Planning to rent our flat next year, do we have to tell our bank?

Jusifay

Hi,
We have an HSBC 5 years fixed rate mortgage since August 2014.
We are planning to go abroad for a year in 2016 and we also would like to rent out our flat.
Basically we would like to cover the monthly payments with the rent.
Do we have to let the bank know about this? Can we switch to a sort of 'buy to let' mortgage?
Thanks!

Annisele

You don't just have to tell your bank, you have to ask your bank - and they might say no.

It sounds as though you're looking for consent-to-let (CTL). You might be able to switch to a BTL product, but I'd expect that to be fairly expensive (in terms of early repayment fees on your existing product).

G_M has a post giving broad details of things new landlords should know. You'd be non-resident landlords, which brings extra wrinkles. If you do decide to go ahead with this, I suspect you'll be glad you started thinking about it now; there's a lot to learn.

Jusifay

Thank you so much... I will start my research now before making any decision