You extended your term. Here's when you can shorten it again.

Shortening a mortgage term back down works differently depending on when you ask, and this page sets out both points where it's possible and what the lender looks at each time.

Reversing a term extension

When you can shorten your term again

Extending a mortgage term is not always the last word on it. There are two points at which it can be brought back down, and each is governed by a different rule.

  1. Revert to the original term

    If your lender extended your term as one of its Mortgage Charter options, the Charter gives you six months from that change to ask for it to be put back. This reversal is built into the Charter itself. It is not a general right that comes with every term extension, only with one agreed under the Charter.

  2. Shortening the term under the current rule

    Once the six-month window has passed, asking to shorten the term again is a fresh request to the lender. Before July 2025, that request was tested against a full affordability assessment. Since then, under a rule in the Financial Conduct Authority's mortgage conduct of business sourcebook (MCOB 11.6.3R, read 3 October 2026), the lender considers affordability under the Consumer Duty.

    Considering affordability is not the same as agreeing to the change. The lender can still decline.

    Lender agrees

    The term is shortened and the monthly payment changes from the date set out in the new agreement.

    Lender declines

    The lender can refuse the shortened term if it judges the higher monthly payment that would result is not affordable for you.

What counts as affordable under the Consumer Duty is the lender's own judgement, so asking the lender directly is the only way to know how it would apply to you.

Why some guidance still says you need a full affordability check

Shortening a mortgage term back down used to mean the lender ran a full affordability assessment, the same check used for a new mortgage application. Some guidance written before that changed still says this is required. It no longer is, not in full.

The rule that older guidance is quoting

The FCA's guidance in FG24/2, paragraph 2.21, set out that reducing a mortgage term required a full affordability assessment, treating the request much like any other change that increases the monthly payment. Anything written from that guidance, without a later update, will still describe the full check as a requirement.

What changed, and when

From July 2025, PS25/11 amended MCOB 11.6.3R(6) (the Mortgage Conduct of Business sourcebook) to remove that requirement specifically where a borrower is shortening their term. A lender no longer has to put the request through the same process as a new mortgage application.

The lender can still look at affordability before agreeing, and can still decline. The rule change removed one specific requirement. It did not give the borrower an automatic right to shorten the term back on request.

What the date on the guidance tells you

A source describing this that's dated before mid-2025, or that doesn't mention PS25/11, is working from the version of the rule that no longer applies in full. Checking that date against July 2025 shows whether the full affordability assessment it describes is still the current position.