How to get a solo mortgage

[Carby86]

So myself and partner are separating and I don't really know how to sort getting a mortgage on my next home.
At the moment I have my own accounts and we have a joint one where we pay our current mortgage, monthly bills and childcare etc.
I assume any mortgage provider would need all my accounts including the joint one alongside my annual salary.
Would they only really look at outgoings as obviously partner pays in too so that would need to be disregarded. Surely it's difficult as I would be going from 2 people sharing an account to all myself. Some costs would disappear, others would half, others woild become all mine.

My broker has also said that if my partner paid the childcare for 3 months from his own account then it wouldn't show on my statements (joint or solo) and therefore wouldn't be part of my costs for affordability.
When he sorted his mortgage I could pay so it didn't show on his.

I was recently quoted 3 x my salary from a financial advisor who I spoke to in person

You can find them located in some estate agents

Get some quotes

Don't try to hide the cost of childcare. Apart from the fact that mortgage cos aren't stupid, affordability is important. Especially given the interest rate at the moment.

You'll need proof of income, work contract, legitimate outgoings, any child settlement details and savings.

Get a variety of quotes - bank, building society, broker.

You can get quotes online from banks too

I used a Mortgage broker as I was also in early days of self employment. She said that maintenence payments count towards affordability if there is evidence that they are paid rregularly. Have you been on entitledto.com website to see if you.can get help with childcare costs etc? You can claim if you're separated and running your own financial and domestic lives even if you are forced to still share a house

Have you got your existing property valued yet ?

Will you be selling existing property or will one person be buying the other person out ?

Don't forget you will need money for;
Moving
Solicitors
Stamp duty
Etc

@20OddSocksOldSocks23 if you throw nursery fees into the mix I can't even get a mortgage 1x my salary regardless of the fact that I could afford to pay more a month. Take nursery out and it goes to 3x.
We do have a home to sell with enough equity to have a decent deposit and cover solicitor fees etc. Not sure on stamp duty as new house would be shared ownership but again i think the equity would help to cover.

@Shouldbedoing We would be 50/50 with kids so no maintenance from exh. I would potentially be entitled to child benefits though (having checked entitledto), which I would use to cover nursery costs on behalf of both me and exh. However will only get that once we are in separate homes.

@MintJulia my broker advised to look at re-arranging nursery payments to get better affordability results and then you can just use your actual funds to make sure you only borrow what you can afford.
Probably because I could get support for childcare but only after I have already got a mortgage.

It all feels a little impossible as I can't get a decent mortgage until I get the benefits, but I can't get the benefits until we have moved out of where we are and are "single" parents.

Surely the father should be paying half of the nursery fees ?
It is not all yours to pay

@20OddSocksOldSocks23 yes, but I was under the impression that only one of you can claim for the kids so it wouldn't really be fair to be the one claiming and then making him pay half the nursery fees.
We would be having them 50/50.
My thought would be that we would use any child benefit to pay for nursery, if it didn't cover it all we would split what remained, if it did we would split what was leftover.

Sorry, your broker sounds dodgy suggesting you hidden childcare payments. Are you using your tax-free childcare? Then the cost of any additional childcare should be split 50/50 between you and your ex (deduct the child benefit from his share if you want to be totally fair). After all this anything you still need to pay should be declared for the affordability test for the mortgage. Its an outgoing that impacts on how much money you will have to repay a mortgage - trying to hide it may mean you getting into financial difficulties.

@Magmum75 i wouldn't get tax free childcare if I got universal credit and child benefit. From what I am aware I can only get one or the other and I think id be entitled to more through universal credit than the savings I get for tax free.
The issue is that I can't get the benefits until we have separated properly (and I have a new home) yet I can't get a new home without the childcare support that I would be entitled to.
I think that was my brokers point. As once any additional credits came in my full salary could be considered for the mortgage, but at the moment they deduct childcare costs and won't even lend me my salary.
It seems a bit impossible.

Not necessarily condoning it but it’s very common for brokers to advise getting childcare off your bank statements. And the way childcare is taken into account for mortgages is a bit of a nonsense anyway- you could lose tens of thousands of affordability based on childcare expenses even if you will be finished paying for childcare in a few months time or not have it taken into account if buying while pregnant even if you’re likely to have 5+ years of childcare in front of you.

I assume as a couple there is a large disparity in both your earnings if you don't currently qualify for either child benefit or tax free childcare then, but that you alone will qualify for UC once separated. Do you still pay 50/50 towards childcare currently despite your differing earnings?

Can you separate by moving into rental first?

Is the marital home to be sold and equity shared or will he still live in it and buy you out? Will you be entitled to a greater share of the equity on divorce to even out the difference in incomes.

Maybe you need to see a divorce solicitor as a first step rather than a broker, so help you work out the best move.

As well as home survey, we also had to do gas/electricity checks before moving, all cost few hundreds…

@20OddSocksOldSocks23 good to know.

@Magmum75 we do get tax free childcare access at the moment and standard child benefit, but I know there are additional child benefits and universal credit available if you are a single parent and my savings would be spent on a deposit for the new home so that wouldn't count against me.
I find it all very confusing but entitledto implies I could get some funds each month that would be enough to cover childcare if I were to claim for the kids.
I actually earn a slight bit more than him.
Ideally a benefits or financial specialist would be better. I already had some free time with a solicitor but they mainly covered the different options when separating, the process, options for if you want to chase down pensions etc and the cost that entails. They aren't able to tell you what benefits/financial support you would definitely be entitled to.

I worry about asking hmrc themselves in case I ask a question that puts me on some watch list!
Thanks for all the useful input though, all really helpful regarding where to go next.

Sorry, I thought you weren't getting child benefit/tax free childcare currently.

So you know your salary, you know your share of childcare costs and plugged them into entitledto and got some figures on what you would receive after separation. What you can't do is is count on this as income for mortgage purposes until you are actually receiving it - correct? And your ex would be in the same situation - right?

Sounds like one of you needs to move out into a rental so you can both apply separately for UC. Once you can evidence your new income, sort out selling the marital home or one buying the other out, taking your share of the equity whatever mortgages you require elsewhere.

You can apply for UC as a single parent if you're still under the same roof, as long as you're living 'separately' not sharing meals, laundry etc. That should be the first step.