Remortgaging whilst selling?

Julesy

Hi all,

My partner and I put our flat on the market around Sep/Oct last year and accepted an offer for it within about 6 weeks, which was great. The buyer was a first-time buyer and we weren't in a chain (planning to rent, before buying later in the year), so expected it to go through quickly. 3.5 months later, the buyer withdrew (apparently he'd been proceeding with another property at the same time....nice guy!) and now we're back at square one.

As both of us have amounted quite large debts, our plan was to pay these off with a large amount of what we would earn from the sale of the flat, still leaving us a large deposit for when we were ready to buy again and some to play with. The flat is currently in my name only with just a £65,000 mortgage on it and has been valued at around £280,000 (I did buy it 16 years ago!), so this was perfectly feasible.

Now obviously the market has dropped (even in SW London) and we fear it could take some time to sell. It seems to make sense to take some money out of the flat - putting both of us on the mortgage (as my partner earns much more than I do) - in the meantime, in order to clear the debts anyway. However, I am assuming we will incur huge repayment charges if we do this and then sell the flat (therefore paying off the mortgage) in a short(ish) period of time? Would our current lender be more flexible? I presume we would need to tell the lender that the property is on the market?

Any advice very gratefully accepted.

Thanks!

Jules

claire_963

Yes you will prob have a large redemption penalty. The only way around this is to look for a portable mortgage (halifax are norm good), but this means you will need to buy another home.

jonesMUFCforever

Or get a mortgage on a SVR with no tie in and no charge (other than the deeds redemption of about £250).