying the whole property on one mortgage, but we are simply buying a leasehold flat which happens to be above a shop. I understand some lenders may be wary about lending on such a property, but we were told this was taken into account in the valuation.

Simon_gloster

Your opening post says your buying a shop!!!! Sorry if I read it wrong.

Halifax will lend on them subject to val report. If it was in Chelsea, maybe different but the location and type of shop is critical here with maybe a maximum ltv of 60-65%.