Nationwide Consent to Let when travelling
jmmyers89
Posts: 4 Newbie
Hello all,
So for a bit of context I've detailed my situation below but my main question is, does anyone have any experience of gaining consent to let from Nationwide and is there anything I should be aware of when applying for it?
Context
Myself and my OH have been working towards the following goals for the past 3-4 years now:
1. Buy a flat
2. Save enough money for a healthy deposit
3. Get married
4. Go travelling for a year
5. Come back and move up north
6. Start a family
So 3 years ago, we bought a flat in an area of London where Crossrail is going to open up at the end of 2018 using the Help to Buy equity loan scheme. We're just going through the process of paying off our equity loan so we will end up with about 70% LTV with Nationwide on a 2 year tracker. So that's 1 and 2 sorted.
We've got our wedding booked in for next June at which point we will give up our jobs and go travelling for anything up to a year. When we come back, we want to find jobs up north to be closer to family and settle down.
Our big dilemma is what to do with our flat in London. Ideally we want to keep the flat for as long as possible, and rent up north or buy a very cheap place as we want to realise as much of the uplift in price due to the improvements in transport links. We really don't want to have to sell before Crossrail.
My main assumption all along has been that Nationwide will grant us consent to let for the time we're travelling and when we're back we can convert to a buy-to-let or do a let-to-buy but I'm getting nervous about this now as I'm not sure how they will take the idea of us quitting our jobs and going travelling.
I spoke to a mortgage broker at the beginning of the year about the viability of switching to a buy-to-let mortgage when we leave but I got very negative feedback along the lines of "you can't switch to a buy-to-let from residential without 6 months of renting it out already".
Any help/tips/advice (positive or negative - I'm all ears!), would be greatly appreciated.
So for a bit of context I've detailed my situation below but my main question is, does anyone have any experience of gaining consent to let from Nationwide and is there anything I should be aware of when applying for it?
Context
Myself and my OH have been working towards the following goals for the past 3-4 years now:
1. Buy a flat
2. Save enough money for a healthy deposit
3. Get married
4. Go travelling for a year
5. Come back and move up north
6. Start a family
So 3 years ago, we bought a flat in an area of London where Crossrail is going to open up at the end of 2018 using the Help to Buy equity loan scheme. We're just going through the process of paying off our equity loan so we will end up with about 70% LTV with Nationwide on a 2 year tracker. So that's 1 and 2 sorted.
We've got our wedding booked in for next June at which point we will give up our jobs and go travelling for anything up to a year. When we come back, we want to find jobs up north to be closer to family and settle down.
Our big dilemma is what to do with our flat in London. Ideally we want to keep the flat for as long as possible, and rent up north or buy a very cheap place as we want to realise as much of the uplift in price due to the improvements in transport links. We really don't want to have to sell before Crossrail.
My main assumption all along has been that Nationwide will grant us consent to let for the time we're travelling and when we're back we can convert to a buy-to-let or do a let-to-buy but I'm getting nervous about this now as I'm not sure how they will take the idea of us quitting our jobs and going travelling.
I spoke to a mortgage broker at the beginning of the year about the viability of switching to a buy-to-let mortgage when we leave but I got very negative feedback along the lines of "you can't switch to a buy-to-let from residential without 6 months of renting it out already".
Any help/tips/advice (positive or negative - I'm all ears!), would be greatly appreciated.
0
Comments
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I found NW really easy to get consent with, have had it for 9 years now.
Just fill in the form and send it off. The form asks no questions about why you're leaving the property, or what the rent will be. It was mainly concerned with type of tenancy agreement and whether they were DSS tenants. You'll need to have had the mortgage with NW for 6 months though i would think, doubt they'll give consent if you've literally just remortgaged to them from someone else. Probably no need to tell them you're off travelling, but can you afford the mortgage payments from the point you move out up until it's rented and the money starts coming in (the 1st months rent will be swallowed up in fees, so don't expect anything till month 2) What if the property is empty or tenant stops paying while you're away? Can yuo afford to bridge any gaps?
They'll give you consent for 3 years, after which you can re-apply if you wish. As i said, we're now in our 9th year.
After 6 months, they will add a 1% premium to your interest rate, which may at that point make it more economical to switch to a BTL, depending on your current rate and size of mortgage. Beware that BTL mortgages generally have whopping fees of around £2k (which i why we're happy on NW's BMR even with the 1% premium)
Note that while you have CTL, you cannot take a new deal with them, so when your current fix/tracker or whatever ends, you will drop onto their BMR or SMR, depending when you took the mortgage out, i assume fairly recently, so SMR, currently 3.74%, so 4.74% with the 1% premium, a bit steep probably, I'm on the BMR of 2.25% + 1% premium0 -
Do you have to have your tenants lined up then before you send off the form? Surely I would want to be sure they would consent before I sign a tenancy agreement!
We should have the mortgage for 1 year by the time we rent it out but we're currently on a 2 year tracker so we might switch to a longer tracker and take the hit on the higher rate to avoid dropping on the SVR too early.
We've got a good few years of rent as contingency so I'm not too concerned about that but ideally wouldn't dip in to it!I found NW really easy to get consent with, have had it for 9 years now.
Just fill in the form and send it off. The form asks no questions about why you're leaving the property, or what the rent will be. It was mainly concerned with type of tenancy agreement and whether they were DSS tenants. You'll need to have had the mortgage with NW for 6 months though i would think, doubt they'll give consent if you've literally just remortgaged to them from someone else. Probably no need to tell them you're off travelling, but can you afford the mortgage payments from the point you move out up until it's rented and the money starts coming in (the 1st months rent will be swallowed up in fees, so don't expect anything till month 2) What if the property is empty or tenant stops paying while you're away? Can yuo afford to bridge any gaps?
They'll give you consent for 3 years, after which you can re-apply if you wish. As i said, we're now in our 9th year.
After 6 months, they will add a 1% premium to your interest rate, which may at that point make it more economical to switch to a BTL, depending on your current rate and size of mortgage. Beware that BTL mortgages generally have whopping fees of around £2k (which i why we're happy on NW's BMR even with the 1% premium)
Note that while you have CTL, you cannot take a new deal with them, so when your current fix/tracker or whatever ends, you will drop onto their BMR or SMR, depending when you took the mortgage out, i assume fairly recently, so SMR, currently 3.74%, so 4.74% with the 1% premium, a bit steep probably, I'm on the BMR of 2.25% + 1% premium0 -
Do you have to have your tenants lined up then before you send off the form? Surely I would want to be sure they would consent before I sign a tenancy agreement!
We should have the mortgage for 1 year by the time we rent it out but we're currently on a 2 year tracker so we might switch to a longer tracker and take the hit on the higher rate to avoid dropping on the SVR too early.
We've got a good few years of rent as contingency so I'm not too concerned about that but ideally wouldn't dip in to it!
No, you don't need a tenant lined up, a new tenancy would be an 'Assured Shorthold Tenancy' AST, so just tick that box, it's just to make sure it's not an old assured or regulated tenancy, where it's nearly impossible to evict someone from. Also, tick no to DSS, bank won't like DSS tenants and nor will your insurer, so tick no and make sure you don't get any, harsh but true0 -
My main assumption all along has been that Nationwide will grant us consent to let for the time we're travelling and when we're back we can convert to a buy-to-let or do a let-to-buy but I'm getting nervous about this now as I'm not sure how they will take the idea of us quitting our jobs and going travelling.
The big issue I suspect is that you plan to quit your jobs. What's the plan when you return and while you are away?0 -
Have you actually looked at the realitys of what you want to do ?. There's is nothing to force the person out of the house at the end of the year. They could even rent the house and not pay you a penny all the time you are travelling.
Be very careful with this0
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