Landlords Mortgages
Well, it seems that the West Bromwich Building Society, clearly unhappy with the fact that they’ve managed to lose £9.4 million in the last financial year, have decided that a ‘lifetime tracker’ for landlords mortgage should not necessarily last for a lifetime, just until they decide otherwise!
The time happens to be December 2013, when 6,700 of their buy to let mortgage clients, roughly a quarter of their landlord book of business, will be having 2% added to their ‘lifetime tracker’ mortgages for no apparent reason other than there’s something in the small print that allows them to do so!
Which kind of begs the question why it’s called a ‘lifetime tracker’ mortgage in the first place? Surely a more appropriate term would be ‘tracker until we get ourselves into a financial mess… oh and move into some plush new headquarters in 2015’ mortgage?!!
It seems that the building society, which apparently does not see itself returning to any form of profitability until at least 2016, feels that the Bank of Ireland’s lead in changing the rules of the game (the Bank of Ireland recently did the same to around 13,500 clients) is perfectly acceptable practice.
The Financial Ombudsman has already had circa 300 complaints about the Bank of Ireland’s moves, but some feel other lenders may follow suit anyway.
It is thought that the move by the West Bromwich will add roughly £250 per month onto a typical £150,000 landlord’s loan but earn them around £15 million per annum. In defence of the West Bromwich, apparently they are to waive early redemption fees until next March so I have a feeling that this figure of £15 million is in reality going to be considerably less as landlords leave in their droves. I can’t see them taking on many new clients either in fairness!
It is however not all bad news. Here at CompareCrazy.com we offer only the very best and most competitive landlord insurance quotes and landlord insurance policies and we guarantee not to hike the premium midway through your policy! I’m not actually sure we’d get away with it even if we wanted to. Which incidentally we don’t! What we do want is to offer a choice of landlord insurance cover and premiums to suit everyone, whether you’re a professional landlord with a portfolio of properties or merely have a second property which you let out to cover the mortgage for a nest egg in the future.
Tell your friends. CompareCrazy.com. The business insurance comparison site for landlord insurance!
