Does anyone know a good one in the London area? My husband and I are planning to buy a flat there this year although our situation is a bit tricky - 1. Husband works offshore and has not paid any taxes since he is away from the country more than 6 months a year 2. Never had a credit card (now has a Philippine based one as my dependent, issued this year only) 3. Wife (me) is foreign 4. We have enough for 20% deposit and have enough to cover for the other costs and a few years of monthly payments
I never really used a mortgage advisor. I recall deciding to opt for a repayment mortgage years ago instead of the (at the time) the popular "interest only" type mortgage but some kind of innate intuition told me to stay clear of them. And it turned out to be the right decision. Whats wrong with banging 20% down and then just taking a repayment mortgage out on the balance over 25 years? And just getting free advice from a range of mortgage providers in the form of banks and building societies?
You will probably not be able to go on the mortgage yourself as we found you had to be uk resident for 3 years first so had to do everything in my name only. But you can easily go to various websites and just apply yourself. As long as his not paying tax is legal I don't see why it should be an issue.
I would definitely seek professional advice on the payment of taxes. I worked abroad for 20 years and for all but two paid UK tax even though trips were sometimes longer than six months. In my time you first had to be out of the country for twelve full months before you could even consider being tax exempt, then after that you were allowed back in the UK for 60 days per tax year. I was always advised by my accountant to fly back to the UK via Dublin as no records of entry and exit from Ireland were kept at that time. You probably have nothing to worry about regarding your tax situation but just bear it in mind, you don't want to mess with the tax man in the UK, once they get hold of you they don't let go. Rod Stewart once waited on an aeroplane at Heathrow, it had been diverted there from the US on its way to Ireland. He wouldn't get off because he had no remaining days left to enter the UK and would have been hit with a tax bill for over £1 million if he had stepped off the plane. I don't see why you would need a mortgage advisor, unless you want to give some cash away, if you have a little bit of cash then relocate to the north of England and buy a house for cash, no advisor needed and no mortgage and the north of the UK is by far a much better place to live than London. I wouldn't let my dog live in London, and I don't even have a dog
