First time buyer advice with a twist

mhuk01

Hello, I am after some advice for a rather different home buying situation..

I am 26 and am looking to purchase a property for around £100-120,000. I have a deposit of around 40%.

Where this gets interesting is that I am a musician, and most of my earnings come from working onboard cruiseships for around 10 months of the year. Whilst I am declared self employed for all other work (ie performances back in the uk), my employment on the cruiseship is not classed as selfemployed, mostly for tax purposes and the fact that I have been employed by the same cruise company for 4.5 years.

I would like to purchase the property to be able to then rent it out whilst I am not in the UK. My understanding is I can do this provided I get a 'consent to let' from the lender. Does anyone have experience of doing this immediately following getting a mortgage? Should I mention this up front during the application process, or wait until I've been approved?

I return to the UK in May for 2 months, and in that time would like to find a property, purchase then begin renting the property out for at least the next 6 months, whilst I am at work out of the UK. Is this at all a realistic goal? Obviously my focus is on properties with no chain/new builds in order to speed things up.

Any advice anyone can give on the above would be great.

amnblog

That is not the way it works.


If you are letting the property you need a buy to let mortgage.


You cannot buy as a residence with a view to immediately letting.


Consent to let can be granted where the borrower needs to live away from the property for a period of time due to a change in circumstances. This will be for a one off circumstance not to suit a lifestyle.


A good broker should be able to help you secure a buy to let mortgage.

somethingcorporate

Speak to a broker.

I don't think you'll be able to get a residential mortgage and then immediately convert to C2L.

Edit: beaten to it!

Rollinghills

Yeah, sounds like you need a buy to let mortgage.

Where do you stay at the moment when you come back to the UK? The easiest way would be to rent out the new place and continue with current arrangements. Otherwise it may be hard to find tenants willing to let for 10 months or less. And you may have more periods without tenants.

Also, just because the tenancy would expire a day / a week / a few weeks before your return there is no guarantee the tenant will move out, that's not how it works legally. If the tenant decides to stay after the notice period you have to go to court and it can take months to remove them. So wanting your place to be tenant free for the 2 months you are in the UK could be more hassle than it's worth.

mhuk01

When I'm at home I currently live with my parents, which can continue even with a house purchase, so I am not concerned with having to struggle getting tenants to leave the property.

So I guess the consensus is that I should get a buy to let mortgage.

Would another option for me not to let the property out immediately, and maybe in a year or so's time get the 'consent to let' from my lender?

amnblog

wrote: »

Hi,

My name is xxxxxxxxxxx and I work for Xxxxxxxxxxxas an Independant Broker.

I hope you have fixed your issue regarding the working on cruise ships. If you are self employed the lender will normally ask for either an accountants certificate or SA302's. Both of which will declare your income. They will also want a minimum of 2 years however it is possible of just 1.

If you have any questions or want some more advice feel free to get in touch my email is

Very subtle

Senior_Paper_Monitor

William - you need to read the forum rules before the mods take hold of your delicate bits !

mhuk01

Just to add to my confusion, I see articles like this one. I don't want to take out a buy to let mortgage and get penalized for living in the property at any point in time....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/mortgages/11031884/Desperate-first-time-buyers-warned-over-attempts-to-use-buy-to-let-mortgages.html

mhuk01

Also just to clarify, I only make around £600 per year 'self employed'. The majority of my income comes from working on a cruise ship, around £21,000 per year currently (this fluctuates due to being paid in USD by the cruise company). Is this something most mortgage providers can deal with, having pay statements from my employer in USD?

mhuk01

Does anyone have any more thoughts on this for me?

I am starting to think my best way forward is to get a residential mortgage in the 2 months i'm back in the UK, then in a few months (maybe 6 months plus), start investigating with my mortgage provider to 'consent to let'.

The question is, with only 2 months in the UK will that be enough time to secure a flat and mortgage, with completion? I know it's ambitious but hope it will be doable...

Rollinghills

The bank will see that you work on a cruise ship. This should not preclude you from owning a home. But they may not take it well when a few months later you ask for consent to let while your circumstances have not changed one bit.

Why are you worried about a buy to let mortgage?