Switch to buy to let mortgage

ShoesAreDamnExpensive

The consent to lease my flat has recently expired and after trying to sell it for a few months it seems that I may need to re-let it until the market in the area picks up.

My residential mortgage is with Halifax and I can't get another consent to lease as I am now sure I will not be returning to live in the property (as required by their consent to lease terms). However, when I spoke to them about a buy to let mortgage they were worse than useless about how this would work at one point telling me I wouldn't be able to remortgage with them and would need to go to a different provider?!

I have checked with a separate mortgage advisor who has said that until it is let out I can't get a buy-to let mortgage as there is no proof of letting income. It has been let for six months as I decided what to do with it but it is currently empty as it is on the market. However, in order to be able to let it out under my current mortgage I need consent to lease which I am no longer eligible for?

Has anyone else been stuck in this position before - how do you get a buy to let if the property is empty? Presumably if I was buying the property from a third party with a view to letting it would be empty so the view that it needs to have a tenant to get a BTL seems really off?

[Deleted User]

Halifax arent being useless. They are being factual.   They wont offer Buy to Let mortgages so suggest you look elsewhere. 

As you do not currently live in the property you should be able to switch to a Consumer Buy to Let mortgage.  Different providers have different requirements and it will depend on income and current living situation but its not that hard a case to put together. 

The mortgage advisor you checked with, are they a broker or part of a specific lender?