Martin Lewis is the font of all knowledge when it comes to money problems. However, he was left stumped when a viewer had a tricky mortgage dilemma on the ITV1 morning show This Morning.
Joining Holly Willoughby and Craig Doyle via a video link from his home, Martin was presented with a question from viewer Lorraine which she had sent into the show. Reading Lorraine's question, Holly said: "My husband and I are in our early 60s we've had our mortgage for 40 years we've just realised that we are still on an interest-only mortgage with all that has been going at the moment my husband checked and noticed that we are still paying interest only but that the bank has never informed us. What can we do, we are so worried we are going to lose our home"
A speechless Martin replied: "Gosh. I'm not sure I know what to say. You are on an interest-only mortgage. I'm somewhat confused over the question, I don't know whether you are saying you are meant to be on a repayment mortgage and you've only just discovered you are on an interest-only mortgage or you are on an interest-only mortgage and you wanted to change to a repayment mortgage or you've just only realised."
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He continued: "I mean, it is very difficult to know what to say. My hope is with a 40-year property its house price will have gone up many many more times than the mortgage is worth so hopefully the mortgage will be relatively small compared to what the house is worth, if you had to you could sell it and downsize rather than thinking losing your house."
After appearing on the show on Tuesday, June 27, Martin has also tweeted saying he was "baffled" by the question. Martin said: "Not often I'm lost for words on air. Yet I admit I was a bit baffled how to answer a question read out on #ThisMorning about a couple who've only just found out/realised the mortgage they've had for 40yrs was interest only. Details were scant so it was tough to work out what to say other than to point them to get 1-on-1 help."
At the end of the question Holly said that Lorraine could write in with more details about her question and Martin advised they seek professional help from the bank and Citizen's Advice. You can keep up to date with the latest TV and showbiz news by signing up to the newsletter here.
