i think i have got myself in hot water.

i recently remortgaged and whilst doing so i told the broker i may want to rent the property out at a later date. he advised me to get a normal resedential mortgage and apply for consent to let when required. he stated this would be a formality.

a few months later i moved in with my partner and rented out my property (not using an agent). i did all the right things e.g tenancy agreement , gas certificates, enegy performance certificates etc. but i forgot about the consent to let. i tried to contact the broker but he is abroad. i rang the lender and they said i would need to be in the property for 12 months before granting consent.(i did not tell them i have a tenant already) i now find myself in breach of my mortggage conditions. i only intend renting for 6 months. do i come clean and ask for retrospective permission or keep quiet. the tenant has 4 months to go. i am having sleepless nights. i have heard the penalty could be repossession. others say they cant repossess unless you are in arrears but could ask for immediate redemption. other asdvise me that a slap on the wrist and an admin charge will apply.

sleepless nadine

Don't waste any more sleep. It is extremely unlikely the lender would be foolish enough to do anything other than give you a bit of a telling off - and possibly ask you to pay their standard administration charge for granting the tenancy. It sounds to me as though you have likely met all the normal criteria, including ensuring compliance with the safety regulations. I assume the tenancy created is an Assured Shorthold, which again is usually demanded as the required type. First, no lender can withhold permission to let UNREASONABLY, regardless of what the contractual arrangement might say. They can however make the permission conditional on certain (often common-sense) matters, such as having a properly drawn up AST tenancy agreement.

I can't suggest you hide anything from the lender, as that would be deceitful and could actually land you in much hotter water if anything went wrong with the letting. In your position, I would come clean and send a letter confirming the situation, attach a copy of the tenancy agreement for the lender's records and wait for what I expect will be a standard consenting reply.

Hi Nadine

I had the same position a few years ago -although I didn't want to remortgage onto a buy to let because not only would they have taken an admin fee but there was also an immediate 1% increase to the mortgage anyway which would have increased the monthly payments. I took the decision to ride the tenancy (have had the same tenant for a good few years now) and wait for my mortgage deal to expire. I then took the decision to remortgage onto a buy to let because like you, I had many sleepless nights wondering what would happen if they found out? I felt much better when I was above board with everything but like the other responder to your query, I do wonder just what they would have done other than levy the charges?

The other thing to think of which I did cover my end, was that normal correspondence about the mortgage (changes in rates, annual statements) will continue to go to the address of the mortgage property. I had an arrangement with my tenant to send on any correspondence to my new address so that it didn't get returned to the mortgage company as 'sender gone away'. Just something to think of.

Hope this helps along with other people's thoughts. I guess it's about how you feel and where your anxiety level is really.

Abbey inposed a fee of over £1000 on me to allow me to remian on my lifetime tracker and let the property. I paid it grudgingly because there were no better deals. I am really pleased now because it's down to 0.99% on an interest-only basis!