Calling all current mortgage applicants...

[SnowBells]

If any of you are out there, I thought it would be good to have a thread for all of us to see how we're getting on now that the MMR is in place. It would be great to share experiences, since there aren't many threads about this around.

Let us hope, panic, despair, be angry or be happy together…

coolcat I just spoke to an estate agent who strongly recommended getting a mortgage in principle before viewing houses because of a similar situation to you. A buyer found out she was pregnant after being approved but by the time the surveys came back the lender twigged and their application was revoked. Horrible to get your hopes up and then dashed. We're already booked for a viewing this week for one place but will hold off until we get our mortgage sorted after that.

Missy I was a FTB and approved at 7 months pregnant 3.5 years ago which really surprised me.

Thinking of DC2 soon but aware that we may need to remortgage early next year so have to time it right this time

Update - if you google Santander intermediary calculator you can play at being a mortgage broker and see exactly what you'll be asked and what it means in terms of how much Santander would lend you. We got a massive shock

We've just got our re mortgage approved - had to jump through many hoops this time (initial mortgage taken out in 2007). Lots and lots of questions, including what I spend on haircuts, clothes, going out, car etc. They wanted to see bank statements plus pay slips plus childcare invoices and questioned me quite closely over specific items in my statement. A sharp contrast to 2007 when we self certified with no questions asked but obviously that way led to disaster, so no real complaint here.

House also valued very conservatively by lender so we have a 2k shortfall, but hey ho. At last we will actually be paying off the capital properly (last 7 years interest only).

billstickers how many months back did they look at on your statements? We could easily trim our expenditure a bit if it's going to help.

You will need 3 months bank statements Mystic

The Santander intermediary calculator is very good and is the same one they use to determine how much to lend.

I might be a bit biased though

Yes 3 months, plus 3 months payslips. We have a joint account plus individual accounts and they wanted to see it all.

Thanks vodkaknockers and billstickers that's helpful. It's just been that we've lived within our means plus saving a bit and taken on enough work to cover that (both are mostly self-employed) to spend time with DS while he's small but if our expenditure went up (due to mortgage going up) we could take on more work and so earn more fairly easily. Not sure we're v typical borrowers so think we'll have to work and spend as if we have a 6.4pc mortgage to pass the stress test now to prove that point.

missmystic, your biggest problem will be the fact you are both mostly self employed.

Unless you have 2 years worth of accounts very few lenders (if any) will lend on anything more than your guaranteed employed income so trimming your expenses on your bank statement might well be the least of your worries.

Self cert mortgages are a thing of the past and the new MMR regulations mean that lenders assess on affordability based on previous income not future projected income so telling them you can work more hours when you have a bigger mortgage just won't cut it anymore.

bearbehind thanks. Luckily we got good advice in January about that in time for me to take on extra work to increase my income for 2013/14. Otherwise we'd have been completely stuffed. We were told at the time that very few (including Santander) will take the last year's net profit rather than the last 2 or 3 years. Thank God they will, because I was on maternity leave in 2012. Hope to see the advisor this week and will report back.

missmystic, I hope I'm wrong but new rules introduced at the end of last months have massively moved the goal posts even since January and, as the rules are so new, it's highly likely lenders will be erring on the side of caution.

I do think you'll struggle to find anyone who will accept less than 2 years accounts now and having young children will also hinder your affordability, but good luck for your meeting with the advisors.

Santander will require at least 2 years audited accounts by an independant accountant showing 3 years profit with profit gradually increasing. They can also accept tax returns but would rather not to. If you are going through a broker they will explain this all to you.

In regards to Santander, they are more inclined to approve applications than decline

Thank you vodka. I have that - only started using an accountant 4 years ago - the only bugger is that my 1st 2 cover the period when I had my baby so my earnings were down. This last year is a "normal" year and I have no reason to doubt 14/15 will be normal - I have a client that has confirmed me for 4 years, another contract for 1 year.

What I mean is - I was afraid they would average out my net profit from the last 3 years when two of them are part-time ones. Anyway, it will be what it will be. The mortgage advisor was excellent last time we met so hopefully she'll be like that again and help us. Thank you!

I'm finding it really annoying tbh. Need to remortgage to a better deal as LTv gone down etc and tried to call on Saturday to do it (just had our valuation done 25th April, couldn't get it organised earlier ahead of rule changes) as I work full time. Took a week to come back etc.on sat I was on hold to various people for a total of 1.5 hours - then they told me a mortgage advisor would call me back in 48 working hours (ie next week), not to do the 2hour telephone interview but just to make an appointment to have one!!

I work full time so does my DP and we don't have time to do this easily on working days.

Our mortgage will revert to standard variable on 11th may, but because of the new rules that I have to be given advice, even though I know exactly what I want and mortgage will be cheaper while our salaries have gone up, not to mention the fact that I work in financial services and am far from clueless, this faffing will mean we won't get out new mortgage in place in time

Does anyone know if you are remortgaging with the same lender do you need to send in bank statements etc?

Hi MadameLeBean, if you are short of time, the quickest and easiest and least hassle solution is to continue with your existing bank but get them to reset the interest rate to a lower one, particularly since you have a lower LTV. My existing mortgagee is Woolwich/Barclays and although their rate is higher than with another bank on moneysupermarket, they did not charge as many fees and there was no repayment charge plus less paperwork. But I had to do the stupid thing like you of hanging on the phone just to make an appointment a week later to be interviewed by a mortgage advisor. But apparently Woolwich/Barclays is known to be slow and not particularly customer-friendly.

To save time, when you do get that appointment, make sure you have everything with you (e.g. expenses, pay slips or whatever they ask) to make the formal application on the spot because if you need to go away, you have to make yet another appointment!

In the end, I went with Halifax through L&C because Barclays pissed me off too much.

It took a week from my application to the formal offer from Halifax with L&C chasing and now it is with Halifax's lawyers.

Anyway, the new Mortgage Market Review procedures are a complete pain in the backside for seasoned and straightforward remortgage applicants, so I feel your pain.

Thanks blueshoes. We are staying with same lender (HSBC) because they have the best deal for us coincidentally and luckily, but because we want to change from discount variable to fixed and reduce the term of the loan (not just get a lower rate) we need to do the whole sodding application process. Trying to be patient....

We are currently purchasing a new house selling our first place. Have been with Nationwide for 5 years now and are currently fixed in to quite a low rate. We will be porting our current mortgage across and borrowing more on top of it. The DIP was pretty simple, the only extra questions they asked us was if we had enough life insurance cover, what buildings insurance costs will be and council tax costs.

After having our offer accepted we made an appointment with nationwide to go through the full application last Monday. They only asked for most recent payslip for me and evidence of rental income into our account (we have a buy to let property), however to be on the safe side we took everything, payslips, bank statements, evidence of savings, etc

Appointment was supposed to last 3 hours but took about an hour. Was really straightforward, and we were told we will hear more once valuation is done. Got a text message on Friday to say valuation has come back as satisfactory! Woohoo so now just waiting for the official 'offer', fingers crossed!

I applied for a mortgage in principle this morning, which I got. I am now waiting to hear if my offer was accepted.

My house (jointly owned) is sold and I'm hoping that my mortgage will go through despite it just being me on my own. I earn a good wage but haven't been assessed for CTC yet so that won't be taken into consideration and any maintenance payments that XP pays won't either.

Fx it all goes through okay. I'm going with Santander who I have a current joint mortgage with. What's stupid is that XP and I owe 102,000 on our current one and that's exactly how much I need to borrow.

If you think it's hard work for you, try being the adviser!

Honestly, I've never felt so much pressure in my life. The training was pretty poor, we had assessments which only had a 20% pass rate, and withdrawal from trading/disciplinary action if failed re sits.

Appointments last an average of 3 hours, customers don't want to sit through it and get agitated. We have to provide advice to customers even if they know exactly what they want, which causes objection. I still have "targets" to hit with respect to life cover/home insurance cross sales. I have to then write a suitability letter, which takes another 3 hours and is 4 pages of justifying my recommendation. These get checked by head office, fails below a certain benchmark mean loss of bonus/disciplinary action/withdrawal from trading. A fail could be as simple as missing out a word.

Customers chasing offers/kicking off at me because head office have requested additional proofs or asked further plausibility questions.

Mystery shops, compliance visits, observations and "customer outcome calls" all to check up we're doing everything right, and again disciplinary etc if I forget to give you a leaflet or say a certain phrase.

I'm 28 weeks pregnant and have been waking in the night with panic attacks about my job. Currently signed off with stress.

Be thankful you only have to go through the process once, your mortgage adviser has to do this every day.

eminybob
If you're anything like our mortgage advisor, it's appreciated. More than ever I don't how I'd manage this process without her advice and patience. We're not selling, just buying, so she feels like the only one who is on our side.

We've been handing various bits of paperwork to our mortgage advisor for the last 8 weeks, hoping that our reportage goes through soon. They want to know EVERYTHING.