Renting Out Your Home: Consent to Let and Switching Your Mortgage to Buy-to-Let

Most landlords I meet planned to be landlords. But a meaningful number arrived by accident: a new job in another city, moving in with a partner, an inherited house, a home that would not sell. If that is you, this guide covers the one thing you must get right first, and the decisions that follow.

The rule that is not optional

A residential mortgage is priced and regulated on the promise that you live in the property. Rent it out without telling your lender and you are in breach of your mortgage conditions, your buildings insurance is very likely void, and lenders can respond with anything from a forced rate change to calling in the loan. It also has a name when done knowingly, and the name is mortgage fraud.

I labour this because it is the single most common mistake accidental landlords make, usually innocently, usually because "it's only for a year." Tell the lender. It is one phone call, and both legitimate routes are straightforward.

Route one: consent to let

Consent to let is your existing residential lender giving written permission to rent the property out, temporarily. Typical shape: granted for six months to two years, sometimes to the end of your current fixed rate; sometimes free, sometimes a small admin fee or a modest rate uplift; your mortgage otherwise carries on as it is.

When it fits: a genuinely temporary situation. A work posting, a slow sale, testing the water before committing. It is fast, cheap and reversible.

The catches: it expires, and lenders expect the situation to be temporary rather than a permanent business run on a residential product. When consent ends, you either move back in, sell, or make the switch properly.

Route two: remortgage onto a buy-to-let

If the rental is the plan rather than the stopgap, the property moves onto a buy-to-let mortgage. The lending logic changes completely: the loan is sized on the rent, your equity typically needs to be 25% or more of the value, and most landlords take it interest-only. The mechanics are covered in our buy-to-let mortgages guide, and they matter here because not every home passes: if your equity is thin or the realistic rent will not cover the lender's stress test, the numbers may say sell instead. Better to hear that from a spreadsheet than from arrears.

The checklist people forget

Whichever route you take, renting out your home properly also means:

• Landlord insurance. Your ordinary home policy does not cover tenants. This is not optional either.
• Compliance. Gas safety, electrical safety, EPC, deposit protection, right-to-rent checks, and the new tenancy rules that arrived in May: periodic tenancies, no Section 21, real fines for getting it wrong.
• Tax. Rental profit is taxable income from day one, and the rules have their own traps, especially around mortgage interest.
• Management, honestly assessed. A tenant in your old home is still a tenancy: repairs, references, rent collection, renewals. Decide up front whether that is your evenings or a professional's day job.

What I would tell you if you were family

If the move is temporary, take consent to let, keep it simple, and diarise the expiry date. If the rental is permanent, do it properly: buy-to-let mortgage, landlord insurance, full compliance, and management you will not resent in month eight.

And if what you actually want is the income without any of the moving parts, that is precisely what our Guaranteed Rent Service was built for: a fixed rent every month for five years while we carry the tenants, the maintenance and the rule book. For a lot of accidental landlords, it turns a stressful accident into the best financial decision they did not plan to make.

One more path worth knowing exists: if you are moving house and want to keep your current home as a rental while buying the next one, that is a specific manoeuvre called let to buy, and we have covered it separately.

Accidental landlord and want the income without the admin? See the Guaranteed Rent Service or book a free consultation.