Buy to let

Yes . . your present loan is what it is . . by simple stating that you are buying this home to live in and plan on renting your present home out, you will get the preferential loan . . You do have the ability to change your mind afterward and not move into the new home. And if you did move into that house, you would not be mandated to get a new loan against your existing residence, regardless.

however i'm sure there is a governmental tax structure in there that makes the taxes on a rental property higher . . .so you will get hit with a higher tax structure somewhere as you probably cannot show both homes as primary residences

So . . as you can see here . . you're getting some different answers . . I think we can all agree that what you are doing is not legal . . but the concern is . . whether you can get away with it or not, how to get away with it, . . and what are the consequences. . . .
My answers are from what I have routinely dealt with in the US . . not the UK

You might post this under Taxes . . as well as law and ethics

Best of Luck to you

You should discuss any (fixable) problems you have making payments with the lender ..

If they can see your problems are temporary and you are making efforts to resolve the situation, they may agree to freeze interest or (temporary) reduce payments until eg. you find a new tenant OR sell the house (or some other house) to raise cash & pay off the mortgage

If you keep making at least SOME payment (even if not the full amount) they should again be more willing to compromise .. however as a 'rule of thumb' if they see no way out or think you are not making an effort and/or you have missed 3 months in a row they WILL start proceedings to repossess ..

If they repossess they will load all their costs onto what you owe and then sell the house at auction for a massive discount (after all, how did YOU buy the house in the first place ?) ... you will then be a LOT worse off than if you had sold privatively, since for one thing, you may never get another buy-to-let Mortgage and for another your other lenders might start getting 'twitchy' ...

So very few 'buy-to-let' properties are ever repossessed ... = most owners manage to sell up before it reaches that stage ...

Let me start by saying that we (myself, my brother and my father) currently own 37 single family rental properties.

The best way to overcome the issue you are talking about is to buy rundown properties for below market value and fix them up yourself. This takes cash and usually a lot of it. It's not uncommon for us to spend 10-15K(and in some cases much more) refurbishing a property after we buy it (new siding, roof, carpeting, appliances, etc).

The second problem you will run into is actually finding the properties to buy. We spend hours just driving around and looking for investment properties. We have also developed relationships with local real estate agents and property managers so that we get a phone call when something interesting comes on the market.

The third problem is that it is extremely difficult to make any money owning just one or 2 properties.

If you only have one then if it goes empty for 3 or 4 months you have a cash flow problem. If you have 10 that is not so much of an issue as you can leverage the money from the other units.

Your fourth problem is going to be time. Remember that everytime a pipe breaks or a sewer overflows, you get a phone call from the renter. If you know how to fix it (and can afford to take the day off work) great. If you don't, thats your entire month's rent shot on the plumber.

If you are interested in this business for the long term and want to grow, it's a great business and it's still very viable to get into.

If all you are looking for is to own one or 2 and stay small, I would strongly suggest looking at a different investment.

Already been done, loads of people have lost everything they had.
This was a big reason that some of the banks and lenders went bust.
Typical deposit is now around 25% with a higher interest rate on a commercial or buy to let mortgage.
do the maths, typical rent on a 4 bed house is around £650 per month, the cost to buy it is £150,000 minimum add landlords safety checks, maintenance, etc etc and you'll see the maths don't give you any profit.
It's all down to the outgoings against income and I'd be very surprised if you could get a mortgage unless you have a large deposit.
One other thing to think about is HMO and houses over 2 storeys. Houses of multiple occupancy and 3 plus storey houses have strict rules about fire escapes, emergency lighting, fire doors etc, they are treated much like a hotel as far as rules and regulations are concerned.

Google is your friend....

Very loosely - About £1000 depending on where you are in the country, how straightfoward the transaction is, and dealing with the intricicies of a buy to rent mortgage (not easy in these current times)

I would suggest you ring around three or four local firms and get their fees.

if you have the equity in the current home, sure.