To think we should be able to move house whilst pregnant?

[DisneyMadeMeDoIt]

DH and I want to move, it seemed straight forward UNTIL I fell pregnant. Suddenly the mortgage company want THE WORLD.

I can provide maternity pay details and my due date but they want written confirmation of maternity leave/return dates and how many hours I will return on!

I was 8 weeks when they asked for this and (rightly so) my company HR said ‘ridiculous’ to putting that in writing so early on. It’s not something they CAN provide yet. They’ll do it in line with HR/GOV timeframes and IF I do go PT it won’t be confirmed until I’m almost returning from mat leave! So we’re stuck until then.

I work in finance and understand the need to evidence ability to repay/ responsible lending. However, I have a FT job and at the end of maternity I will STILL have a FT job. Going PT is an assumption they seem to be making 🤔 based on my pregnancy.

Regardless of pregnancy I could get a mortgage and then decide to drop hours at work! Child free friends of ours recently did this, got a mortgage on FT salary then dropped to 4 days each, and had no repercussions!

We are lucky enough to have free childcare in place so that’s not an expense and DH and I are very financially responsible (high credit scores, excellent financial record - including with this mortgage company... and no debt) whatever choices we made would be in line with what we could afford at the time.

AIBU to feel like we’re being sort of ‘blocked’ from moving house simply because I’m pregnant? I’m just a bit miffed 😔

We re did our mortgage when i was 5months pregnant, i just hid it.

Just try another lender?

Unfortunatly, its not just the pregnancy, the amount banks will lend you is likely to be less as well because of estimated costs of having a child.

This frustrates me too. People's lives change over the course of mortgage terms and I don't see why people should be penalised for being pregnant. Loads of people don't go part-time after maternity leave.

It is the cost of raising a child, not just the maternity leave/part-time element - it's another dependent in mortgage terms. Before you had two people on two wages, the mortgage company are looking at the affordability for three people on two wages (assuming you go back full-time).

Find another lender and don't tell them especially before 27 weeks.

Also if you are a high earner depending on how much you want to borrow they can ignore childcare costs. One of my friends' actually got a mortgage when she was on maternity leave as she was expected to go back full-time due to being the main earner. She actually dropped her hours when she went back.

If you will get the mortgage on just your husband's salary, leaving you out completely, then do that, for the sake of actually getting the mortgage.

I'm self-employed & when we got our mortgage, the adviser explained (very embarrassed) that it would actually be quicker and easier to just use my husband's income & leave mine out completely rather than having to do all the paperwork that comes with self-employment.

I don't care - I care about things that have a material impact/public facing, like keeping my own name, earning my own money, etc., but this is just a means to an end so I didn't lose any sleep over it.

I'll be moving at around 35 weeks pregnant (not my best idea) we haven't told them at all! In fact I've been off sick for the past three months and they don't know that either. This was advised by a mortgage advisor

@Alka

It is tempting but we’re browsing family homes and I’d like us to have a good ‘max’ incase we see something we really want to push for (in which case I would go back FT) I like the freedom of having a higher budget even if we choose not to use it.

@DisneyMadeMeDoIt I'm a mortgage adviser, I strongly recommend you abandon the application and start fresh, NOT announcing pregnancy.

I shouldn't officially say that but most lenders and underwriters are twats when it comes to maternity and returning to work.

You shouldn't have told them.

We have just remortgaged, so moved lender and taken out more money - I am 29 weeks pregnant, I didn't mention it to our broker or the mortgage company! In fact our broker didn't even ask if we had any children or childcare costs, but I assume it was fairly evident we had one from our bank statements that showed the child benefit payments!

I work full time and will be returning full time, so I didn't see why they would need to know.

They cannot access your medical records either, so they have no way of finding out.

My only word of caution would be that your 100% free childcare might not work
Out that way for so many reasons. So might be an idea to account for that cost too, could potential make things tighter every month.