Mortgage payment holidays

At the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Government gave us the promise that all borrowers would be granted a three-month mortgage payment holiday if deemed necessary. Most lenders followed the Government’s guidelines and did everything in their power to help their borrowers during these hard few months.

We have thought carefully about the likely possibilities for your mortgage over the next few months and are working very closely with all of our lenders to ensure that if any changes occur, we are able to inform you right away and recommend the most ideal option for you to take so that you still feel safe and happy with your mortgage.

We feel like now is a good time to talk about mortgage payment holidays as everyone is asking about them and how they work.

What is a mortgage payment holiday?

A mortgage payment holiday is simply a period where you don’t have to pay your monthly mortgage payments. This is agreed between you as the borrower and your mortgage lender, bank or building society. In this current situation, it should be about three months.

You will still have to make all of these payments. The interest that you defer over the set period will be added on top of your loan amount whilst your capital balance will not decrease. So both your total mortgage amount and the interest on it will increase.

When you feel that you are ready to continue with your mortgage payments, either your monthly payments are recalculated at a slightly higher level or your mortgage term is extended. Lenders tend to prefer in recalculating your repayment as extending your mortgage term could put you past their standard retirement ages.

Some lenders may allow you to pay off a lump sum later on in the year to let you get back to what you were paying monthly before the mortgage payment holiday. Mortgage payment holidays are accessible for borrowers with both residential and buy to let mortgages in Coventry. This really helps out landlords as they have some assistance if rental payments are affected.

The Government’s proposal

Here is what the Government has said after the COVID-19 outbreak:

  • Mortgage lenders will offer an automatic three-month mortgage payments holiday for borrowers who have been impacted directly or indirectly by COVID-19
  • The mortgage payment holiday will apply to customers who are up to date on their payments, not in arrears, and wanting to self-certify that they are impacted by COVID-19
  • This means that lenders will not complete an income and expenditure assessment, or an assessment of alternate payment options as ordinarily required under MCOB
  • This proposal will allow lenders to be more responsive to customer needs and offer forbearance in a simple way to customers in an environment where the operation of collections teams made be also impacted by COVID-19
  • Customers will be made aware that interest will accrue in the holiday period and they will need to make up deferred payments in the future
  • Customers who wish to undertake a full assessment of their ability to pay or financial difficulty may still do so.

How do I apply for a mortgage payment holiday?

Before you go directly to your lender, we recommend that you talk to your Mortgage Advisor in Coventry first. This is because they can look through everything for you and talk you through the options available for you that will benefit you most financially. As a Mortgage Broker in Coventry, we know all about mortgage payment holidays and the dos and don’ts, so get in touch and receive a free mortgage consultation before anything else.

If you want to go directly to your lender and you are up to date with your mortgage payments, not in arrears and have been directly affected by COVID-19, here are the steps you should take:

  • The customer would contact the lender and inform them that they are being impacted
    by COVID-19
  • The lender would accept these details from the customer and offer an automatic
    three-month mortgage payment holiday
  • No evidence is needed for the lender
  • The lender makes the customer aware that interest will accrue and will be contacted at the end of the three months to complete an assessment of the customer’s circumstances
  • At the end of three months, an arrangement to pay will be agreed with the customer according to their circumstances to recover any shortfall, also ensuring that the mortgage remains affordable and sustainable
  • The lender notifies the customer that if they wished to complete a full assessment now, there may be other forbearance options more suitable to the customer.

Will a mortgage payment holiday impact my credit score?

Yes, it can produce a negative impact on your credit score, but it shouldn’t in this situation. You are applying for a mortgage payment holiday because of a virus so your lender should make sure that it will not do any damage.

Before rushing into this, you will need confirmation that it will not damage your score. To do this, you need to contact your lender directly and ask this question, making a record of the date and time and the name of the person that you spoke to. This way, if anything changes in the future, you have a reference to what was originally said.

Will I still be able to remortgage or take a product transfer with my lender?

The answer to this question has changed over the last couple of days. Even when the virus wasn’t seen as a threat, you could still remortgage and transfer products as usual. Now, everything has changed and lenders are no longer offering any remortgage deals and product transfers. Things have changed so quickly!

This means that borrowers who are coming up to the end of their existing product could be forced to move onto the higher lender variable rates as there are no other lower deals available. So people who act too early could find themselves on a mortgage payment holiday that accrues a high-interest variable rate.

This is why we recommend speaking to us, your expert Mortgage Broker in Coventry. We are here to provide you with open and honest mortgage advice in Coventry through these next few tough months for you and your mortgage. In general, it helps if you can arrange your mortgage transfer first then enquire about your mortgage payment holiday.

What are my other options?

There are other options available for you to take to help you meet your monthly mortgage payments over these next few months. Your lender may be generous and offer you a temporary switch over to an interest-only to help you save some money on your monthly payments. This will not add any further to the loan amount by still servicing the interest each month.

On the other hand, you may not need to switch all of your mortgages to interest-only and it may be that putting your mortgage on this basis could give you that extra bit of breathing space that you need.

If you have savings, remortgaging onto an offset basis is another option. You could end up reducing your monthly payments whilst keeping your savings untouched.

An example would be that if someone had a £200,000 loan and savings account with £50,000 in, they would only pay interest on £150,000. This option could massively reduce your monthly mortgage payments.

Other options include a straight remortgage to another lender, working out costs of any repayment charges or simply extending the term of your mortgage. It’s completely up to you and you should choose whatever you think suits you better. This is where a Mortgage Broker in Coventry will come in handy, as they will talk you through all of your options and help you make a choice. They want the best for you and want to make sure that you feel comfortable and secure at all times during these tough few months.

Get in touch with a Mortgage Advisor in Coventry and discuss all of your mortgage options regarding mortgage payment holidays. We love mortgages and we love helping you! Get through these few hard months of mortgage payments with help from your Mortgage Broker in Coventry, Coventrymoneyman.

Date Last Edited: December 6, 2023