Terrible credit rating - could I get mortgage?

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Questions for anyone experienced in mortgage broking:

I’ve got the worst credit rating (not all my fault, ex refused to pay maintenance meaning I built these up over years -think pay day loans for food/petrol etc). I’m slowly building it up again but am looking a buying a property with my partner in the next year or so. My question is if you have a Debt Management Plan is it better to come to arrangements with all your creditors independently in order to not have the DMP showing against your name? These are long term debts, with no defaults and no CCJ’s.
If you do decide to accept a settlement offer from a creditor, would this make it hard to get a mortgage, i.e. is it better to pay in full?

Really appreciate any advice!

I’d recommend getting a broker like London and Country who will at least answer your questions for free. I used an adverse credit broker several years ago for a mortgage due to a CCJ with about 6 months left on it successfully. However they did tell me that payday loans are very bad for credit scoring and some mainstream lenders won’t touch you for three years if you’ve had them.

If you have a DMP or go to a debt management phase via creditors you will find it almost impossible to get a good rate for the mortgage. There are some providers (not the high street names) that would usually consider people in your position if you go via a broker - but most changed their policies post covid.

How much did you borrow? If it’s possible to repay all your debts in full then definitely do that.

I'd pay off all debts first then approach a broker. Much better position to try getting a mortgage

Id concentrate on clearing your debts, start by looking at the ones with highest interest. Avoid using payday/short term loans, lenders will see these in your history and see that you cannot manage day to day expenses.
Until then most mortgage companies won't touch you, you may get a high interest mortgage, but thry will want a large deposit/LTV, so they can get there money back easily if needed

You definitely have defaults for everything that's in your debt management plan.

You won’t be able to get a mortgage at the moment, I’m afraid. My credit rating is 380 (fair) and I only just scraped one at a bad interest rate with a 15% deposit even though we only needed to borrow less than 3 times our annual income. Banks are very risk adverse at the moment. It’s not what you want to hear but it’s probably worth waiting 6 years after you’ve cleared your debt management plan and after the last payday loan shows on your file. Bad credit mortgages are sometimes an option if you have a huge deposit but they often lock you into a long fixed rate, even they are very tough to get right now but the market should ease up soon!