Owning your own home

So, should I use mortgage brokers or not?
And what's the catch. Do they charge me?

Get this. Read it. You'll still have questions afterwards, but they'll be different ones.

Our mortgage broker charges a flat fee on completion of the deal.

Hold up WHUT?

You are going with a tied Mortgage Broker, who will be on a sweet sweet commission for only offering the mortgages of the lender he is tied to... AND he is charging you a fee?

Bit iffy.

She was very pushy and really gave it the hard sell, and tried to strongarm us into getting a mortgage agreed in principle with her so that we basically owed her money and were tied to that mortgage company. Avoid them.
Make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service and the FCA. High-pressure sales are illegal.

I used an IFA for last but one remortgage. I'm sure he got a fee for arranging it (from the mortgage company, not us), but he wasn't tied to a specific set of providers and it was best deal at the time (I'd been looking around anyway). A lot less paperwork when the IFA is involved: "Oh that section, just leave it blank and I'll fill it in." Also meant he could sign off on the "I agree that they have a workable plan to repay the mortgage at the end" bit given that it was interest only (we just made overpayments each month).

My last remortgage was done over the 'phone in 20 minutes (luckily it was with the same provider). No paperwork to be signed, no fees. Got out of my old 5.09% fixed deal 3 months early and into a 2.89% fixed (for another 5 years).

WjPrince's dad is an IFA. I contacted him when remortgage, he was very upfront and OK when I choose not to use him as I found a better deal elsewhere.

the life insurance provider

on that - I stopped into the estate agent a while ago and the mortgage broker, who was on the phone, waved at me and said "we need to talk! it's about the life insurance! I'll call you!" I looked kinda quizzical and left. haven't spoken to him since. I vaguely remember he mentioned life insurance to cover the mortgage repayments if one of us karks it, but it's not compulsory is it?
my other half and I both have pensions with "death in service" payouts, so we figure that would cover it, and we could borrow money from parents/siblings in the short term if we needed to.

Hold up WHUT?

You are going with a tied Mortgage Broker, who will be on a sweet sweet commission for only offering the mortgages of the lender he is tied to... AND he is charging you a fee?

Bit iffy.

He's not tied to a lender, he's part of a financial advice group with a large panel of providers. If he was tied to one I wouldn't be interested, but as I said, he has been recommended by multiple work colleagues and personal recommendations are worth a lot.

Fair enough.

Good luck

on that - I stopped into the estate agent a while ago and the mortgage broker, who was on the phone, waved at me and said "we need to talk! it's about the life insurance! I'll call you!" I looked kinda quizzical and left. haven't spoken to him since. I vaguely remember he mentioned life insurance to cover the mortgage repayments if one of us karks it, but it's not compulsory is it?
my other half and I both have pensions with "death in service" payouts, so we figure that would cover it, and we could borrow money from parents/siblings in the short term if we needed to.

Most lenders insist on it, especially with an endowment mortgage. They want to be paid if you die.
For a repayment you usually get a "decreasing term life assurance" policy, which pays off the mortgage and only the mortgage. Quite cheap.
You might have a death in service benefit that will cover it, but most mortgages are in the hundreds of thousands and most death in service payments are in the tens.

hmm. okay, we need to have another read of the mortgage then, I don't remember it being a requirement.
our thinking was that death in service payout would cover short term repayments, but neither of us would want to stay in a big old house if the other one died, so we would want to sell it relatively quickly and downsize. of course if at that point we were massively in negative equity it would be a problem...

I had a look last night and have about 30% of my purchase price remaining to pay.

So from about 6-7 years, down to 2-3 if I decide to smash it once the remortgage overpayment limit ceases.

Most lenders insist on it, especially with an endowment mortgage. They want to be paid if you die.
For a repayment you usually get a "decreasing term life assurance" policy, which pays off the mortgage and only the mortgage. Quite cheap.
You might have a death in service benefit that will cover it, but most mortgages are in the hundreds of thousands and most death in service payments are in the tens.

An endowment mortgage necessarily includes a life insurance policy because the endowment policy which is an integral part of the mortgage arrangements is a with-profits life insurance policy. The mortgage is an interest-only mortgage, and the endowment policy is a fixed term policy which matures at the end of the mortgage term, and is intended to provide sufficient capital to repay the capital sum owing. They used to be more tax-efficient than a repayment mortgage, due to the MIRAS tax relief, but that no longer exists and so endowment mortgages are relatively rare these days.

For non-endowment mortgages a life insurance policy isn't necessary, although some lenders will insist on it on some mortgages. It depends on their internal policy, whether it's an interest-only or repayment mortgage, and on the LTV ratio. When I took out my mortgage Intelligent Finance (a most inaccurate name) tried to persuade me to take out a life insurance policy, but I pointed out that I had no dependents and if I died during the term of the mortgage then the mortgage could be redeemed by selling the house. They didn't insist on one, but that may be because the LTV ratio was just under 70%. YMMV.

Interesting, we've got an interest only mortgage and have decreasing term life assurance policies (pretty sure it was required by the mortgage company but that could have been the previous or previous previous mortgage company).

I've got a generous death in service through my employer which would cover 90% of the outstanding mortgage balance, I suppose it means Mrs GB (and MiniGB) would have half (or all?) of the mortgage paid off if I died (via the decreasing term policy) and then any shortfall (and a nice chunk for the future) from my death in service benefit.

If you're paying your IFA, you're doin' it wrong...

So, there is no requirement for life insurance (mortgage with Santander), they simply suggest looking into it and remind us that the debt continues after death.

I didn't even check with Nationwide. I assume no requirement, given that they didn't ask me.

Life insurance is usually a requirement for owners of more than one property.

Exchanged contracts today on a house in Leytonstone. I've got a shitload of work to do, but hopefully it'll be enjoyable.

Home straight now. Flooring ordered. Fitter's been round (I am sick to death of doing it all myself, time to pay someone else to get us to the finish line). Flat could be ready to sell in two weeks :-)

Exchanged contracts today on a house in Leytonstone. I've got a shitload of work to do, but hopefully it'll be enjoyable.

Where abouts? I'm looking at a few places over that way, including some this very evening

Home straight now. Flooring ordered. Fitter's been round (I am sick to death of doing it all myself, time to pay someone else to get us to the finish line). Flat could be ready to sell in two weeks :-)

Where is it? Forum discount?

Bethnal Green, gentrification central.
Fuck, we started the gentrification :-)

Leytonstone is gentrifying fast, and started off much more horrible and grotty than Bethnal Green. Bethnal Green's got more museums than the whole of LBWF.

um. sure?
William Morris, Vestry House, Pumphouse Museum / Museum of Technology, Markhouse Beam Engine (?)...
ok so bethnal has the Museum of Childhood and a bunch of trendy galleries...

Where abouts? I'm looking at a few places over that way, including some this very evening

Pretoria Road. Leytonstone is tricky to look around in some ways, because some of the South end of it is still a shithole. However, go a little West towards Leyton, and it improves. However, as you go North from Leyton station towards Bakers Arms, some of that is a bit scabby until you go East, back towards the North end of Leytonstone.

I originally started looking in Walthamstow, but I couldn't handle the number of people pushing buggies around in the nicer areas.

I'm moving from Bethnal Green / Hackney Road. My rent is £19K a year, pissed down the drain, and my landlord is a terrible cunt. I hope that I will do better in the long run by buying somewhere.