Help to buy and Consent to Lease

BlueStarJay

In September 2014 I took out a mortgage on a home with Halifax. I intended to live in this home and I have been doing so. However, circumstances have arising that impact my financial situation and are a threat to my ability to make my mortgage payments. Also, I face the threat of redundancy at work and should that happen then I will definitely not be able to make the payments. One option I have considered is moving in with family until my situation is more secure and renting out my property. However, since I have a help to buy mortgage is there any chance that I would even be considered for a Consent to Lease?

ACG

I do not do many HTB mortgages but my understanding is that you would not be eligible for consent to let as its one of the bits of criteria for the scheme.

libf

You'd need permission from Help To Buy as well as permission from the mortgage company, and I believe that the only case they're really willing to allow it is for serving members of the armed forces on periods of duty abroad.

If you can't make the payments then you'll likely have to sell.

BlueStarJay

Is there anything that would prevent me from changing my Help to Buy mortgage to a Buy-to-Let mortgage?

ACG

You would presumably have to pay early repayment charged?
Im also guessing that if you have used help to buy you probably do not have the 20-25% equity needed?

libf

BlueStarJay wrote: »

Is there anything that would prevent me from changing my Help to Buy mortgage to a Buy-to-Let mortgage?

You'd have to pay the Help To Buy loan back first.

From the Help to Buy Guide:

Q Can I sublet my Help to Buy home?
No. Help to Buy is designed to assist you to move on to or up the housing ladder. If you wish to sublet, you will first have to repay the Help to Buy equity loan assistance. In exceptional circumstances (e.g. a serving member of the Armed Forces staff whose tour of duty requires them to serve away from the area in which they live for a fixed period, then sub-letting can be considered. In these circumstances you would also require approval from your mortgage lender).

laurasavon

I have a feeling one of the exceptional circumstances is financial reasons and even if you couldn't continue with the scheme if Halifax agree to grant you consent to let you would just drop off the scheme, your mortgage would still continue

libf

laurasavon wrote: »

I have a feeling one of the exceptional circumstances is financial reasons and even if you couldn't continue with the scheme if Halifax agree to grant you consent to let you would just drop off the scheme, your mortgage would still continue

But you can't 'drop off' the scheme without re-paying the loan, so unless the OP has funds for that (which it doesn't sound like) then sale of the property would be the only way to pay it off.

Or of course if the mortgage could be extended to re-pay HTB then I guess that might work, but not if the OP is made redundant before the remortgage goes through...

OP: you need to contact the post sales agent and see if they agree your circumstances are exceptional enough to rent out your house.

laurasavon

If the lender agrees they can run it as a normal loan and let it come off the scheme