Covid 19 and Mortgages
What a week it has been! I’ve gone from seeing clients in the office two weeks ago to lockdown at home. As most of the country is experiencing such a major change in our lifestyles, hopefully for the short term, I thought I would try and collate some useful information around mortgages.
At the time of writing all of the high street lenders are struggling to process applications due to staffing levels and any mortgage that needs a physical valuation (i.e. a surveyor to look around the property) are effectively on hold as the surveyors are on lockdown.
Barclays this week started to restrict the number of applications they would accept. Refreshing their allocation at 10 am each day. I think the level of applications is going to calm down quite soon, the longer we get into the lockdown zone.
Halifax are restricting applications also, anyone wanting to borrow more than 60% of the property value cannot go to the Halifax at this time.
If you are moving house then these are the guidelines that have been set out:
Home buyers and renters should, as far as possible, delay moving to a new house while emergency measures are in place to fight coronavirus
If moving is unavoidable for contractual reasons and the parties are unable to reach an agreement to delay, people must follow advice on social distancing to minimise the spread of the virus.
Anyone with symptoms, self-isolating or shielding from the virus, should follow medical advice and not move house for the time being
Another big issue is payment holidays and where you stand with those. It does vary from lender to lender but as a rule they will have set up an online process where you can apply to suspend your payments for three months. The interest will be added to your mortgage so your debt will increase, most lenders have said this will not affect your credit rating but do check with your lender.
Here are some links to some lender’s payment holiday sites:
Santander: https://mortgagesignup.santander.co.uk/onlinecredential/mortgage-holiday
Halifax: https://www.halifax.co.uk/mortgages/existing-customers/payment-holidays/request-a-holiday/
Nationwide: https://www.nationwide.co.uk/support/coronavirus/mortgage-payment-holiday
HSBC: https://www.hsbc.co.uk/help/coronavirus/financial-support/
Barclays: https://www.barclays.co.uk/coronavirus/mortgages/
If you are a buy to let customer then you can also apply to your lender for a payment holiday if your tenant is struggling to pay you.
I hope these help but in the meantime please stay safe.
I am open for business and I’m happy to do face to face meetings online, I had a Zoom meeting yesterday that worked well. So if you have any questions or want to talk about your mortgage options then I am happy to help where I can.