Letting my house without telling the mortgage company

Anthony your advice is of course TOTALLY correct.
The problem is is DOESN'T solve the problem outlined in the main post.
Hundreds of thousands of 'accidental LL' have ignored that correct advice and ARE generally letting their resi property with an existing resi mortgage but are renting elsewhere.
It is all very well obtaining consent to let; but usually the lender wants to jack up the interest rate; change the mortgage product and want more capital .
This is untenable.
Somebody moving would see all the benefits of moving to rent where they could work wiped out.
So what would be the point of renting to work when they would be no better off!?
No they make a pragmatic choice of renting out for generally more than their existing mortgage costs them.
They move for job or other reasons and rent.
If at some stage they choose or wish to sell their resi; they can without any upheaval from their rental property.
They also have the option of returning to their resi property with NO changes to their resi mortgage.
It may be technically in branch of mortgage conditions; so what.
The banks cannot be trusted whatsoever to just grant consent to let without any penalty , so homeowners just won't advise their mortgage lender what they are doing.

@Paul Berrett - your perception of the banks is one which commonly held snd the reason why s lot of people ho about things the wrong way. See my posts above on how to do things right and how to complain if the banks don't play fair.

Isabelle,

Yes there is a difference between Consent to Let and BTL. BTL is a different mortgage product, you are essentially remortgaging (and will normally be incurring all the repayment costs etc). Consent to let is your mortgage company giving you written permission to rent your property out on your current residential mortgage.

After a quick google and looking into NRAM's help service I found this:

http://ask.n-ram.co.uk/help/mortgages/let-property

Simply ring them and ask for a Consent to let application form and nothing else. Do not mention changing to buy to let, this is not what you want. Whoever you spoke to before obviously doesn't know there own products enough to advise you on this. Make it clear what you want and if they don't understand or if they mention changing mortgages etc ask to speak to someone else.

I hope this helps. Keep us all informed.

Paul

Definitely consider getting some professional help from a mortgage expert that is not in you company. I'm sure you are overlooking a simpler solution! Best of luck, sorry I couldn't be of any help. 🙁

@Isabelle

Just to let you know a bit about my background to give you some confidence in the suggestions I have put forward. I retired from Financial Services in 2009. In my 19 year career I took my business from a bedroom start up to rank 38th in The Times Profit Track 100 in 2008. My business was directly regulated by the FSA. In that time my business arranged mortgages for over 50,000 people. I was also a founder of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers. As I am retired my suggestions can not be relied upon as professional advice.

In the case of leasehold property the position is even more difficult as if you do not tell your lender and your managing agent that you are letting then not only may insurers not pay out on damage to your flat but you may be faced with a huge claim for damage to other flats and communal areas as a result of your have negated the insurance. Most leases provide for unrestricted letting but that does not mean that mortgagees and insurers do not have to be advised. in addition to damage you could also be sued for any physical or financial harm suffered by other residents. Much better to ask for permission to let in the first place.

how are you going to pay a mortgage, from the let ? The cost will be to much with mortgage, insurance, gas regulations, tax, ect . Were isthe money coming from to pay the rent I would stay were you are and pull your belt in. With two chidren and one on the way,the mortgage Com, will be hard on you , but will not be able to put you on the streets

Hi Brian

Back in 1989 that's how I became a landlord. Sometimes it makes sense to let your own property and rent elsewhere. I was in a similar position in that I needed to move but had £20k in negative equity. Incidentally, I still own that property and it has quadrupled in value.

Can the home insurance be invalidated if you decide not to inform the mortgage company?

Hi Kim, you would need to check the wording on your policy documents very carefully whether you inform the mortgage company or not. In most cases if not all cases I would suggest that switching to a Landlords Insurance would be the safest option.