What makes moving harder than a first purchase
A first purchase has one moving part. A move has two, and they are tied together. You are selling a property that probably still has a mortgage on it, buying another one, and trying to make both complete on the same day — because in Scotland the date of entry is fixed in the missives, not negotiated as you go.
That is what changes the job. Your existing mortgage has terms that may or may not survive the move, and it may carry an early repayment charge. Your lender has its own timescales for a new application or a porting request. Your solicitor has missives to conclude on both sides. None of those three run at the same speed, and the date of entry does not wait for whichever is slowest.
The mechanics of taking your existing mortgage with you are a subject in their own right, and we have set them out properly in a separate guide on porting a mortgage in Scotland. This page is about the part we do for you.
How we help you manage the move
The work starts with what you already have, not with a rate table. Before anything else is worth discussing we need to know what your current mortgage actually allows.
- Review the mortgage you are on — The product, the remaining term, what the lender will and will not allow you to carry to a new property, and how much of it is still useful to you.
- Check the early repayment charge — What it is, when it stops applying, and whether the timing of your move changes the arithmetic.
- Compare porting against moving lender — Both properly, on total cost rather than headline rate, so the decision is made on figures rather than on which sounds simpler.
- Assess additional borrowing — If the new property costs more, what you may be able to borrow now, on your current income and commitments.
- Plan the mortgage around the sale and the purchase — So the offer is in place, and still valid, when the date of entry arrives.
- Work to your solicitor’s timetable — We keep your solicitor informed of where the mortgage side has got to, and ask them for the dates we need. The conveyancing itself is their work, not ours.
Appointments are normally carried out by telephone, wherever you are in Scotland, with documents shared securely online. Initial enquiries are always free.
The three decisions that normally matter
Most moves come down to the same three questions. None of them has a general right answer, which is exactly why they are worth an advised conversation rather than a calculator.
- Port, or compare a new lender? — Keeping your existing deal avoids an early repayment charge but ties you to one lender’s criteria and pricing on the new property. Moving lender opens the market but starts a full application. The comparison is covered in detail in the [porting guide](/blog/porting-mortgage-moving-home-scotland).
- Borrow more, or put in the equity? — The sale proceeds may cover the gap, or you may want to keep some back. Either way the starting point is what you could borrow — the [borrowing calculator](/how-much-can-i-borrow) gives you a rough figure to work from before we look at it properly.
- What if the current property has not sold? — This is where most moves stall. There are routes through it, and which ones are open depends on your equity, your income and how firm the purchase is. It is worth raising early rather than at the point the seller wants a date.
Where people are commonly caught out
These are the ones that come up again and again, and every one of them is easier to deal with before you offer than after.
- Home Report valuation versus the price you agree — A lender works from the valuation or the price, whichever is lower. In Scotland you can see the surveyor’s figure in the Home Report before you offer, which is a real advantage — provided you act on it.
- Offers over needing cash, not mortgage — Anything you pay above the Home Report valuation has to come from your own funds, on top of your deposit. We have set out the arithmetic in the guide on [Home Report value and offers over](/blog/home-report-value-offers-over-mortgage-scotland).
- Missives and the date of entry — Once missives are concluded the date is fixed. The mortgage has to be ready for it, which means working backwards from that date rather than forwards from today.
- Porting still means a new lending assessment — Taking your mortgage with you is not automatic. Your lender assesses the application and the new property again, on current criteria.
- Early repayment charges — A charge for leaving a deal early can outweigh whatever you would save by switching. Sometimes waiting a few weeks changes the answer entirely.
If your deal is also coming to an end, rather than only the property changing, the remortgage side of this may matter as much as the move itself.