UK Landlord Forum / Life

Bear with me.......

Me and Mrs Me are currently tenants of a 3 bed house in SE London paying an extremely reasonable rent given the size of house/area etc.

We have £30k squirrelled away (sale proceeds of previous house - v. long story) and have been told we could get a mortgage of £220k-ish. Sadly this wouldn't buy us a 3-bed (which we need) property anywhere near where we are and for various reasons we're currently tied to this area.

We've therefore been thinking about buying further away (50+ miles) and then letting it out until such time as we're ready and able to move/retire into it ourselves - maybe 5-10 yrs. This would mean getting a standard residential mortgage and then "forgetting" to tell the mortgage company that we can't move into it straight away and would need to let it out due to a change in circumstances etc etc!!!!!

One of our issues is that we let out a property in the past, which ended very messily in Court proceedings and with us being extremely lucky to recoup most of our loses and this obviously worries us. The other issue is that finances are extremely tight and any kind of maintenance/repairs/void periods etc would be a challenge to manage. 

The end goal here is to own a property of our own and not be in the position of having to pay rent in our old age (which for me isn't far away at all).

Sorry for rambling on! Not sure what anyone can offer on the subject but any thoughts, ideas or suggestions on the subject will be gratefully received.

Many thanks.

Cheers!

You're looking for advice, I assume, of the nature - don't be tempted to commit mortgage fraud.

Or, indeed, any kind of fraud.

Have you always had criminal tendencies or is this a new thing? Deliberately signing up to a residential mortgage on a property you're intending to let out is fraud.

Even if your conscience will allow you to sleep easy in your bed - some fifty miles away from the one you told the bank you'd be sleeping in - the practicalities of the situation should give you pause. The particular fraud you're proposing to commit is obvious, unoriginal and easy for the mortgage provider to spot, whereupon you'll probably lose the property - if you've got that far - along with your £30,000 and any chance of a bank ever lending you money again. You'll even struggle to pass credit checks for renting.

A buy-to-let mortgage would keep you on the right side of the law, albeit it will cost more and may be harder for you to obtain in your position. That would then just leave the problem of trying to run a property fifty miles away on a shoestring, with no slack in the budget for maintenance or void periods, with a recession imminent and house prices starting to wobble. I don't want to give financial advice but you'd probably be as well just parking your savings in a FTSE tracker or, if you like a flutter, buy a shedload of Premium Bonds. They may not be as exciting but they won't give you sleepless nights and you won't get a phone call from ERNIE on Christmas Eve asking you to do a hundred mile round trip to unblock the crapper.

When put like that it's hard to see where the OP's dilemna (sic) would be. And, with that, I'm out...

Reading this is like those films where there is a psycho in the house,the girl can get out but decides instead to investigate the cellar.The viewer shouts "Get out now you daft cow",but she won't be told.Quite apart from the madcap plan that could land you in jail,there are so many reasons why you should not do this.Basic intelligence is often defined as the ability to learn and adapt after making errors.Your past experience should be a big lesson. "House of Cards" springs to mind (the saying,not the series with Kevin Spacey) Many landlords-myself included-are looking to jump ship if things turn nasty.There is no stigma is renting,the Brits are unusual in craving home ownership,but that is changing.Put the kettle on,do some deep breathing,rethink.