Is mortgage advice free?

Q My husband and I live in Italy and want to invest in a buy-to-let flat in London. I telephoned an agent and a mortgage adviser contacted us. The problem is, I can't work out whether the advice is free or not.

CM

A If you decide to apply for the mortgage they recommend, a mortgage adviser from Alexander Hall Mortgages will charge you a fee of 0.5% of the size of the loan. You have to pay £400 at the time you make the mortgage application and the remainder when the mortgage is completed. However, there is no fee if you choose not to take out a mortgage (or you take out a mortgage without the help of Alexander Hall).

To put it another way, you can listen to the advice for free. It will only cost money if you choose to act on it. But even if the mortgage advice sounds good to you, I would strongly advise you to get separate advice on tax from an expert in the country where you are a taxpayer. The attraction of buy-to-let mortgages for UK taxpayers (as you have been told) is that the interest they pay can be deducted from the rent received so reducing their tax bills. However, the same may not be true for people who are not resident in the UK for tax purposes.

In addition, it may not have been explained to you that rent paid to landlords who live abroad has to have tax deducted from it before it is paid even though the foreign landlord may not be liable for UK tax. You can get more information on the rules for rent paid to landlords overseas here.