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 spent his formative years as an underwriter with one of the major UK lenders and the last 10 years in our Technical Department along side Ray.
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 02/09/2010
Dear Sirs,
My father has been retired for the last few years due to ill-health. He has a home valued at £550k with an outstanding mortgage of £250k. The problem is that he has around 18 months left on the term and has been unable to extend it. He has a private pension due to commence in around 3 years time which would take care of the mortgage payments and probably reduce it quite significantly. Apart from selling his home is the an another solution. He is 63 in November.
Regards
David
Categories: Special circumstances
Posted on 02/09/2010
My husband works as a Contractor. We recently sold our house and are now looking for a bigger family house. However, due to his job as a Contractor it seems that getting a mortgage is highly difficult. Could you please advice where we should look for a good deal for Contractors?
Categories: Special circumstances
Posted on 07/06/2010
We are thinking about buying a newly built commercial property that has not been fitted out & converting this into a self contained residential property. We live in the North East of Scotland & wondered if this is allowed or if there are any restrictions to its intended use?
Categories: Commercial, Special circumstances
Posted on 07/06/2010
I have a residential mortgage on a property valued at £245k, outstanding is approx £ 208k. Since I moved in with my boyfriend they lender agreed to buy to let conditions. Due to renew it now, it appears the conditions have been changed and I need to get a rental income of 125% of the mortgage payment. Unfortunately this is not the case I currently receive approx 95% of the mortgage in rent. Can you tell me how is this likely to proceed?
Categories: Buy-to-let, Special circumstances
Posted on 04/06/2010
I just got a police caution for a breach of a byelaw and it is non recordable.
Would this be a problem with some lenders?
Categories: Legal matters, Special circumstances
Posted on 02/06/2010
I would like to buy my mother and father inlaw's house with my wife. What is the situtation if one or both required a care home or 24 hour care after the purchase, can the goverment demand that I sell the property to fund their care?
Categories: Legal matters, Mortgages in retirement, Special circumstances
Posted on 02/06/2010
I agreed to help out my brother by taking joint ownership and a joint mortgage with him. He has stopped paying the mortgage and has walked out of his job, so not likely to change. I want to get out of this arrangement although he clearly won't be motivated to do so. I am looking to help my son onto the property ladder but won't be able to do so if I have two mortgages already and cannot afford the repayments anyway. Is there anything I can do?
Categories: Special circumstances
Posted on 31/05/2010
I have recently inherited a house with a lot of equity in it. Although the house has been left to myself, I have to pay out around £40,000 to another family member. I want to buy the family member out of the house and do not want to sell, but unfortunately I have bad credit. What would be the best option?
Categories: Bad credit, Special circumstances
Posted on 31/05/2010
I currently have a residential mortgage. I am trying to buy another house below market value before the auction date. I will sell that house after couple of months.
Would BTL mortgage or bridging loan be suitable to buy this house?
Categories: Bridging loans, Special circumstances
Posted on 24/05/2010
I have a joint mortgage with a friend on a 2 bed flat. I am thinking of moving overseas to work in the next year or so. If this happens my co-buyer would stay living in the flat and we would rent out the second room to cover most of my share of the mortgage. I would be earning a regular salary overseas and my work contract would initially be for one year, but if the possibly to stay longer arose I may choose to take it.
I have a few questions about this with regards to our mortgage.
Would it be necessary to inform the mortgage company that I am temporarily living away from the flat and is this likely to incur any penalty to us mortgage-wise?
What would happen if we need needed to remortgage the flat whilst I was living away (we currently have a fixed term rate which we are likely to renew in the next few weeks)? Would they take into account the rent we get from the second room, or my overseas salary, or both?
Again is this likely to lead to less favourable mortgage terms or some kind of penalty?
Categories: Special circumstances
Posted on 20/05/2010
My partner and I currently own a house worth £150,000 and we owe £150,000. We would like to move to a house worth £250,000. Would I need to find another deposit to move, i.e, since we won't be making a profit I'd need to find 10% of the £250,000 mortgage?
Categories: Special circumstances
Posted on 18/05/2010
A friend of mine has a joint mortgage with her son, but she no longer wants the property. Her son is willing to take the whole mortgage, how do they go about doing this?
Categories: Special circumstances
Posted on 16/05/2010
We are thinking of moving house and have just sold ours for £157,000. We bought it 2 years ago for £174,000 and put down a 5% deposit. Our current mortgage amount is £167,000 so we would move with £10,000 negative equity.
We have seen a house which we would hope to purchase for around £150,000 but it needs about £30,000 spending on it to finish it off. We have had a mortgage approved from Nationwide for about £242,000 so feel our circumstances and finances could easily stretch to the £150,000 mortgage we would require.
Our problem is we would need cash to do the property up (we have deposit etc available but nothing left to do the work) and wondered what, if any, our borrowing options are? We are as certain as we can be (in these uncertain times!)that property done up would be worth much than the mortgage and loan, and that perhaps we could look to remortgage when the works had been completed? We are really interested in doing this as we feel it would be a good investment, but have no idea how to start or even if we can start at all!
Categories: Special circumstances
Posted on 10/05/2010
We bought a flat on first time buyer mortgage. Because of job we need to relocate and we want to rent out our apartment. Do we need to change our mortgage?
Categories: Buy-to-let, First-time buyer, Special circumstances
Posted on 07/05/2010
After taking 6 months off to spend with a terminally ill relative, my wife & I generated arrears for a 3/4 month period 06/09. The arrears were subsequently paid up to date and we took the decision to sell up in Dec 09, after 24 years in the house, settling the mortgage, overdraft, credit cards etc etc and moving into rented accommodation. I am now back in full time employment and we have sought to purchase a house worth £672k, with a cash deposit of £350k. However, we have been advised by Halifax & Barclays that despite the low LTV and sufficient income to cover a mortgage they have both declined our application. We have no CCJs or other credit issues, BUT it appears despite having no issues for 25 years we can no longer secure a suitable mortgage. Are there any other lenders who might take a more pragmatic approach?
Categories: Bad credit, Special circumstances
Answers provided in response to Ask the experts are based on the information provided and do not constitute advice under the Financial Services & Markets Act. They reflect the personal views of the authors and do not neccessarily represent the views, positions, strategies or opinions of John Charcol. All comments are made in good faith, and John Charcol will not accept liability for them.
We recommend you seek professional advice with regard to any of these topics where appropriate.