We welcome the announcement that Armed Forces personnel posted overseas will now be able to rent out their homes without facing higher mortgage costs or having to change their mortgage, thanks to the co-operation of the UK’s major lenders. The announcement came from a meeting between the Armed Forces Covenant and Ministers at No.10 Downing Street.
Here Adam Smith, our Head of Mortgages talks about the impact this will have on military mortgage borrowers and why it is such good news.
Our team of expert mortgage advisers search the whole mortgage market to find the most suitable deal for every customer and are fully independent, whilst at the same time having access to exclusive deals not available to the general public. One of our biggest challenges to date has been coming up against mortgage lenders that appear to be offering the best rate for our customer, but not accommodating their potential deployment in a satisfactory way. The fact that the biggest high-street lenders have now pledged to rectify this is great news for all military mortgage borrowers and future mortgage customers for two key reasons.
The fact that the biggest in the industry - Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Santander UK, Royal Bank of Scotland and Nationwide - have made this commitment represents the vast majority of new mortgage lending, and those who’s products are rarely out of the ’Best Buy’ tables. This is obviously a huge immediate advantage, and also makes it extremely likely that before long, the remaining lenders will also follow suit and also improve their criteria.
At Forces Financial our purpose is to make military lives easier, and this new ruling certainly helps us do that in terms of helping our military mortgage customers get better deals to suit their military lifestyles as they will be able to keep their existing mortgage when they come to renting out their home during deployment. This means that they do not have to face the risk of the lender declining to give consent to let out the property and where this consent is given potentially seeing their interest rate increased and often additional charges or fees being levied for the privilege. This brings ,significant money and time savings for our military customers who lead busy lives and often could do without additional distractions.
In 2014 we were the first dedicated Forces financial services intermediary to sign the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant, embedding our commitment to helping the Armed Forces Community. The Armed Forces Covenant statement makes our vision very clear:
‘The Covenant is a promise from the nation ensuring that those who serve or who have served in the Armed Forces, and their families, are treated fairly.’
It’s great to see benefits of the wider Armed Forces Covenant that are so relevant and valuable for our military customers. Our commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant means our customers can take advantage of our understanding of their unique lifestyle, where they otherwise would not find such tailored advice and their lifestyle can often be a hindrance to a mortgage application in the high street.
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