Mortgage company asking for landlords reference

se2020

I have submitted a mortgage application, the lender have come back with a couple of questions, 

The one concerning me is that they have asked for my landlords contact details to obtain a reference. 

In itself this should not be a problem as the rent has always been paid on time.
The issue is, I have not yet told the landlord that I am thinking of moving out!

The property I am trying to buy has various issues and I am not particularly confident that the purchase will complete.

I am currently paying well under market rate for rent.

I am in a rolling tenancy with one month's notice period.  I planned to give 2 months notice (once/if my purchase completes).

I guess my concern is, if the landlord finds out I am planning to move out, they may either increase the rent (long overdue an increase) or start looking for new tenants or start proceedings to sell the property.

The lender have had 3mths bank statements that show rent payment going out each month. 
Is it worth asking them if they can proceed with the application without contacting the landlord or will that just look like I am trying to hide something?

Seems a bit of a strange request as there were various options of my current status on the application form.
I'd guess they wouldn't ask for a reference from my mum and dad if I had ticked the box saying I was living with parents?

teaselMay

Did they say it was for a reference? I was surprised yesterday when I was asked for my current landlord's name during my mortgage interview. I didn't ask what it was for, they'd just asked whether I'd given notice to check I wouldn't end up responsible for rent and mortgage and so I thought related to that, but I didn't check

ACG

Who is the lender? 
Bluestone for example want evidence of 1-2 years rent payments. They can accept bank statements in lieu, could you do that? Failing that, can you not have the valuation carried out and get to the stage where everything is agreed subject to the reference? 

se2020

teaselMay said:

Did they say it was for a reference? I was surprised yesterday when I was asked for my current landlord's name during my mortgage interview. I didn't ask what it was for, they'd just asked whether I'd given notice to check I wouldn't end up responsible for rent and mortgage and so I thought related to that, but I didn't check

Yes, they have asked for the landlords email address so they can "request a reference"

That is a good point about rent and mortgage. 
My plan was to carry on paying rent for the 2 months notice period.  I was not planning to give notice until I actually have the keys to the new place.

However,  I now realise I should have probably put this in the notes section of the application and probably put the cost of 2 months rent and expenses into the 'other moving costs' section!

ACG said:

Who is the lender? 
Bluestone for example want evidence of 1-2 years rent payments. They can accept bank statements in lieu, could you do that? Failing that, can you not have the valuation carried out and get to the stage where everything is agreed subject to the reference? 

Skipton building society. 
They have not actually asked for evidence of rent payments,  just the landlords email address. 
I can give them a ring on Monday and ask if there is a way around this.
Valuation has already been done, the property has some issues so they advised we had the valuation done before submitting the application. 

I think I'm probably best talking to them as I'll presumably need to show funds for being able to pay rent an mortgage at rhe same time.
Basically,  I wanted 2 months to both move all the house contents and do some decorating & repairs to our rental.

I'm wondering if this will cause any more issues as I obviously won't be actually living in both properties at the same time. I was expecting to stay alternate nights at each while doing diy removals.

ACG

Check with them. Its not normal for Skipton to go out for a landlords reference. Some lenders do ask for landlords details as standard without going for one - but I cant recall if Skipton are one of them. 

My guess is you are either applying for that rental mortgage thing they do (in which case their procedure may differ), or they are just asking for the sake of it.