That was same as me
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Mortgage question;
I’ve just had a letter about my current deal ending in July which I knew was happening and I intended to just roll on the base rate until we move, which will hopefully be towards the end of the year.
But just doing some back of a napkin excel sums, I’m not sure if that’s my best option. I always thought that being “out of contract” on a mortgage was a good thing, like with a phone or Sky, it gives you better options to leave and get a better deal elsewhere.
There’s about an £80 per month swing in what I would pay on the base rate vs what the new 2 year fixed term would be.
So if we don’t move for 6/7 months or whatever, that will start to add up!
What are peoples experiences of moving mortgages? I’ve had two deals in my life. The first two year fixed when I bought, then refixed for 5 and that’s it.
As the new mortgage will be larger, I didn’t want to restrict myself to just Nationwide, but upon reading online it seems you add a second mortgage which makes all of this far more complex than I thought!
This is in the terms of the new fixed rate
But I don’t really understand. 1.5% of the amount paid so far? That means you’d pay more in month 12 than month 2? Which contradicts it going down for the second half.
We didn’t have any issues. Ours was based in Corby and we were buying in Herts and Surrey. Most paperwork handled over email with the odd document done via snail mail.
Very useful thread. Just about to start my first sell and looking to buy an upgraded home.
I have no idea who to use for conveyancing as I was told who to use last time.
Has anyone got any thoughts on muve.me.uk ?
I’d prob be tempted to go via a broker in all honesty and put it all on them. They know the market best and will no doubt have a few suggestions on what’s best based on those circumstances.
You can always just say nah thanks for your time and I’ll not progress with this.
Have you checked over the MSE guide to remortgaging, I know nothing on the subject to be fair given I’ve only just got my 1st one.
I assume its 1.5% of the amount you repay over your overpayment limit in months 1-12.
If you overpay by £1000 in that 12 months, its 1.5% of £1,000. If you overpay £100,000 then its 1.5% of £100,000. Overpaying to pay off your mortgage balance early would count as an overpayment within months 1-12 and incur the 1.5% charge on the part that you overpay to pay off the balance.
Your mortgage contact should state the maximum overpayment you can make each year. My Atom mortgage lists I can make 20% overpayments per year. I believe you wouldn’t be charged the 1.5% up to that amount, with previous payments taken into account for example.
My Atom mortgage also states the possible maximum they would charge me too for each year, so it would be good to see if yours has that too (I think mine was £5,850 in the first year of mine and decreases each year of my fixed period). Obviously, it states to contact them for an exact amount.
I’m happy to be corrected though if anyone knows better as this should not be considered financial advice and you should always contact a professional for that.
From a bit more reading this afternoon, that does seeem to be correct. So I’d lose more than I’d save if we do move in the intended time frame.
I emailed the broker I used last time to get his thoughts and he said as this is a solo mortgage and next time won’t be, that the repayment would outweigh the saving so it’s best sit tight.
Hopefully it won’t be too long and it’s not much more a month really.
Thanks chaps!
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Look at a company that allows mortgage porting - so long as the new house isn’t for a lower amount, many may let you port your mortgage without any early repayment fees.
Having not done it, I’m not 100% sure.
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Nationwide has a two year tracker with no fee and no ERC that sounds perfect for this requirement…
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I’m about to replace my windows, they are originals in the building and they need to be done. I emailed the managing agent just to make sure there wasn’t anything extra and they’ve told me I need a “consent to alteration” which they want £295 for the privilidge.
This is the part of the lease
To me, that reads if I want to do “any alteration or addition whatsoever” I have to get permission, “Unless for the purpose of repairing of making good any defect”
They have come back and said
“The section of the clause you have highlighted refers to the timbers of the flat which would be floor joists / stud walls and such like not the windows”
Which I don’t agree with. It’s definitely not worth a proper legal fight over but I just want to avoid paying £295 to them for me to upgrade part of their building!
We recently learned (by sheer (mis?)fortune) that there’s a management fee for our freehold that wasn’t disclosed. Definitely not worth going to court over but a lesson for us to be learned.
Where do you find such restrictions? I looked through our covenants but can’t see a reference to the fee and just want to make sure I’m not missing anything about windows or doors either given that we’re about to do the same
It’s in the huuuuuge lease, the bit I posted above, but as for the fee, that’s not mentioned anywhere.
They are a new management company and I suppose they take over the terms of the lease with their own costs added on but from a Google, this sort of fee is common place and just seems to be a license to print money for them.
I only emailed because some of the windows in the block have a decorative horizontal bar and some don’t, I wanted to make sure I didn’t cause a problem by not doing it, but otherwise I wouldn’t have said anything. I wish I hadn’t now!
Ah, the transfer of deeds for ours is fairly short, has about three pages of covenants and then two further pages in cursive that’s illegible. I guess I’ll just change my windows and if anyone comes to me I’ll just say I did it as I am obligated to maintain and decorate the front of the building every 5 years 
I hate these legalese documents and the fact that our solicitor didn’t ever respond to anything… oh well, lessons learned! Especially since where I’m from, a freehold is a freehold and there are no covenants
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First house viewings tomorrow!
One agent was fine, asked some questions about current situation and that was that. Second one was like a bulldog, almost felt like she was trying to put me off! “This property is incredibly popular” & “We are expecting a lot of offers” and then harassing me to speak to their conveyancer to “Move me up the list”
Alright love, calm yourself. Let me see it first and then we can work these things out if needed. It’s a probate sale, so they want to move quickly and she said they are looking for either a first time buyer or cash buyer, not someone with a chain.
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Pressuring you to use their conveyancer for a financial kickback for themselves is one thing, but to use it as a device like that is totally wrong!
Exactly. She was thinking she could word it like that and I’d fall for it to increase her kickback.
It’ll be interesting to see how she is in person tomorrow. That particular estate agent has a reputation of being very brash/pushy, even more than the normal estate agent levels.
Just been back through the whole thread (what’s work?) and I hope you guys that were moving in first few posts are all settled now!
I’ve moved once from my Mums to here and I think I was a naive with it, didn’t really do much research. Just let them lead me. The estate agent recommended the mortgage broker (TBF, he was very good, but now doesn’t respond) and the conveyancer. She must have loved the kick backs from me!
I’m tempted to use the latter again as they are only down the road. I’ve looked at a few online Juno gets a mention in this thread or Muve but I think I want one that if I need to, I can go and knock on the door. Or like someone else said “Oh you’re just typing it up? I’ll be there in 5 mins” type thing.
But for a mortgage, I’ve had a brief look at Habito after someone bumped the thread on here recently. I see from this thread that @BritishLibrary and @lpoolrob both used them, would you recommend?
Yes, no problems with Habito from me. I didn’t use their add-on conveyancing pack though, I went local for that.
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Same here.
They were super easy and efficient to deal with - could do everything through their web portal / via chat which made doing things on my schedule very easy.
I tried going through a mortgage provider that my Work can get access to - but they were slow to respond, didn’t have all the market deals, and it felt like it was annoying them by trying to be a customer.
Habito on the otherhand were dreamy. Respond quickly, answer my nonsense FTB clueless questions like I wasn’t an idiot, and generally helped me find the right thing.
I’d say if you have a “simple” enough mortgage that doesn’t have hidden complexities then it’s a perfect solution.
Like @lpoolrob I used a local conveyancer.
Would use again
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I recently used Habito and Habito Plus for my purchase (FTB), it went very smoothly.
They used Juno for the conveyancing. My first purchase fell through after all of the searches came back. The only extra we had to pay for because of this was the survey on the second property. Juno didn’t charge us any extra to redo the searches.
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