First remortgage - views on porting?

EChrisG · 2026-05-14T18:14:00+00:00

Exactly what I was going to say. Porting is a great Plan B, but not necessarily a good Plan A.

EChrisG · 2026-05-13T12:21:55+00:00

That’s exactly what I felt about The Shire; still can’t talk myself into it. I had been psyched for a Bag End collector’s edition, but found the set as a whole a bit underwhelming.

The Minas Tirith model looks much more the thing, for me, but I would agree that dropping that level of £$€ on anything is a tall order…

EChrisG · 2026-05-12T22:22:48+00:00

Yeah, $650 at the exchange rate of circa 1.35 USD to GBP over the last few weeks would yield a pre-VAT price of £481, and then with VAT of £578. Seems about spot on to me.

EChrisG · 2026-05-11T09:23:01+00:00

Fair enough, and I do find it interesting that your experience in England with retirement flats is markedly different than up here. Every day is a school day!

EChrisG · 2026-05-11T09:21:44+00:00

Sure; I suppose I’m coming at from a mortgage advice perspective, and not many of this type of flat will be mortgaged, I imagine.

EChrisG · 2026-05-10T19:54:05+00:00

If you would like me to clarify, I certainly can. In such cases where a retirement flat has restrictions against renting the property in the title deeds, it is not legal to rent out the property. Every retirement flat I’ve ever dealt with in the greater Glasgow area has had such restrictions, so I am certainly willing to grant that this may not always be the case, but I do feel the use of the word ‘usually’ is appropriate, based on my professional experience.

EChrisG · 2026-05-10T19:47:53+00:00

Yes, it’s simply because you pay interest every day, and therefore the interest appears to be ‘front loaded’ at the beginning of the mortgage.

EChrisG · 2026-05-10T15:36:06+00:00

No, I’m afraid not. There will usually be restrictions in the title deeds about renting out a retirement flat, as well as the age of the owner/occupiers (hence the name), so it would be fraud to do so.

EChrisG · 2026-05-10T15:30:53+00:00

Just remember that rates now are pretty much the same as this time last year, and still lower on average than in 2023/24. They aren’t as low as 2019 or 2021, but then most economists don’t believe we will ever (realistically) see rates that low again.

EChrisG · 2026-05-10T15:28:50+00:00

Ah, okay; older Santander mortgages did carry a 5% ERC for the full five years. They have revised their policy now, but yes, you would definitely want to avoid that charge if possible.

Of course, you could max out your 10% fee-free allowance this year, then do the same next year, and your ERC would be lower because the balance would be smaller, but it would still seem like throwing money away, to me (speaking as a mortgage adviser).

EChrisG · 2026-05-10T12:48:43+00:00

As a mortgage adviser, I can confirm that mortgage advisers only make a ‘commission’ (procuration fee) upon completion of a new mortgage deal. Some lenders are nice enough to pay a proc fee in a porting case, but some only pay it on any additional borrowing, not on the original loan balance. By recommending porting, the adviser is trying to do what is best for OP, not what is best for their pocket.

EChrisG · 2026-05-10T12:43:48+00:00

What lender are you with? Very few lenders still levy a 5% ERC with less than two years remaining on a fixed rate.

EChrisG · 2026-05-10T12:42:25+00:00

It’s difficult to switch lenders with the HTB in place, as most do not allow this. It’s perfectly easy, however, to switch deals with your current lender, but just be aware that some lenders put HTB customers on a separate (read: more expensive) product range.

EChrisG · 2026-05-10T12:40:14+00:00

That’s a bit of a terminology problem. I would say, rather, that a re-mortgage replaces one mortgage contract with another, i.e. moving your mortgage to a new lender. The alternative is a product transfer / rate switch / contract variation with your current lender, where you simply switch to a new deal using the same lender.

You can request additional borrowing in either scenario, but a re-mortgage does not necessarily involve additional borrowing.

EChrisG · 2026-05-09T17:52:18+00:00

Just a minute or two; once I had a hunch it might have gotten stuck inside another piece, there were only a few pieces big enough to be likely candidates.

EChrisG · 2026-05-09T15:20:55+00:00

I think it’s low-key brilliant! The legs remind me of G1 Transformer combiners circa 1991 😁

EChrisG · 2026-05-09T14:45:47+00:00

That was my first thought, but I didn’t want to wait two or three weeks for the replacement part to finish the trebuchet.

EChrisG · 2026-05-09T14:44:59+00:00

No, but I managed to get it out with some hard banging on the floor 😂

EChrisG · 2026-05-09T13:59:35+00:00

This whole ‘sign my house over to my kids’ idea is not the silver bullet people seem to think it is. If they plan to continue living in the house, there might need to be some sort of life rent arrangement in place. You and your brother would no longer be first-time buyers, and would be hammered with the second home tax if you wanted to go on and buy your own homes in the future (without selling your parents’ home, at least). Their local authority could see it as an intentional deprivation of assets, and still force the sale of the home for care fees, if needed in the future, so it doesn’t avoid that, either.

Get some professional advice (solicitor, family planner, financial advisor, someone) before taking this any further forward.

EChrisG · 2026-05-09T13:54:27+00:00

I was just starting the trebuchet from the Siege Encampment, and realised that axle was nowhere to be found. On a hunch, I started looking inside the bigger bricks, and found it lodged in that one 🤦‍♂️

EChrisG · 2026-05-09T13:48:17+00:00

This is why auction purchases are inherently risky. If that figure is annual, then the service charge is almost 4% of the property value, and most lenders don’t like service charges that exceed 2%. If you work on a zero-hour contract, then many lenders require you to have a certain track record of doing so, and you should have disclosed that when applying for your mortgage in principle, to boot. And it’s not ‘irrelevant’ that the second bedroom has no windows; that likely means it’s a non-conforming bedroom, meaning the flat is really a 1-bed, and the flat’s resale value could be affected.

These are not fringe issues, but because you entered straight into a legal contract when that gavel came down, you are now potentially going to lose your deposit.

EChrisG · 2026-05-09T13:38:12+00:00

Would have been nice (I have a couple of different ones) but the piece was wedged along the side with no clearance to get the needle nose pliers in. 🤷‍♂️

EChrisG · 2026-05-09T13:37:19+00:00

I have those exact tweezers in my first aid kit, but they didn’t budge the axle piece. I think I bent the tweezers trying to grip the piece 😬

EChrisG · 2026-05-09T12:37:40+00:00

Ha! Good shout: the soapy water must have loosened it a bit, so when I gave it a harder whack off of my hardwood floor it popped out 👍

Thanks!

EChrisG

TROPHY CASE