No consent to let

batman67

Any advice would be appreciated.
I bought a flat with a residential mortgage about 23 years ago and lived in it for about 2 years and then let it. I was going abroad and I didn't really know at the time you should get consent to let. The flat has been let since then. And it was quite a favourable mortgage for a long time so I didn't want to 'rock the boat'..
I am now trying to buy another property to live in and applying for another residential mortgage, and I'm aware that the fact that it is a second residential mortgage could prompt questions/flags etc.
Though I don't think I ever got consent, I do bank with the same company as the original lender, and they have known that my home addresses don't match the address that they have lent against ever since then, and have never asked questions.
I just wondered what is my best course of action. I could go to that lender (my bank) and say "you know this property is let, could you switch me to a buy to let?" maybe? Or keep quiet and hope it doesn't get raised applying for a second residential mortgage? I guess I'm only 2 years from mortgage maturity so it could come up then anyway I guess. 
Any thoughts/insight would be a big help - thanks.

theoretica

Is it an interest only mortgage or repayment?  Could you afford to just repay it?

batman67

Hi T, thanks. it is an interest only mortgage, and I could afford to just repay the whole thing, yes. But then I certainly wouldn't be buying my new home that I just found. Though if they asked me to repay it, it would obviously be preferable to paying 20 odd years of charges or rate difference, which would be astronomical, and which is what really worries me.

silvercar

batman67 said:

Hi T, thanks. it is an interest only mortgage, and I could afford to just repay the whole thing, yes. But then I certainly wouldn't be buying my new home that I just found. Though if they asked me to repay it, it would obviously be preferable to paying 20 odd years of charges or rate difference, which would be astronomical, and which is what really worries me.

The easiest way to avoid that risk is to take out a new BTL mortgage on the rented place with a different lender and get a residential mortgage on the new place. You could even take the resi mortgage on the new place with the current lender, porting the current mortgage if it is on a good deal.

penners324

Moving the current mortgage ASAP sounds sensible.

The mortgage company could well see the non disclosure as fraud. They are ask for the whole of 1% fee x 23 years or tell the police.

silvercar

penners324 said:

Moving the current mortgage ASAP sounds sensible.

The mortgage company could well see the non disclosure as fraud. They are ask for the whole of 1% fee x 23 years or tell the police.

Stop scaremongering! It’s not fraud, they didn’t obtain the mortgage with false representation, as they lived in it at the start. So there was no obtaining of money by deception. There has however been a breach of the mortgage conditions, and that should be addressed. Policemen don’t go around investigating contract breaching, they have enough to do catching criminals!

BarelySentientAI

silvercar said:

penners324 said:

Moving the current mortgage ASAP sounds sensible.

The mortgage company could well see the non disclosure as fraud. They are ask for the whole of 1% fee x 23 years or tell the police.

Stop scaremongering! It’s not fraud, they didn’t obtain the mortgage with false representation, as they lived in it at the start. So there was no obtaining of money by deception. There has however been a breach of the mortgage conditions, and that should be addressed. Policemen don’t go around investigating contract breaching, they have enough to do catching criminals!

Signing any new residential mortgage deal after the first two years (when it was let out) could be considered fraud by misrepresentation.

Technically.

But I agree, nobody sensible would pursue that line though.

batman67

Many thanks SIlvercar. Yes I always expect the worst, but even I hadn't considered police and prison cells  

And with regards to signing something BarelySentientAI, I've not signed anything since the mortgage agreement on purchasing and moving in to the property. I've also kept the lender updated with my home address at all times since then (which obviously doesn't match the property address), and I have had meetings with my appointed personal banker at the lender (also my bank), who knew all of my financial circumstances. So I don't see how they can argue I was misleading them or being deceptive in any way.

BarelySentientAI

batman67 said:

Many thanks SIlvercar. Yes I always expect the worst, but even I hadn't considered police and prison cells  

And with regards to signing something BarelySentientAI, I've not signed anything since the mortgage agreement on purchasing and moving in to the property. I've also kept the lender updated with my home address at all times since then (which obviously doesn't match the property address), and I have had meetings with my appointed personal banker at the lender (also my bank), who knew all of my financial circumstances. So I don't see how they can argue I was misleading them or being deceptive in any way.

You're very unusual then.  Most people would have changed mortgage deal in 23 years, given that the most common length of fix is either 2 or 5 years.

And you have clearly been deceptive because, as you said, you "didn't want to rock the boat" with your "favourable mortgage deal".  Omission is still deception.

Having said that, I think you did it accidentally and not with the conscious intent to make a gain, and many other people have probably done the same thing without noticing just as you did.

I wouldn't worry about the past years and, as you are rightly doing, just concentrate on what's the best thing to do now.  Silvercar's points are good.

batman67

So I think the original deal was for 5 years and when that expired I was lucky enough to default to base rate + a few basis points, which I'm still on.
Thanks for the advice, it's helpful, and yes, there was no intent to do anything at all, just probably some disorganisation/naivety (and some luck).

penners324

batman67 said:

Many thanks SIlvercar. Yes I always expect the worst, but even I hadn't considered police and prison cells  

And with regards to signing something BarelySentientAI, I've not signed anything since the mortgage agreement on purchasing and moving in to the property. I've also kept the lender updated with my home address at all times since then (which obviously doesn't match the property address), and I have had meetings with my appointed personal banker at the lender (also my bank), who knew all of my financial circumstances. So I don't see how they can argue I was misleading them or being deceptive in any way.

You've not remortgaged in 23 years? Wow. So you've been on the lenders SVR for a very long time?