Review Your Mortgage Every Year

The latest announcement by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to hold the Bank of England base rate at 0.50% was welcome news for borrowers who have deals expiring later this year or early 2019.

Recently we have been inundated by clients who are fearing a hike in interest rates over the coming months as we edge closer to Brexit and want to secure a low fixed rate ASAP. This can offer peace of mind and so the main question we get asked is, when is the right time to review my mortgage?

As you would expect, this does vary from lender to lender but we are trying to start the process six months before the end of our clients’ current scheme. This gives us sufficient time to review what the current lender will offer with what is available elsewhere in the market place.

Furthermore, the mortgage offer for the new mortgage will last for between three and six months and so we can ensure that we have everything arranged with the new lender and their solicitors in anticipation of the current scheme expiring.

However, in exceptional circumstances it may be prudent to pay an early redemption penalty to end a mortgage scheme early and move to a new long term fixed rate now. This is typically beneficial if your house has risen in value, you took a long term fixed rate a couple of years ago or you have made over payments off your mortgage to reduce the mortgage to property value ratio and you now qualify for lower rates.

So, at Chartwell we aim to review our clients mortgages every year to ensure they are relevant and if there are any material changes that we need to be aware of (change of job, children, alterations to the property to name a few).

If you would like to join our annual review scheme or would welcome a free review of your current mortgage, please feel free to contact us and one of our experienced consultants would be delighted to help.