Advice sort - homeowner travelling for a year

aussiechick01

Hi,

I need some advice about what to do with my property when I'm abroad for a year.

Every option I have so far has it's downsides:

1) Leave the property empty and cover the mortgage for a year. This seems like the easiest option at the moment.

2) Let a friend stay in the property for a year and just pay the bills (I can cover the mortgage costs) Does anyone know if this would be in breach of my mortgage agreement, since I'm not technically letting it out?

3) Move to a variable rate mortgage with my lender at 6.5% (due to lack of equity) but this won't cover the cost of the mortgage at all.
Background of this is:

I spoken to Lloyds TSB who I have my 'lend a hand' mortgage with and it seems the only way I get out of my current mortgage is to pay the penalty (£4000) and then I will get moved to a variable rate mortgae mortgage (with consent to let) - currently 6.5% which is 2.5% higher than what I'm currently paying. Plus the costs of fixing the house so it's ready for rent. In reality this would probably cost the same over a year as leaving my house empty.

I'm stuck as to what to do!
Thanks

jamil0458

There's no reason in principle why you can't have a friend stay in the property to look after it whilst you are gone, and it has nothing to do with your mortgagee so long as you are not profiting from it or letting it out. The precise arrangements you make with the friend for expenses of services used is between you and them - but again, to be 100% kosher, not for gain or profit.

Other than that you appear to have explored all the possible options yourself - although you could try a property management company - the choice ultimately is your own. Good luck with your efforts and hope it works out for you in a way that gives you the best result.

Tixy

Slightly different issue - but if you go for option 1 do remember to consider your insurance and talk to your buildings/contents insurer, you may need a different policy for a property unoccupied for so long.

Fire_Fox

Read the terms and conditions of your mortgage carefully, it is residential which means you are supposed to live there. You will need to let your lender and your insurance company know whatever you decide. You may well find having anyone live in the property makes you legally a landlord in which case you will need comply with reams of legislation.

ToasterScheme

jamil0458 wrote: »

There's no reason in principle why you can't have a friend stay in the property to look after it whilst you are gone, and it has nothing to do with your mortgagee so long as you are not profiting from it or letting it out. The precise arrangements you make with the friend for expenses of services used is between you and them - but again, to be 100% kosher, not for gain or profit.

I'd have to say my experience 3 years ago was different to this advice.
With Yorkshire Building Society - we had to move away for work.
They made it perfectly clear that if I gave someone else a key AND stopped living there myself then that counted as letting out [which meant minimum six month AST under their rules, plus CTL etc. etc] regardless of any payments (or none). Effectively - "house sitting" was not allowed.

And once you have tipped them off that you are even thinking about doing this, they are likely to check up on you every three months to make sure you're doing what you said you would do.

In the end they had no objection to leaving the house empty (with modified insurance as mentioned) so that is what we had to do.

googler

Hire a professional house sitter?

longtimelurkersam

ToasterScheme wrote: »

And once you have tipped them off that you are even thinking about doing this, they are likely to check up on you every three months to make sure you're doing what you said you would do.

I always wonder "how" they do this? I mean you have a mate sitting in your house so it is not empty. How are they going to find out? I mean unless you changed all the bills to someone else's name and they asked for proof of a recent bill in your name that you couldnt provide, but in reality if you trusted your friend in your house with your possessions surely you wouldn't change this over?

I am in the same boat, but I am living 200 miles away in the UK. My property is furnished and occupied by me every few weekends when I am able to get back and at other times as needed a friend stays and keep an eye on things. In my circumstances I pay all the bills so he gets a lovely nice favour from me.... :beer:

Fire_Fox

longtimelurkersam wrote: »

I always wonder "how" they do this? I mean you have a mate sitting in your house so it is not empty. How are they going to find out? I mean unless you changed all the bills to someone else's name and they asked for proof of a recent bill in your name that you couldnt provide, but in reality if you trusted your friend in your house with your possessions surely you wouldn't change this over?

I am in the same boat, but I am living 200 miles away in the UK. My property is furnished and occupied by me every few weekends when I am able to get back and at other times as needed a friend stays and keep an eye on things. In my circumstances I pay all the bills so he gets a lovely nice favour from me.... :beer:

Depends if the arrangement is occasional or full time. If full time you should change the council tax, the housesitter should register to vote, most banks insist you give them your residential address so the housesitter should be getting any financial mail delivered, you have to inform your insurance companies, you are supposed to inform the taxman when you move ...

Just because someone doesn't get caught doesn't mean they are not breaching their mortgage.

aussiechick01

Thanks for the replies, I think an annonomous call to the bank is in order but option 1 is looking the likeliest. It's a shame I'm such an honest person!!!

Fire_Fox

It really is not a shame, you risk being uninsured if you don't do things by the book.