Owning your own home

Ha, yeah I'll learn to spell one day.. maybe...

product transfer with current lender (presume this varies from lender to lender but there's again, presume they'll ask to see updated proof of earnings)

I've remortgaged 6 times (three different lenders:Halifax, Coventry BS and Santander) and I've never had to send any proof of earnings when remortgaging with the same company (i.e. a product transfer). The most recent ones with Santander have been all done in a single phone call, no need to even sign anything, no questions about changes, etc.

Moving between lenders and you'll need to provide proof of income.

Any attempt to increasing borrowing (more than just putting the product fee onto the mortgage) with the same lender will trigger the need to prove income though.

I set up on my own after getting my first mortgage. Didn't occur to me to tell the bank! When we did come to remortgage it was a pain tho, so we just stuck with the same lot - luckily their rates were decent but I'm sure doing that couldn't be worse than dealing with the default rate.

I tried to remortgage last month and they said to me “are you happy that you understand what a fixed mortgage is and are ok with the offer” and I said “it’s better than the rip-off rate you’ve put me on, but all things being equal I’d rather have flexibility” and they immediately clammed up and refused to send the paperwork. I’ll have to wait a week and call back and respond “yes, you’ve explained it very well and it sounds ideal”.

Congrats on your new debt ;)

lol

It's like the mortgage version of people who make jokes about bombs at airports.

hello, me again.

Bathroom refurb has turned into a slightly larger project involving knocking down a bit of a wall. Can anyone recommend whatever person or company it would be who could come up with a plan or drawings for the re-design?

Is it an architect or are they only involved when it's a whole house or an extension?

The other version (which we've encountered) is when you have an interest-only mortgage[1] and when they ask for your plan to repay it you say "We're making overpayments every month as if it were a repayment mortgage". That answer is definitely not on their list of approved answers. It just prompts questions of "but what if you weren't able to make those overpayments" which is stupid given "we're sticking some money away each month in a suitable investment" is accepted with no proof (and is just as liable to problems if the income isn't there).

1. Got a mortgage when I moved in with the now Mrs GB and she wasn't working so they went on my salary alone. Being pre-sub-prime-meltdown they said a repayment mortgage was too expensive so they could only offer me an interest-only mortgage (?!). Flexibility is useful though. Borrowing an extra £10k for a rewire and redecoration was proving to be a ballache through the mortgage co but we can just stop making overpayments for ~6 months and then start them again (at a slightly higher amount) once we've got the £10k saved.
   

Just tell them what they want to hear at all times. Do not deviate!

It’s not the first time my big mouth has got me into trouble. I remember a job interview at uni where a PC World manager asked me “why do you want this job?” and I said “I need money to pay rent”. I’d have given me the job but she seemed to take offence.

Were you employed or self-employed though? I wonder if, being the latter, they have some kind flag on my account that says "ah... before we go any further...".

Bog standard employment standard salary drudgery. PAYE. 10+ years. etc. #dull

It's less than half what the shared debt was - I don't earn big bucks so had to stump up a big repayment to bring the lending down to what they would agree to. It's weird and kind of nice? to have a relatively small mortgage. I now have no savings tho.

If it's a load-bearing wall you will need a structural engineer to do the drawings for it, and to get building regulations approval for it.

If it's just a partition wall then just get a big hammer.

Ah, that makes sense. It is good either way, obviously.

I don't have any savings to speak of right now either but that's self-induced because I haven't actually done any work since July.

Also - thanks :)

July?? Flipping 'eck, explains why more posts on here ;-)

You'll be glad to know you can expect fewer now as I'm properly job hunting at the moment ;)

On the mortgage stuff, we're with Nationwide, who will only let you remortgage if you've got at least two years left on a fixed term contract.

There's an interesting job I'd quite like at the moment, it's a one year fixed term contract but my friend works there and reckons there's no way it will just be a year. It relates to two very big infrastructure projects too, so that makes sense.

But I can't really go for it as we're hoping to move within the next year or so and would need to remortgage anyway at some point even if we don't move.

It seems a bit daft to not be able to go for interesting jobs because they're fixed term when these days you could be made redundant at any moment. It feels like mortgages haven't really kept up with the labour market.

(I know I could get something fixed term then go to a broker, but it's a risk - I wouldn't find out what the answer was until I'd already accepted a job. And I like Nationwide and would prefer to stay with them as they've been good to us and they're more ethical than most).

Who remembers the fire damaged house from hell in E11 a few months back ?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-70450945.html

Nice little bit of business that if they get it.

Looks like they've done a good job, the renovation can't have been that cheap. How much was it bought for?

529k 8 months ago.

Once you factor in stamp duty (probably with an extra 3% as its a developer) the profit margin on that is not great, even if they get asking.

The days of making big money at that sort of thing are long gone. I think you can just about make it work if you sell before 3 years to make back the additional SDLT & also avoid capital gains by making the place your main residence.

I'd say he's made 70k there clear profit, no problem at all. 2 or 3 of them a year and he's doing very nicely.

Very, very intermittent cash flow though, and large sunk costs. Would be too risky for me. Also to do more than one a year (this took 8 months?) would likely eat the 70k profit.