To think I shouldn't take sick leave during house buying process?

[hannh29101]

I am suffering badly with my mental health at the moment, my manager has suggested I take some time off as sick leave.

My DH and I are currently buying our first home. We got the official confirmation from our bank + broker today that our mortgage has been approved and the survey is booked for mid October.

Do you think I should wait to take time off until we have exchanged? I'm worried that if the bank find out, for example if we end up needing to supply more documents etc., it might have a negative impact on our mortgage offer?

FWIW I would get full pay.

We are new buyers so I'm really not sure what to do, so any advice would be welcome. Thanks.

That’s a really tough one and I had a similar issue recently as we’re in the middle of a house purchase. I managed to power on through though because I was still waiting on our life insurance being approved. Totally your choice but I definitely understand your dilemma. I have epilepsy so it’s hard enough to get life insurance as it is!

Why would the bank find out that you took time off sick? Presumably it's within your t&C's of employment that you can take sick leave.

I took a substantial period of sick leave while we were buying a house and I didn’t get full pay. It had to be explained because when we had to submit payslips they were obviously lower than the salary I was on.
But it wasn’t a problem, we still got the mortgage, and if you’d be on full pay anyway I don’t see how they’d know either way.

Do you get sick pay? That's the only sticker for the bank - periods of unpaid leave.

Take the leave now , it will become very stressful moving so better to be mentally strong ahead of it