Santander Have Refused Consent To Let

[Movinghouseatlast]

2 weeks ago I phoned Santander and asked about letting our house. I was told we met all the criteria and we would get a confirmation letter. I was told we would stay on our fixed rate, and then move to a new BTL mortgage if we were still wanting to rent it out at the end of the fix.

I had asked about this around 9 months ago when I first considered the option, and was told the same thing then .

Yesterday we got a letter refusing it. The letter says we as we had additional borrowing less than 6 months ago they cannot grant the consent.

The background is that we borrowed an extra £22.5k, in 2 lumps. The first was to fix the roof and to do other smaller jobs. The second was our boiler blew up. It was 31st October we got the second additional sum.

For background the house is worth £475,000. The mortgage is £140,000. We took out a 5 year fix a year ago.

I am self employed, and recently lost a major contract near where I live. I have been offered a great opportunity 250 miles away. Due to my age and the industry I work in I am unlikely to find anything else near home in the immediate future.

We don't want to sell as we don't know if we will like where we are planning on moving to, also the uncertainty around Bexit. It could be that we come back in a year.

We have a £6k early redemption charge on the mortgage.

We are now totally stuck. We can't afford to pay two mortgages. I don't have any income where we are now. We can't afford the redemption fee.

I feel totally duped. The letter asks why I told them that I was staying in the house when I took out the additional borrowing. My circumstances have changed that's why!

After a sleepless night I could really do with some advice. Thank you.

Not sure whether it's a solution but you could speak to a mortgage advisor, independent and not from Santander and ask if they have experienced this and if they can advise

Speak to an IFA.

With your work, are you able to work from home? Could you stay in a hotel a few days a week, and work from home for the rest?

Any chance of switching to a btl mortgage now? The redemption fee for current mortgage is big but can be added to new loan and btl is interest only so will help cash flow while you rent in the new area. You move back and switch back to a residential mortgage.

See a ifa - what you’re doing sounds reasonable and affordable (easily within the btl ratio). It seems that you don’t meet Santander’s own lending criteria. You need a btl mortgage if renting so use another provider.

I’m remortgaging my flat with a btl and the paperwork asks for current mirtgage value rather than how many additional loans heaped on it. Your loan to property value is low (even with the £6k extra) so I wouldn’t see you’d have a problem getting another lender.

Best of luck - sounds stressful.

Trees it sounds as if you will have to stick the 6k redemption cost up. Escalate it first though at santander. Someone higher up may have the authority to recognise the sense in your story.

Yes and suck. Need to proof read.

Yes, I will escalate it tomorrow for sure.

My job is not one that can be done from home at all unfortunately.

Could you get a couple of lodgers in and then you're technically still there but just renting some rooms out which you don't need permission for. You could actually make more money that way anyway than renting out the full house. And you'd be free to return for weekends when you like.

Just reread the post. The confirmed the process 9 months ago but you want to take it up now and in that time you increased your mortgage twice. It could well be that.

I suspect whoever processed your application thinks the extra borrowing was to raise a deposit for another house. If you can prove what you used the money for that may help.

Lots of people do that. I think you don’t meet their lending criteria now.

When would the new role start? Can you afford for just you to relocate til May, and then reapply for consent once the 6 months is up? Or does the refusal prevent that?

i don't know if L and C would advise. They do very good remortgage service over the phone.

I would send then a letter back by fax or email explaining the sudden change of circumstances and also what the money was spent on. I would offer to provide evidence of all of this and then ask for it to be escalated.

They told me last week that I meet the criteria!
I wonder if it will change if I wait for the 6 months to be up? That would be end of April, which would be ok. I just wondered if this had happened to anyone else?

Hi
Did you managed to secure the CTL?
If not, you should try again. I am tempted to believe that your request fro CTL was refused as the additional loans you took on the basis of the house was fairly recent (under 6 months - between 31 Oct to around 1 Jan 2019 - reading from your initial massage in the thread above). The conditions of CTL for Santander explicitly mentions minimum of 6 months.
Good luck (& yes - to let me/ us know the outcome)

Also, the criteria for the CTL should be mentioned in your mortgage contracts - please check the 6 month rule

Someone just applied a genetic rule after the capital release. Just ask to speak to someone higher up who can apply common sense and who has the authority to adapt rules accordingly.

Generic, not sure how genetics can help.