Length of mortgage term

lesleyoxley

I have a mortgage of £28000 and my property is worth approx £180000
I recently spoke to the Halifax with whom I have my mortgage, with regards to taking out a top up loan on my mortgage. I was told that this is impossible. I would have to take out a new mortgage (rather than keep the one I have and take out a further loan). I was also told that I could only have the new mortgage over the term of 12 years as I am over 50. My present mortgage has 21 years to run. The Halifax also wanted to charge an extortionate fee plus a charge for survey etc

What I would like to know is are there any mortgages out there aimed at the over 50's ?(please don't send me to saga as I find their prices far too high on most of their products)

I have been told that no company will offer a mortgage for a term which will come to an end after the age of 60 or 65.

I am limited income as most of my money is tied up in the house. Hence the reason for wanting to release some of the equity.

sammyjammy

Would it not be possible to downsize and release money that way rather than take on more debt, if you're on a limited income what will you use to make the additional repayments with? The money you've just liquidated?

With regards the mortgage, there are certainly companies that will lend you money over the term you have remaining but its probably down to whether you can afford the repayments on that term, I think the best thing you could do if you've decided this is the best way of releasing the money is to speak to a whole of market broker, they can probably help you find a lender that won't charge fees.

Sam

dunstonh

What I would like to know is are there any mortgages out there aimed at the over 50's ?

Every lender does.

I have been told that no company will offer a mortgage for a term which will come to an end after the age of 60 or 65.

Thats not strictly true. Most lenders will not lend beyond retirement unless you have proof that you can afford it beyond retirement. Typically that means proving you have a big enough pension.

It would be inappropriate for them to lend you money beyond retirement without checking you can afford it and no doubt when they came to repossess your property in years to come you would complain you should never have been sold the mortgage in the first place. There have been a number of complaints to the FOS about post retirement mortgages and the providers have acted correctly following those.

UK007BullDog

At NatWest we can go up to age 70 and in certain cases up to age 75 depending on the background of the person.

Since the FSA has taken over the rules for lending has tightened as ideally everyone should be mortgage free by age 65 in their eyes which I totally agree with.

regularsaver1

lexley - with Halifax, it would not be a new mortgage. It would be a further advance. There would be an arrangement fee for that (£299) and possibly a product fee, but a revaluation is only required when the new borrowing takes you over 90% of their index valuation for your property? unless you have shared ownership

they do do lending into retirement. evidence of retirment income is usually required and the adviser has to put a rationale in place that you are ok with the mortgage going into "normal" retirement age

did you see someone in branch? I'd be curious to know

lesleyoxley

Hi Regular saver. Yes I did see someone in the branch. Although I wanted to arrange a loan I also wanted to have a substantial overpayment which was just sitting on my account gaining interest for the Halifax, returned to me. I had been told at first this could not be done. The overpayment sat at almost £3000. I was told by the adviser that she could arrange a payment of part of this sum (which turned out to be £1400). She did not however inform me that a fee of £299 would be charged for doing so. I only found this out when I received the cheque and a statement, and noted that £299 had been added to my mortgage!!!

Although people have commented that as I have limited income I should not be considering a loan but downsizing to release capital........... limited income does not mean I am living in the gutter. I would not be intending to take out the loan if I couldn't afford to pay it back. And downsizing isn't an option unless I want to move to a property in an area where I would be looking over my shoulder every day, scared of being burgled or attacked.... Perhaps people haven't noticed the cost of property nowadays.

The idea of realeasing capital is so that I can remain in my home, which I love and don't wish to move from. I would like to use some of the equity to purchase a property overseas. As my mortgage still has 20 years to run on it, I would hopefully like any further loan or mortgage to be for the same period as I know the payments would be well within my reach.
It is also unlikely that I would still be paying the mortgage in 20 years time (after all who does nowadays?) The chances are if I find something suitable overseas, I will possibly sell my house here within 5 or 10 years. The length of term of mortgage is required to keep the costs of repayments as low as possible. And lets face it, my property is worth a great deal more than what the overall debt would be, so if I did die before the mortgage was paid then the mortgage lender would get their money either from the sale of the property or from one of my sons taking over the mortgage.. Some of us don't have the advantage of living in mansions and bringing in extortionate salaries with the possibility of retiring in luxury.

I have no intention of my property being reposessed. I'm not stupid.

Sorry Regularsaver, this gripe was not meant for you. I just thought I'd offer my thoughts to the previous replies which you can possibly tell 'got my back up'

regularsaver1

The £299 is a further advance fee which is applicable when borrowing additionalk funds on your mortgage, which is present on the key facts illustration and offer that you have to agree to and sign for. In your above post, I am not clear what you are saying the £299 fee is for

The branch can not return the overpayment to you, but they can get the business centre to return it to you.