Consent to Let

jennadav

Hi,

Does anyone know the rights regarding consent to let of your only and main residential home. It seems to differ between mortgage lenders, some will grant consent to let for the entirety of the mortgage ( eg Natwest) while others will only grant it for 1 year (eg HSBC). Peoples circumstances change throughout the length of a 30 year mortgage, if it is your only property and very much your home do the lender have to accommodate your circumstances or can they make you sell (even though letting the property would not be an issue and no payments would be missed). I naively thought it was a simple process of notifying your lender.

Any insights would be much appreciated.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Rights? None. The terms of the mortgage were (presumably) that you were to continue to live in it. If you wish to change the terms, they can accept as a gesture of goodwill, but they don't have to. As you say, each lender will act differently based on their own attitude to risk.

Pixie5740

It is very much not your home if you decide to let it out. It becomes the tenant's home.

Consent to let varies from lender to lender and even then just because a lender grants CTL for one customer it doesn't mean it will be granted to everyone who applies. It will depend on your circumstances at the time.

Consent-To-Let is meant to be a temporary measure not a backdoor way into becoming a landlord. After a period of time your lender may cease to grant consent-to-let and then you would be in breach of your mortgage T&C if you continue letting the property. Your options would then be to get a buy-to-let mortgage or sell.

People's lives do change over the course of 30 years and they adapt. Whether that's by selling the property, letting the property for a short while, or taking a more long term approach to letting is up to you.