Can I afford my mortgage repayments if I change career?

Q I own a two-bed flat in south-west London worth between £305,000 and £310,000. I bought it for £297,000 in late 2004. I have an outstanding mortgage of £80,000 over a term of 23 years plus a loan of £52,000 from my parents which I am paying off over the next 10 years (without interest). The rest was bought with cash and the equity I had built up in my previous property.

I am currently considering a career change. I work as a lawyer at present and want to go and train as a chef. This will take six months and the fees for the course are £11,000. I would do the course full-time so would need some funds to be able to survive for those six months. Following the course, I would probably earn a third of my current salary of £50,000.

I have approximately £8,000 in two ISAs, but no other savings.

My discount on my mortgage expires in September so I need to decide what to do. Unfortunately, I have a large repayment charge if I repay within five years from September and I am going to end up on a base rate deal when the discount expires.

Is it possible to negotiate with a new lender to pay off my repayment charge in some way, and is it likely to be worth it? At the same time, will I be able either to negotiate a mortgage holiday or to increase the amount I am borrowing in order to fund the cookery course?
CJ

A To be brutally honest, I think that increasing your borrowing at a time when you are about to face a sharp drop in income - to precisely zero while you are doing the cookery course - is absolute madness.

Given that your income will go down dramatically if you do become a chef, I wonder whether, rather than borrowing to fund your course, you shouldn't spend the next 12 to 18 months living off the equivalent of what you expect to earn as a chef and saving the rest of what you currently earn.

That way, you'll find out whether you'll be able to afford to stay in your current home once you are on a chef's wages and you should also have saved up enough money both to pay for the course and tide you over during the six months when you won't be earning anything.

If you can't wait that long to make your career change, moving to a smaller home and releasing cash that way might be worth considering. It wouldn't necessarily let you off paying the early-repayment charge on your mortgage but it would give you the opportunity to change lenders.