Mortgage Prisoner Letter

asubhan265

I am with Mortgage Express who are an inactive lender they do not offer any kind of products and i am on svr on 4.44% at this very moment.

MWT

Thanks for all the answers, nothing there would seem to prevent you from being considered as a 'Mortgage Prisoner' so do pursue your complaint, and do keep asking them what it is that they believe disqualifies you...

One note of caution though, I keep coming across warnings that those on interest only  mortgages will have to show the new lender proof of their repayment vehicle or be able to afford to switch the mortgage to at least part-repayment, which will obviously result in higher monthly payments.

SpiderLegs

asubhan265 said:

I do not have any repayment vehicle in place

So are you expecting another lender to offer you a ten year IO mortgage at a better rate than you are on now, when you have no way of paying off the capital?

im not sure your chances will be too high on that, whether you have a mortgage prisoner letter or not.

MWT

asubhan265 said:

I did have a agreement in principle with the west brom building society but once they realised i did not have the mortgage prisoner they say they couldn't help.

Was that still interest only, or was it a mixed repayment/interest only deal?

Thrugelmir

asubhan265 said:

I am with Mortgage Express who are an inactive lender they do not offer any kind of products and i am on svr on 4.44% at this very moment.

ME ceased to offer new products when the Bradford & Bingley was declared insolvent and nationalised in 2008. If you aren't in a position to overpay due to other financial committments. Then it's possible that the mortgage lenders available to you wouldn't offer you a better rate of interest than you are being charged. 

On what grounds has ME declined to issue a mortgage prisoner letter? 

MWT

Thrugelmir said:

On what grounds has ME declined to issue a mortgage prisoner letter? 

No reason given...

asubhan265 said:

My lender says i don't fit the criteria for a mortgage prisoner letter. When i pushed for reasons they would not give me specific reason. I tried to complain to FCA but all they said was to put in a formal complaint, which i have.

Thrugelmir

MWT said:

Thrugelmir said:

On what grounds has ME declined to issue a mortgage prisoner letter? 

No reason given...

asubhan265 said:

My lender says i don't fit the criteria for a mortgage prisoner letter. When i pushed for reasons they would not give me specific reason. I tried to complain to FCA but all they said was to put in a formal complaint, which i have.

Suggests that the OP doesn't meet the modified affordability assessment criteria. Also may not meet the remortgaging criteria of some potential new lenders either. 

MWT

Thrugelmir said:

Suggests that the OP doesn't meet the modified affordability assessment criteria. Also may not meet the remortgaging criteria of some potential new lenders either. 

I did wonder about that, and clearly there is a question-mark over the interest-only with no repayment vehicle, but surely that is for the potential new lender to decide, not for the existing lender to deny a letter on the basis that they may not meet the modified criteria for a new loan.

asubhan265

sorry was at work, west brom were prepared to give me a 29 yr mortgage on capital and repayment, got go ahead from head office. yes and it did come under what i was paying on interest only as long as i paid £2k to bring mortgage down to 133k. but when on application they asked if i had the mortgage prisoner letter and although i told the first person i don't have this letter he didn't seem to bothered. i have aletter explaining they do not offer any products but its not the actual "mortgage prisoner" letter the fca approves.

MWT

I just took a look at the webpage for Mortgage Express./ Bradford & Bingley and this they say is the criteria they used for sending the letters:

"The rules required us to write to our customers who the FCA believes could benefit from the new, modified affordability assessment by 15 January 2021.

In November 2020, we wrote to customers who met the following criteria as set by the FCA.

• They have a residential mortgage, which does not have a consent-to-let in place and is not a buy-to-let mortgage;
• They are paying a variable ‘reversionary’ rate of interest (such as an SVR), following the end of an initial deal period; and
• They are have not been behind on their mortgage payments at any point within the last 12 months."

Any chance that a 'consent to let' was asked for at some point?