Letting my house without telling the mortgage company

Reply to the comment left by "Matthew Dickinson" at "10/08/2013 - 13:43":

What request are you referring to?

My question earlier today was rhetorical, also answered by myself.
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To keep on mentioning a certain company; in this case a certain LA does NOT encourage a LL to use that company.
Indeed the more one mentions the name the more suspicious I would be.
I would still carry out full DD irrespective of whether the LA was applauded by a LL user.
I would look at ALL LA in an area.
If I had a property in Newark i would take NO notice of ANY mentions of ANY LA in a certain area!!
They would be just on the list to be checked out!!
Perhaps discussing in examples how a certain LA has behaved is of more use to any LL considering a LA and such comments might assist in any DD a LL carries out.
To just keep on stating a certain LA is brilliant: I can assure you achieves NOTHING.
A soft mention is all that is required.
To keep on stating the same old thing time after time; smacks of advertising and Mark doesn't run this forum as a free advertising site for certain LA!!!!
So by all means let us hear some stories about how issues have been managed by whoever; as I'm sure there are always learning points out of every situation that we all could learn from!!
That is what a forum is for!!!

Reply to the comment left by " " at "10/08/2013 - 23:46":

Hello
I too have found myself in the accidental landlord category and didnt inform my mortgage provider. i had to vacate my property for work purposes, so now rent in another part of the country. I originally tried to sell the flat, but prices were low, which meant I was in negative equity, which I couldn't cover.

This was 3 years ago, which has since seen the property price increase and has allowed me time to save. I am in now in a position where I could convert to a BTL mortgage and would like to change my mortgage provider at the same time. My concern is, will changing mortgage providers possibly alert my current mortgage provider that I have been letting without them knowing?

I appreciate that I shouldn't have done this, but circumstances wouldn't allow me to do anything else. Any help will be greatly appreciated

Hello

Three years ago I too was forced into the position of having to rent out my flat without the consent of my mortgage provider. This was for both family and work reasons (I'll not bore you with details). I initially tried to sell, but the level of negative equity made this impossible. I also contacted my mortgage provider at the time who outright refused to let me rent the property.

This meant I made the decision to rent the property without consent and then rent a property near to my new place of work. The property I own has since appreciated in value and with savings I have accumulated can now shift to a legit BTL mortgage. I will want to shift mortgage provider, but am worried that the process would alert my current mortgage provider as to what I have done for the last 3 years.

My question is therefore; can I change to a BTL without my current mortgage provider knowing what I've done?

I appreciate that I shouldn't have done what I did, but circumstances limited my options. Any advice would be appreciated

Thats a very good question from Darren, something id be very interested to hear the answer to.

Do you have any feedback on this Mark Alexander?

Reply to the comment left by "Darren " at "15/10/2013 - 20:26":

Hi Darren

The good news is that what you have done isn't considered to be a criminal offence so you will not end up with a criminal record for this. The reality is that you have been in breach of contract. If your mortgage lender finds out there is very little they can do about it in my humble opinion, save to call in your mortgage. However, as you intend to pay off the mortgage anyway that's not going to cause you hardship.

Before you do anything further I recommend you to speak to a whole of market mortgage adviser. Please see >>> http://www.property118.com/member/?id=314
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Be ware. I have a property which I bought and declared as a second/holiday home and it was underwritten as such at the time of the mortgage. Redstone tried to snatch it back as they claimed that 1) I was not using as my primary residence, 2) That I was letting it, and 3) they wanted the mortgage repaid in 21 days or they appoint a LPA receiver. They used a firm of solicitors Erwin Mitchell to write to us at the property address I suspect so as we where not there we would not find out till to late. The matter was defended and the threat withdrawn as they admitted they had got it wrong. The complaint is now at FOS I am seeking compensation from FOS for their actions.

However it has come out that their finance model requires them to redeem so many mortgages each year. This I had not heard before. It was clear that they are either crooks (likely) or grossly incompetent (probably both). All the same ensure if you are being threatened that they have done their home work as they and their lawyers cannot be trusted to tell the truth.

You cannot run the risk of being uninsured due to not telling your insurer the property is let out. Having a landlords buildings & contents policy is therefore a must.

This however, does not affect what you do with your mortgage lender. I can only speak from an insurance point of view being a landlords insurance broker.

The insurance may ask for details of the mortgage lender so they can note the financial interest and it is possible that the insurer may contact the mortgage lender if the policy is cancelled/lapsed. This is where you may run in to trouble, as if your mortgage provider sees a letter from a landlord insurer it may raise alarms bells!

Not sure if I have said this before but do not think of not letting your lender know if you own a leasehold buy to let. Whilst your lease might provide for unrestricted letting your buildings insurance might not cover tenanted flats without restriction and your mortgage company will certainly not be pleased.