Renting out prior to lender's agreement

brhaven

Hello

I do not know if this is the right place to ask, but would like to seek for advice.

We purchased a property with a help to buy scheme last year and was living there, but because of my husband job that requires frequent travels (he is in British armed forces), the house was vacant for half of the time - so we decided to rent it out and go to army housing as moving around is a lot easier. We have never missed a payment so far and we are trying to pay off half of equity loan this month.

We requested for a let agreement form to our lender, but when we got it we found that we have to fill in managing agent details and tenants move in date and periods, so we decided to go for finding a tenant first.

After tenant move in date was fixed we sent the form to the lender which was today, but then we found out we cannot let out until we get agreement from the lender. The tenants want to move in this Sat. (There was some issues so the date was just fixed) Lender said it takes 10 working days to provide a feedback.

Could we firstly rent out the property prior to lender's agreement? Would it be too risky?

The tricky part is that we used the help to buy scheme which does not allow sublet. However it states that "For example, if you’re a serving member of the Armed Forces staff whose tour of duty requires you to serve away from the area in which you live for a fixed period. In these circumstances you would also require approval from your mortgage lender". We are currently located around the property area but there is a plan to be deployed to abroad soon for a few month and other area in the UK within no fixed time.

Pixie5740

I don't really understand why, after getting the forms, you decided to go ahead and find a tenant before applying for consent-to-let. It's not just your mortgage lender you need consent-to-let from either, you also require it from the HTB scheme. Yes HTB might grant consent-to-let in exceptional circumstances such as if you’re a serving member of the Armed Forces staff whose tour of duty requires you to serve away from the area in which you live for a fixed period but I'm not sure if that applies to your circumstances. I guess the only way is to apply to both your lender and HTB to find out but you've put the cart before the horse and could end up in the sticky situation of no consent-to-let and a tenant.

If you are caught then HTB can demand the immediate repayment of your equity loan. Your mortgage lender could go as far as recalling the mortgage.

Is there anything else as a landlord you might forget to do such as having the appropriate insurance, gas safety certificate, EPC?

Read: Tenancies in England/Wales a guide for landlords and tenants.