Remortgage after cancer diagnosis

absolute0

Hi everyone,

Hoping I could ask for some advice ...

I've recently been diagnosed with cancer after having a tumour removed (I don't know what stage I'm at yet) - chemo is next on the cards.

Our mortgage is coming to an end on the fixed term period and will revert to variable rate.

I earn the the majority of income and the mortgage is in joint names with my wife. I have no life insurance, other than life assurance through work. I have some savings to keep paying the bills for a period of time, which could be used to pay off the mortgage - leaving me with very little for monthly bills if I'm unable to work (not too keen on this). I'm still working, but signed off for recovery from my operation.

Questions:

1. Do I need to disclose that I have cancer to my current lender?

2. Will my mortgage options be reduced when looking to remortgage due to having cancer?

3. Can payment holidays been taken on a new mortgage whilst going through chemo?

4. If I die before my mortgage is paid and my wife can't pay the mortgage, what is the process that the mortgage lender takes to recover their money?

Thanks in advance

K_S

@absolute0

Sorry to hear about the diagnosis. 

1. Not as far as I know. If you're happy to do a PT (product-switch/product-transfer/rate-switch) and stay with the current lender, for most mainstream lenders it is done without an income, affordability or credit checks so I wouldn't expect this to come up at all. Afaik, mainstream PT apps do not ask for any confirmation that the applicant's circumstances are unchanged.

2. It may, depends on the details, what your payslip shows, when you're working or not when applying, whether any long term sick leave is in progress or planned, etc.

3. I don't know (but I would expect most lenders to agree some form of adjustment to accommodate temporary income loss due to serious medical issues) but even so in most scenarios payment holidays will usually have an adverse impact on your credit history.

Further to point 1 above, I will stress here that assuming you are with a mainstream lender, there should be no reason to fall on to SVR irrespective of your situation.

Good luck!

sheramber

As A last resort , if  your wife can't pay the mortgage the house will need to be sold.

absolute0

Thanks @K_S. I'm with the Coventry, so will give them a ring to see what other products they have as the SVR rate will have increased substantially.

@sheramber, thanks for confirming. I will look into this further.

ACG

Hi,

Sorry to hear about your situation. Fair play on thinking about the worst case scenario and your wife. I am not sure how I would react in your position. Fingers crossed the latter questions do not come in to play. 

1. Do I need to disclose that I have cancer to my current lender? - No.

2. Will my mortgage options be reduced when looking to remortgage due to having cancer? - They wont be reduced due to you having cancer, but they might because you are currently off work. They wont ask about illness, but they will see sick pay on payslips. 

3. Can payment holidays been taken on a new mortgage whilst going through chemo? - I cant imagine a lender declining a payment holiday to someone going through treatment for cancer. The negative publicity that would bring would probably mean they use a common sense approach. However they could and you also need to consider that a payment holiday may affect yours and your wife credit report negatively. 

4. If I die before my mortgage is paid and my wife can't pay the mortgage, what is the process that the mortgage lender takes to recover their money? - I dont usually get too involved in this end of the process but from what I have read on here, the lender would typically give a period of time for grieving, sorting out finances etc (I have read 3-6 months) and then they might start to turn up the pressure a little. You have a company policy so hopefully that would be a big enough payment to tie your wife over should the worst happen. Also dont forget you have pensions and things I assume, it might be worth looking into those things also. 

Best of luck. 

K_S

absolute0 said:

Thanks @K_S. I'm with the Coventry, so will give them a ring to see what other products they have as the SVR rate will have increased substantially.

@sheramber, thanks for confirming. I will look into this further.

@absolute0 If you plug in your preferences, LTV, etc. here https://www.coventryforintermediaries.co.uk/mortgages/residential/product-transfer.html you should be able to get a good idea of what products they currently offer for existing borrowers.

dimbo61

Have you looked on the Coventry  building society website for new deals for existing customers ?

dimbo61

https://www.coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk/member/mortgages/homeowners/existing-members.html