Renewing Mortgage

CakeTime

I took out my first mortgage coming up to 2 years ago - I paid Romans £400 to be my Mortgage Advisor because Nationwide (who came out best) were doing an incentive where you get £500 cashback on their mortgage so it covered the costs and meant I didn't have to worry about all the paperwork.

I'm now getting letters from Nationwide telling me I will go to the Standard Variable Rate soon. I can either leave it, renew with them or renew with someone else.

My questions are:

• If I renew does that count as a "Remortgage"? I don't really understand the terminology but always felt it was more serious when you remortgage a property
• How much paperwork is there to do when transferring one mortgage to another provider? A quick comparison tells me there are some which are slightly cheaper per month than Nationwide but at the same time, Nationwide can do it with my existing details so I don't have to reapply or anything.
• If I go to another provider, is it worth paying a Mortgage Adviser to do the paperwork again for me?
• Can anyone share their experience of stair-casing with shared ownership? I have 25% at the moment so want to increase my share to 50%. I assume I have to do this now or wait until my Mortgage Fixed Term ends? I'm assuming it causes a lot more issues if you're trying to do it with a new Mortgage provider too?

Thanks in advance for your responses!

Bermonia

1. Yes that would be a remortgage.

2. Much the same amount of paperwork when you took first mortgage - this would of course as you rightly say be less by sticking with lender. With regards to rates please check that any lender you are considering will touch shared ownership properties (not all do).

3. Entirely up to you - you pay for their time and expertise, nothing says you can’t do the leg work yourself but can be time consuming.

4. Most of the issues with stair casing tend to come from the management company (good luck) - in essence a new valuation would need to be carried out at your cost and you would have to do it as part of the re-mortgage, in terms of hassle probably be much the same as when you increase your borrowing banks will need to completely re-assess your circumstances.

getmore4less

retention deals with your current lender are not a remortgage.

Check what Nationwide will let you have as retention deals that sets the benchmark for others.

No idea if nationwide will do auto retention with shared but as you want to increase borrowing it would require a full application for the extra money anyway.