Strange conversation with Coventry about Payment Holiday/term extension

Mega_Maniac

I'm self employed and recent world events have rather reduced my income potential. It should pick up again next year but at this stage I need to reduce my payments. I have a house I am selling and one I live in, the one I am selling is on the variable rate and has rocketed from £650ish when fixed to now over £1100. Add this to my current mortgage and things are unaffordable. 

Given this is largely driven by the cost of living crisis I wanted to take advantage of the mortgage charter. I rang Coventry today to explain that I wanted to discuss options, and that I realised they were part of the mortgage charter. I got passed from one department to another a couple of times. The last lady asked if I was having payment difficulties, which is a hard question to answer, as it's more about potential future difficulties, but this all lead to her saying I would have to do an income assessment to see what options were available.
I at this stage asked if this could have any negative outcomes I should be aware of. She said it would only affect my credit file if I chose to do a concession, but that a payment holiday or interest only would not.
But she then began to say before we did that "You should go online and search for what options are available to people struggling with the cost of living crisis. Go on our website and look what options we have" 
She said she couldn't say more and that she wasn't being difficult but was limited in what she was allowed to say...
I did ask if I did the assessment and Coventry assessed I was unable to afford my mortgage if that would have negative outcomes, and she just repeated going online to look at the help available. Which I took as a "I'm not allowed to say"...

I was a little confused as I though the mortgage charter was the option that was available to me... and in searching online I can only seem to confirm this.

So... am I missing something, or does it sound like she didn't know I had already mentioned the charter and was trying to get me to explicitly request that option?

MWT

Mega_Maniac said:

So... am I missing something, or does it sound like she didn't know I had already mentioned the charter and was trying to get me to explicitly request that option?

If you mentioned a 'payment holiday' at any point that may have confused things as that isn't available under the Charter...

I would suggest following the links from their Charter page:

https://www.coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk/member/help/member-support/rising-cost-of-living/mortgage-charter.html

That would let you choose either to extend the term, or get 6 months on interest-only.

Mega_Maniac

Thanks, I just wanted to primarily confirm I wasn't missing something. I actually started off by saying "Term extension", one lady checked and said it wasn't an option on my mortgage, but when I was passed to the final lady she said she had seen this had been checked and when I said asked about the term extension she then talked about a payment holiday, so I assumed they must be interchangeable. 

Mega_Maniac

I have filled out the form on Coventrys website in the mortgage charter section with a request for callback... so hopefully I ticked the right boxes for them this time 

ACG

The charter is only available on residential homes I believe. 
It might be that the charter is not an option for you? Although I could be wrong, I only really know the basics. 

Mega_Maniac

Yea this may have been another point of confusion. They were asking about how long I had been in my new property, I currently have a residential mortgage on both properties. She said "we don't offer BTL mortgages", and I made it clear I was not letting. 

So I am trying to use the charter to do interest only or a term extension on my old property which I am soon putting on the market. 

chanz4

You going to have another issue if you have not got consent to let

user1977

The purpose of the charter is to help people at risk of having their home repossessed, so I expect it's not going to be relevant for a vacant property.

MWT

user1977 said:

The purpose of the charter is to help people at risk of having their home repossessed, so I expect it's not going to be relevant for a vacant property.

That seems like a very narrow perspective, to be at risk of repossession they would have to already be behind on payments, and if they are behind then the option for 6 months interest-only or extending the term isn't available to them...

This is also for those reaching the end of a fixed period and just struggling to transition to the current reality and would as in this case, permit a window of reduced payment while a property is sold...