British Army Soldier requires Mortgages Advice

Willlf

Looking to get on the property ladder , maybe get an amount above the value of the house to clear existing debt's

Currently earn £30,000 per year

Have managable debt's totalling £15,000

Also chasing my Bank for charge's £4,200 + interest

Also trying to find out about the grants available (pension linked) to Forces for their first home.

optiplex_2

hi willf
my partner is in the navy, have you tried the mod forces discount booklet? there are loads of adverts for discount mortgages for the armed forces, and brokers who specialise in them.
if you can't find what i'm talking about let me know and i'll dig out the info for you

optiplex

Willlf

http://www.forcesdiscount.com/index.htm

optiplex_2

i hadn't seen that one! this is the one i have the booklet on at home:

http://www.forcesdiscounts-mod.co.uk/

Willlf

cheers although am interested in getting a house nearer where my mother lives, & these housing scheme's tend to be newly built homes in certain areas, really after normal housing markets

servalan

Hi

Their is an Loan avalible to the forces upto I think it is £8500 . I looked into it and decided against it . Your HR (Admin) or whatever they are called these days should be able to give you the information on it . This has to be used for a deposit and paid directly to the solicitor. Look into it well as it suits some not others.

Apart from that just look at normal mortgages . Forces Discount book ones are around the same if not more than a normal mortgages so just look into them . I am a member of the Forces and had no trouble what so ever . Get in touch with an IFA and they should be able to help more . Though i didn't and did all my research myself and everything went fine .

A:beer:

roosterbean

The loan is called LSAP (Longstanding Service Advance Payout). I'm not in the army but my purchaser is buying my house with one of these. It is upto 8500 but will liable for tax over 5000 I think...

As we are just coming up to completion, if you do go down this route, I would really recommend applying for it asap and using a solicitor that has some knowledge of it.

Good luck on your property search.

Trying_to_be_good

I have lots of friends who've taken LSAP and it can be a real pain as
1) they take a second charge on your property (i.e. it's a secured loan) and some mortgage lenders don't like this. Really difficult for re-mortgaging
2) there is a taxable benefit you have to ensure you've allowed for
3) they take AGES to process anything - a friend just tried to pay his off and was told it would take 8 weeks to process his cheque.

If you can go with just a normal mortgage and not take the LSAP, I'd say do that - it's not worth the hassle for the proportionately tiny amount you can borrow against a house purchase.