Britannia Changed Permission To Rent policy

lettobuy

Hi,

I have a repayment mortgage (from Britannia) on a property that is let out whilst I am over seas. Every 12 months I am required to ask Britannia for permission to let the property.

I have recently asked for another 12 months - Britannia have informed me of the following:

Mortgages for properties that are rented out now incur a 1% loading

Permission to rent will only be given if the monthly rental income is at least 125% of the monthly mortgage repayment.

Even if I pay the 12 months mortgage repayments up front, permission will not be given to rent out the property for the next 12 months.

Britannia seem not to want me as a customer any more.

Have any of you come across anything similar to this recently - anyone got any advice - can anyone suggest an alternative product ?

Cheers.

Dave_Ham

All of the banks and BS's are now doing this. Britannia are actually a year late to the party.

What rate are they offering you (including the loading) and will tell you if that is any good or not...

ACG

Thats correct, its not that they dont want you as a customer they dont want the property rented out - theyre not in the buy to let get game, they do residential mortgages.

JackDunstan

I'd take that loading as I am in the same position and Halifax would only offer to Double my interest rate irrespective of LTV! I have sold because of this as being abroad it is difficult to get a new mortgage.

SVR of halifax and was offered 6.79%... I only have one property and forced move abroad to find work so was looking for a simple letter to allow me to rent out etc...as it was before crisis.. CTL i think its called but they treated as a BTL

Leew1231

JackDunstan wrote: »

I'd take that loading as I am in the same position and Halifax would only offer to Double my interest rate irrespective of LTV! I have sold because of this as being abroad it is difficult to get a new mortgage.

SVR of halifax and was offered 6.79%... I only have one property and forced move abroad to find work so was looking for a simple letter to allow me to rent out etc...as it was before crisis.. CTL i think its called but they treated as a BTL

I'm the same, moved abroad for work to keep myself afloat, and penalised by my mortgage lender. They added 1.5% to a already high 5.78% mortgage. Now considering selling, the rent income only covers about 60% of the mortgage.

holly_hobby

There are now copious amounts of threads on this very subject - the issue is that you origianlly effected your mortgage on a residential basis - so were able to enjoy residential rates.

You have however moved out of your property, and now let it commerically - this takes it from regulated to unregulated lending - and a semi-commericial mortgage. Hence you are being charged a rate and asked to meet conditions more akin to semi-commerical borrowing.

There is little argument with this, at the moment your lender gave you consent to let, the residential mge t&cs were thrown out of the window somewhat, as you are now operating outside of their terms (albeit with the lenders tacit agreement).

The options you have, are to absorb the changes, or change lenders and onto a dedicated BTL mortgage ...... the issues you will have as an ex pat, have already been discussed by an earlier poster (and thats ignoring weighty and initial product/arrangement fees incurred under a BTL arrangement).

My own advice would be to leave this be, as I doubt there is little to be gained in trying to move lender (when also taking into account fees), bearing in mind your current residential status.

Once you're back in the UK, and if you wish to continue the let, you could search the market for a more attractive product.

Hope this helps

Holly