Moving house in a fixed mortage (employment questions)

happycamper7

Hi all,

I have had a read around and done some searching, but I still cannot find the info I need. I may be being slightly dim.

Husband and I have a house, still in very early days of mortgage, just passed end of year 1. We are tied into a 5 year fixed rate.

I know in theory you can "port" a mortgage to a different house, but I do not understand whether you need to go through all the income/finance checks again, or whether the only important thing is the value of the new house. New house would equal old house in value, but in a totally different area of the county! So, it is conditional on hubby being offered new job, which he hasn't been yet. So any move would be calculated based on his current job.

What we want to know is, which of the following scenarios is likely to work...

Move now - at point of purchase both have same jobs as when we got mortgage - simples, except we have not yet finished the work on the house to bring it to the value we want!
Move in a couple of years - husband has same job, I have different job, possibly self-employed (less than 3 yrs accounts) (this doesn't work if they want to check income again).
Husband gets job, moves and rents on his own while we finish work on this house. New house bought on his new employment - does this matter if he has not been in the job long?

I am not sure I am even making sense.... Confused. :rotfl:

kingstreet

You apply for a new mortgage on the new property. The old one is paid off when you sell. If the same amount, you may be able to"port" the rate from the old mortgage to the new one, to avoid payment of early redemption penalties.

The status enquiries are the same as for the last time you bought.

Timing issues are down to you, I'm afraid. Status requirements will reflect the situation at the time of application.

happycamper7

Thank you for the reply.

Right, so basically this whole "port" thing refers only to the rates, in every other way we would start from scratch on the new house? Does this mean we would go back to year 1 of 25 years?

In that case, clearly I need to stay in my current job till we move. Getting a good solid self-employed income is not going to happen fast enough.

If my husband was to get his new job now-ish, while we are still working on this house, how much effect would that have on a mortgage application? Does the length of time in that employment matter, or solely the fact it is a permanent job? He has been in his current job a long time, and this was never mentioned when we applied for the current mortgage.

kingstreet

Yes. Porting applies only to the rate and other terms. There may be some flexibility on the term of the mortgage, with most borrowers choosing to reflect the years which have passed and going for the residue of the current mortgage, or going back to a more affordable term, 25 or 30 years, if they're increasing their borrowings.

It's a common misconception that a port means you transfer a mortgage from one property to another with no further checks and nothing could be further from the truth. We get several new queries a week on this issue.

Some lenders are happy with someone who has a job offer and confirmed start date. Others will want any probationary period out of the way before they will consider. You're going to have to talk to your existing lender, or a broker who can establish your circumstances and plan this with you.

happycamper7

Ok, I think we will get the roof on, which will significantly increase the value then go back to the broker who got us this mortgage. Thank you for your help.