Mortgage and redundancy question

jmb1

I was made redundant last week with immediate effect, with a pay in lieu of notice for two months. Today I received a letter that my mortgage deal is ending in january 2025 so a few months away. So wondering what to do. Am I legally obliged to immediately tell the mortgage company of the loss of employment? The mortgage is paid through my partners salary each month so no chance of missing payments. But unsure what to do regard the deal ending as presumably signing up to a new deal with the same provider when my circumstances have changed would be illegal and/or breaking my agreement? Any advice?

housebuyer143

No, just do a product switch in January and they don't do any financial checks. You are not breaking your agreement and it's not illegal. 

ACG

Once the mortgage completes you do not need to tell the lender about any change in circumstances. 

You still have plenty of time but you will have 3 options:
1) Let it go to standard variable rate - this will be expensive but gives you flexibility if you will struggle and need to sell up. 
2) See if they will offer you any retention products - might not be market leading rates but no underwriting is required. 
3) See if your circumstances change and it allows you to go to the rest of the market.

jmb1

housebuyer143 said:

No, just do a product switch in January and they don't do any financial checks. You are not breaking your agreement and it's not illegal. 

Thanks both. Is there an advantage waiting until January over renewing in say mid December? (deal ends Jan 2nd). Is there indeed any risk waiting until Jan 2nd when it is about to/has ended? (January 1st being New years day I'm assuming they wouldnt be available.)

Hoenir

There'll be no change to BOE base rate at that time. Lenders allow locking into products several months ahead. Choice is yours when to do so. 

Newbie_John

If you stay with the same provider you'll be able to pick next offer 3-6 months earlier, althought with the current market and rates slowly going down it looks like the longer you wait the better rate you can get. 

When I did a product transfer with Barclays it literally took just few minutes on the app, so I would probably wait till at least mid December, maybe end of December.

ACG

If you want to switch lenders leaving it until December is probably too late to avoid paying the SVR. 
If you are staying with the same lender, December is fine but nationwide for example have a cut off which I think is th e20th so you need to check that. 

jmb1

ACG said:

Once the mortgage completes you do not need to tell the lender about any change in circumstances. 

You still have plenty of time but you will have 3 options:
1) Let it go to standard variable rate - this will be expensive but gives you flexibility if you will struggle and need to sell up. 
2) See if they will offer you any retention products - might not be market leading rates but no underwriting is required. 
3) See if your circumstances change and it allows you to go to the rest of the market.

Just checked my account, we're currently on 4.64% and will transfer to follow on rate of 8.25%! Obviously dont want to do that so will try to get a retention deal. However when I try online it says it can't do it online, we have to call. So when we call are they likely ask if there have been changes to our employment? And If so would this trigger an affordability check?

Also, what would a reasonable deal they might offer look like? i.e what is currently a good market deal?

Hoenir

Call them. You've nothing to lose.  You need to stablish your options. Maybe a reason there's no retention products being quoted onlne. 

Yorkie1

It's quite unusual not to be able to do the product transfer online. If you're happy to mention which lender it is, people could double check that out for you.

amnblog

Hoenir said:

Call them. You've nothing to lose.  You need to stablish your options. Maybe a reason there's no retention products being quoted onlne. 

The reason is that Halifax do not quote their retention rates online as technically each borrower gets their own set of offers.