Mortgage advisor for proving mortgage potential

[indomitablespirit]

My solicitor is working to allow me to stay in the family house, jointly owned with a mortgage. She has asked me to get an indication of a mortgage offer based on my current earnings and situation. This is just to prove that it would be difficult for me to find somewhere with my children if I could not stay in the house. Does anyone know if I would have to pay for this service or do brokers give a simple idea of mortgage potential for free? I am already going to have to pay a lot in solicitor’s fees etc for the divorce and so trying to keep other costs down. Thanks

You can get an agreement in principle online through more larger mortgage providers that show based on your income and expenses and credit rating what they would be willing to lend you, and its free

Your current mortgage provider can also assess you for taking on the mortgage yourself. It's useful if you have a fixed rate as you can usually port the mortgage to yourself keeping the favourable rate.

A decision in principle should be possible for free although each one will create a hard search on your credit rating.

I'm not sure your solicitor's strategy is a good one though. Proving you can't afford the mortgage could backfire on you if it also proves you can't afford to pay the existing mortgage and need to downsize. Courts are becoming increasingly comfortable with parties renting after divorce because of record high interest rates too.

Unless your partner is a very high earner and can also be expected to help you pay for your housing costs then the only reason for taking this action would be to get more of the equity to purchase something smaller rather than to remain in the FMH.

Also, if you are trying to do something contentious that is likely to end up in court, you may find residing in the FMH becomes impossible because the equity is needed to settle the legal fees.

One final point is that such outcomes will be based on your earning capacity. You might find the length of the order - in the event you do get one - falls far short of your children turning 18 on the grounds you can work full time and progress your career when your child turns 11.

Thank you - I don’t believe I am trying to do something contentious, I am following the advice of my solicitor. We will have to see what happens but I need to try and aim for this outcome. What damage will a search do to my credit rating?

One hard search won't have much impact but multiple ones will reduce your credit score for a few months and will eroneously make you look like your can't borrow as much.

By contentious I mean something your ex might not agree to, not that the practice is unusual. If your ex disagrees, you might find it costs about £40-60k of the equity between you to take it to a final heading.

By all means aim for this outcome although generally courts prefer clean breaks these days. Mesher Orders are very rare without the consent of both parties these days and a court is more likely to transfer the house to you, indemnify your ex from making mortgage payments and you will be subject to an undertaking to remove your ex from the mortgage (often only best endeavours). Best endeavours will include things like finding a guarantor, paying a higher interest rate etc. That means in practice if you cannot get the mortgage in your own name, your ex could refuse to fix the mortgage again and you would go onto a standard variable rate until you could release him. A court is unlikely to make this order therefore if it doesn't think you could afford that and may insist you sell and rent instead. You might also find yourself challenged to earn more and only succeed in staying in the property for a few years.

By all means trust your solicitor but they don't always get this right and if your ex disagrees I would seek a second opinion on your likelihood of success before pursuing it.