Ask the experts

About our experts...

At John Charcol, we are constantly asked for advice by borrowers on what they should do when it comes to mortgages.  As such, we created this section so that you can submit your questions to our experts.  The answers are provided by a number of people who have years of experience in the mortgage market.  The team is led by Peter Woodward who works in our technical department.  Peter spent his formative years as an underwriter with one of the major UK lenders so what he doesn't know, quite frankly, isn't worth knowing...

So please do submit your question and we will do all we can to answer it as quickly as possible

Please be aware that these answers can only be generic and no personal recommendations can be made.


Posted on 30 January 2008

We own a shop and live in the flat above. We have a commercial mortgage. The property is split approx 65% residential to 35% business. Is it possible for us to change from a commercial mortgage to a residential or split it into 2...

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Category: Commercial, Valuations, Freehold, leases & unusual property


Posted on 30 January 2008

I want a repayment mortgage of 46k over 6 years. I am looking at a daily calculated interest mortgage and an annually calculated one. Is there a way to calculate how much more the annual version will be over the 6 years, given...

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Category: Special circumstances


Posted on 28 January 2008

We have an interest only mortgage of £25000 with 18 months left of our 25 year term. We also have a repayment mortgage on the same property with £8489.00 owing over 4 years. Our endowment policy will not meet the £25,000 target...

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Category: Interest only vs repayment, Mortgages in retirement


Posted on 28 January 2008

Hi My wife and I lived and worked abroad for over 12 years, we moved back to the UK in 2004 we have adverse credit rating because of not living in the UK and during the 18 months we had a few financial hiccups, we left the UK in...

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Category: Buying abroad


Posted on 28 January 2008

We are looking to emigrate by July. With the housing market being so slow we are starting to panic. Do you have any suggestions for us if we cannot sell our property by that time?

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Category: Buying abroad


Posted on 28 January 2008

If I took out a interest only mortgage say of £142,000 over 22 years and was allowed to pay an extra 10% a year if I paid the extra each month as if it was a repayment mortgage and never missed a payment would the extra money...

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Category: Interest only vs repayment


Posted on 28 January 2008

Is there any difference between a mortgage calculated daily or monthly?

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Posted on 24 January 2008

Hi Katie, myself and husband are looking to move house at present and have found a house in a much better area than where we currently live (schools mainly the issue where we are). Our house is currently on the market for £280k...

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Posted on 24 January 2008

Myself and my partner are trying to get a sub prime mortgage of 95% is this possible? The deposit comes from my partners work as a long service pay award, would this be an acceptable form of deposit?

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Category: Bad credit


Posted on 24 January 2008

My fixed rate mortgage has just finished. I have some unsecured debt problems but have a debt management plan with CCCS. The best deal I am being offered is 7,44% fixed for 2 years. Given my circumstances and the current...

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Posted on 24 January 2008

I'm 27 and earn £17,500 my partner earns £20,000 my partner wants us to buy a house together, I would love to but unfortunately was stupid when I was younger and have bad credit as a result, we have £10,000 deposit and would like...

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Category: Bad credit


Posted on 22 January 2008

I am a UK resident living in Mexico. I wish to buy property in Mexico. I do not own a property in the UK and I am unable to get a mortgage in Mexico since I have not lived here for 5 years. Could you advise me on a suitable...

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Category: Buying abroad


Posted on 21 January 2008

My husband and I would like to buy a property to renovate. We own a house worth £300,000 with a £25,000 mortgage on, its less than that now it was 25 when we took it out 3 years ago. Between us we take home about £32,000 a year....

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Category: Raising capital out of property


Posted on 18 January 2008

I currently own a home worth £171K and have a mortgage of £60K left to pay off. I am looking to buy another property on a buy to let. My Salary is 38K but I would need to borrow £170K to buy the house. All the mortgage...

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Category: Buy-to-let, The application process explained


Posted on 17 January 2008

Hi Katie, we have a London flat, with only £5,000 mortgage outstanding with a current market value of £450,000. We would like to buy a house property for £700,000. My partner and I have an income of £75,000 pa and no other debts....

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Category: Second properties


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