Mortgage Express are forcing me to sell my home – HELP!

Mortgage Express are forcing me to sell my home – HELP!

16:19 PM, 21st March 2013, About 12 years ago 148

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Mortgage Express are forcing me to sell my homeI own a property in the UK that I rent out since being made redundant, getting offered work in Spain and moving approx 4 years ago. My UK property is my only home and I intend on returning to live in it when the UK comes out of recession and I can get a decent job again. I have a standard variable residential mortgage with Mortgage Express.

I did not tell Mortgage express initially that I was renting my house out as it is my only home, I plan to return there and I do not know how long my work will last in Spain.

They have now been advised and are refusing to give us permission to rent the property out. Therefore they are saying that we are now in breach of contract. They are giving us no options whatsoever with them, they won’t change us to a buy-to-let mortgage and they will not give us more time to improve our LTV rate to be able to remortgage with another company.

We have been told we can not currently remortgage as the LTV is very high and we live in Spain. We are unable to sell as the sale price will not cover the mortgage, second charge on the property and the sale/solicitor fees.

Mortgage Express as saying that if we do not do any of these they will foreclose the mortgage and repossess our home.

We have been a loyal customer for 10 years, we have never been late or missed a payment, and now we have very good, loyal, paying tennants who is enabling us to pay the mortgage each month.

On top of the monthly mortgage payments we want to pay them extra to repay the capital as quickly as we can, or at least lower the mortgage value to improve the LTV.

They will do not do anything to help us.

We feel we are being treated very unfairly. Where they have been bought out by the Government they have changed their policies and taken away all of our options. We did not give permission for these changes, we did not sign anything to adhere to their new policies and we want to know how that affects the mortgage contract with us and if we have any case against them.

All advice very much appreciated.

Gary Byrne


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Gary Byrne

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19:42 PM, 20th July 2013, About 12 years ago

just a thought. If MX have been nationalised and the government now own the debt. Why cant we strike up a deal with the government to pay them instead? If my mortgage was for, lets say 200k and we agreed to pay them the 200k back plus 10-15% as quickly as possible. Instead of paying over twice the amount of money back to MX over 25 years I would pay only 20-30k more back to the government.Everyone is a winner. No economists to reply to this idea please. Need to find out whether the money loaned for mortgage was created out of thin air in the first place

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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8:52 AM, 21st July 2013, About 12 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Gary Byrne" at "20/07/2013 - 19:42":

Hi Gary

You can pay off your 200k mortgage at any time without paying anything extra. Meantime you just need to pay the interest

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15:36 PM, 3rd August 2013, About 11 years ago

MX do have a human face if you are honest from start. I have a buy-to-let mortgage with MX, lived abroad for some years and had to return to the UK. I asked if I could live in my house for a year, in view of my (then) economic circumstances (and in breach of the contract terms). I assured them I would not fail with the monthly payments, they agreed. A year later they inquired about my economic situation and if I was ready to move out, I said YES. Having breached your contract terms, rather than fight, engage them differently to resolve the problem. Circumventing procedures or lying, as suggested by a few, does not model well.

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20:28 PM, 3rd August 2013, About 11 years ago

How very convenient for you that your economic circumstances allow you to comply with your assertion as to the period you wished or needed to occupy the BTL property.
What would you have done if if this was no longer pertinent to your domestic circumstances; in that you would need to stay in the property as your PPR.
If you had any common you would lie and state you are moving out and lodging somewhere else.
Only an idiot would tell the truth to then find MX increasing the IR and also requiring an equity injection into the property or they would repossess.
Lying is the ONLY way to stop MX stitching you up or rather the clever MX holders just keep their mouths shut and keep on paying the mortgage.
Many hundreds of thousands of mortgage holders are doing this.
Keep your mouth shut and then nobody is the wiser.
Then you keep your mortgage as was and gives you flexibility about how you choose to manage the property.
You do realise that it is perfectly acceptable to be the lodger of your tenant who has a tenancy at your property!

Alyson

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11:59 AM, 3rd September 2013, About 11 years ago

I don't know why you had your mortgage with Mortgage Express in the first place. It was the buy-to-let arm of Bradford & Bingley.

I also don't know why the Govt is not interested in making money as they do not allow Mortgage Express to lend any more to existing customers (like me). They would like me to change my BTL Mortgage to someone else but I haven't done it  yet because the others all have higher Interest Rates.

Alyson

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12:02 PM, 3rd September 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by " " at "03/08/2013 - 20:28":

Lying is not the way to do anything.

Gary Byrne

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11:56 AM, 5th September 2013, About 11 years ago

@Alison, 20% of MX covered residential mortgages, apparently.

When we first started this thread it was because MX were not willing to bend or compromise in any way shape or form to help us out. They wanted us to sell or remortgage or they would foreclose on us. They said we were in ´breach of contract´. We have offered to pay more to to reduce the LTV and they said no. I managed to get hold of the local MP, who wrote to them on our behalf and´ hey presto´, we are now given some options, the very same options we were denied in the first place. Now that MX have ´moved´ and to some extent changed ´the contract´, am I still in breach? Dont know whether to trust them or not. All I have tried to do is pay my debt, I didn´t cause any of this mess and wonder why it is so difficult for any mortgage company to use a bit of common sense. People dont always have to lose their homes. The money lent for mortgages isnt real anyway, its made up out of thin air. We are all slaves to the illusion!!!!

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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13:35 PM, 5th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Gary Byrne" at "05/09/2013 - 11:56":

Hi Gary

I am delighted to read that your MP has been able to put sufficient pressure on MX to see sense and to do a deal with you. Well done for your persistence, a great result and a lesson to all others who read this thread which, at the time of writing, has been read by over 10,000 people and ranks in the top most popular 10 discussion threads of all time on the Property118 forum.
.

Vanessa Warwick

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13:56 PM, 5th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Whilst I am delighted for Gary, let us not lose sight of the fact that this thread refers to a RESIDENTIAL mortgage, even though the property is temporarily let out.

When it comes to BTL , MX might not be so accommodating.

This is obviously a big issue for landlords. Mark talks about the popularity of this thread.

Our thread on Property Tribes "Mortgage Express getting tough" has delivered the biggest ever number of landlords on-line on Property Tribes today. So obviously a HOT topic .... !

http://www.propertytribes.com/mortgage-express-getting-tough-t-8904.html

I have contacted Mortgage Express and requested that they bring clarity to how they are going to downsize their mortgage book as some of the posts are very scary.

I will report back here if they agree to engage with PT and the wider landlord community.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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14:08 PM, 5th September 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Vanessa Warwick" at "05/09/2013 - 13:56":

Hi Vanessa

Mortgage express tried to engage with the landlord community back in May 2011 to explain their exit strategies, the outcome was uproar - see >>> http://www.property118.com/uproar-as-mortgage-express-spokesman-reveals-their-exit-strategies/

Given that MX were the biggest of all the pre-credit crunch buy to let lenders I fully understand why you have picked up so much traction from your latest thread.

MX are using bully tactics in that they pick on the weak and naive. Gary's story is a classic tale of standing up to bullies and watching them back off. MX gave up trying to sell me their choices mortgage overpayment plan and to persuade me for a "review" a long time ago after I gave them a flea in their ear about treating customers fairly and raising a formal complaint. The best way to stand up to bullies is to fight back, just as Gary has done. It matters not whether you are a BTL or resi borrower. Play by the rules but do not engage with them unless they engage via your lawyers. Remember, they want to do reviews so that they can find an angle to call in loans. Nobody is obliged to agree to a review so far as I can tell from the T&C's I agreed to.
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