Will my mortgage allow me to sell my house before buying a new one?

ninafee

Hello all, I hope you can help!

I recently bought a house (just over six months ago) but have now moved towns in order to take a promotion - the new job is much better paid than my old one but is with a different company and obviously not within commuting distance of my house. This means that at the moment I'm in the situation where I have both a mortgage and rent to pay, which is far from ideal.

I'll want to buy near my new job within the next 12 months which makes letting out my current property somewhat untenable - however I don't know exactly where I want to buy yet and I don't want to rush into a hasty purchase. I'm confident that I could sell my house for what (or near what) I bought it for if I try and sell during the summer months rather than the middle of winter....

The question is - will my mortgage company allow me to sell my current house, hold onto my portable mortgage, and transfer it to a new probably more expensive property say three months later - or am I stuck having to be in a chain or pay expensive early repayment fees (if the later how bad are repayment fees likely to be?).

For additional information - I bought my property for £135000 with a 75% mortgage. The mortgage is variable rate and with the Woolwich.

What's the best thing to do? What are my options?

ninafee

Oh and job is in exactly the same line as my previous job (I'm not sure if that makes a difference?)

ACG

You will probably be able to sell the property (so long as you have owned it over 6 months) and port the mortgage to a new property - however there are usually maximum timescales you have that option for - so double check with the lender. If you want over and above what you have borrowed you will probably have to open up a "sub account" with the lender for the additional monies.

Just beware that if you dont buy in those timescales you may be liable for early repayment charges, infact im not 100% sure but i think you pay the ERCs first and get them refunded when you purchase somewhere new.

pokey128

I'm with first direct and we had a period of 8 weeks between selling and buying and they allowed us to port our rate (this was after they originally told us it had to be done on the same day but eventually caved!)