Underwriter. What will go in my favour with the mortgage?

[Tinkerbellanne]

Hello and thanks for taking the time to try to help me find an answer to my question. My partner walked out on me a day before my birthday on the 15th June. We had been together for 7 years, have a mortgage and 2 children. I've gone through the CSA and the first payment date is 17th July. He says when he finds out the payment date he will no longer help with the mortgage and I will be on my own. Hes cancelled all the direct debits on me and I'm now looking after 2 children and running the house as well as working. I will get a week £77 csa from him. I've spoken to my mortgage adviser and they are not able to accept me financial on my own for the mortgage. The next step is for her to build a case and write to the underwriter to explain I have been left with no choice but to take on the responsibility as my partner has walked out on me. I have no problem taking on the mortgage as I put down 16,000 and my ex doesnt want any part of the mortgage. He is happy to hand it over. He is willing to hand it over. I work 16 hours and take home a wage of £600. Child benefit is £140. Universal credit £900 and CSA £310. I've worked out my finances as you can see and can afford the mortgage. Is there any body who can give me any advice of how I will be more prone to be accepted to have the mortgage on my own when it goes to the underwriters? I need some guidance so I am accepted and I can wipe the slate clean. Thankyou. X

I'm confused - Won't 30 hours free childcare for 3-4 year olds cover morning and afternoon nursery - that would free you up to work full time? Being a teacher you don't work school holidays and the 30 hours is term time too? Or would working full time reduce your universal credit amount???

I'm also struggling to see how the bank would agree to this - they were bloody intrusive in their questioning when I remortgaged and I'm married and together we have a good income.

As an aside I'm staggered that UC is £900 a month - I was at risk of redundancy recently and when I went online to see what help we could get as I'm the main earner we wouldn't get any UC even though DH earns £20k which wouldn't be enough to cover mortgage etc

My heart goes out to you OP. What a horrible situation to be in. See if you can add a family member (parent, sibling) to your mortgage but write in that it's just yours. See if you can find a job share with another teacher.

You are not going to get a mortgage approved while your main income is benefits and child maintenance that isn't guaranteed.
I would keep things as they are with the mortgage for now and concentrate on going back to work full time. There is no reason why you can't do this as a teacher right now.

You need to go back to work. I don't understand why you will be getting so much uc. Your 3 year old will qualify for 30 hours and your 5 year old is in school and you are able to do a term time job. Find a childminder and get back to work.

I've decided to sell the property and start a fresh. I will talk to my ex partner about putting the property on the market asap

The problem is that the lender - and the individual underwriter - has to justify lending the money based on their criteria because, if you can't make the payments and they have to repossess, they may lose the court case if they were deemed to be lending irresponsibly. Knowing why they can't lend doesn't really help I know but that's the reason.

There are really strict affordability criteria that they have to meet these days, so while they seem unfair, that's the constraints that they have to work with.

They also have to stress test you to a much higher interest rate, and they will probably assume that income like benefits and child maintenance will stop or be reduced before the end of the mortgage term, but not necessarily be replaced by income.

You should not sell the property. Just stay there and pay it. Then in a years time when you are back at work properly, get your ex taken off the mortgage.

To sell it is a stupid decision. You may never qualify for another. This way you have a chance to qualify on your own. In the meantime, I would get papers drawn up at the solicitor that although he is still on the mortgage, what your initial contribution and ongoing contribution have been. That you have solely paid the mortgage from xx xx xx date and that the ex relinquishes his rights to any asset in the property.

Gwt him to sign if he has said he wants nothing to do with the property.

It won't take that long being a teacher till you are back at work and earning more and then carry on paying the mortgage, get his name taken off the mortgage.

Also write a will stating, the house is for your children, put down executor and guardian for your children to ensure that your wishes are carried out.

Also op do not sell of you think affordability is hard now, wait till after the joint brezut/covid recession. Banks have already tightened up lending alot and will continue to do so. Even those with good income may be jumping through more and more affordability hoops.

We had this problem with my husbands ex.
We got a doc drawn up with a solicitor which stated that the ex would remain on the mortgage and deeds but had no financial obligation on the property both to pay the mortgage or any profit/loss.
This ended up my husband having a power of attorney for his ex only on the property.
We sold a couple of years ago and had no problems.

I disagree with those saying the ex should sign away any interest in the property. If he’s still on the mortgage then he is still exposed to a huge amount of risk if the OP defaults. If he wants to buy a property of his own he will have to pay 5% stamp duty due to being on the mortgage/deeds of this place.

As for the argument that he isn’t paying mortgage payments, there has been a previous legal case where the judge decided that while the person staying in the house was paying 100% of the mortgage, they had sole use/enjoyment of the house instead of having to share it with the ex. So 50% of her mortgage payments were considered to be payment in lieu of rent to the ex who had moved out. Meaning that he was still entitled to half of any future profit (and indeed was responsible for half of any loss).

@qnc01 - Great point.

Very few solicitors would advise someone to waive their interest in a property whilst simultaneously being exposed to the financial liability.

Have to say I would be tempted to sell if you have a lot of equity in the property, then just downsize. When I split with my DH years ago, with two school age children, that’s what I did. It meant moving from a large three bedroomed semi to a smaller two bed terraced with attic room, but it was mine and once you’re a few years down the road and can go back to work full time, then you can buy something bigger if you wanted.

Some mortgage lenders will allow you to take they mortgage over on your own if you can prove you have been making the mortgage payments alone for at least 3 months. It's worth talking to your mortgage company and asking them whether they have a department that can help out in circumstances like this.
It's not a terrible idea to sell the property either though - it will give you the opportunity for a clean break

@chattycathy83 - no mortgage company will do this, the affordability is based on forward projections with an inflated interest rate used to stress test the application.

Halifax are the most generous in accepting benefits, but even they would not get anywhere near a 6 figure mortgage with the numbers presented.

Just to update everyone I have mentioned to my ex I'd like to sell for a clean break and he says only if he has 50% of the property. He has failed to pay me the correct amount of CSA on the first payment so now I've escalated it to collect and pay rather than direct debit. Every single bill and the mortgage is now in my name as he has made me take over for them all. I've had threats saying he will not be paying for the mortgage and emotionally abusive messages. I've been advised by solicitors and legal aid that if I were to take this to court I would get around 70% of the value of the house because I have main care of the children and with everything else he has done to me. He has already walked away from the property and was willing to hand it over, but when I said hand it over and i'll sell it and I'll pay for all estate agent and solicitors fees he now wants half. But it was okay for me to take it over if I could afford it to by the banks? Hes acting all concerning asking where will me and the kids go, asking if he can come round, asking to come back and see the dog because he misses him, asking to come and pick things up, to get the kids iPads, asking if i want picking up out the rain on the school run, asking what time I finish work because he wants to talk to me... the list goes on, any excuse to talk to me. All I want is a clean break and little home to bring my children up in. Only time will tell what happens.

@fromdownwest really? That's interesting because that's exactly what I've just helped a client to do whose ex was hounding her to take over the mortgage. She went through a specialist department with Nationwide who assessed her income and expenditure over the last 3 months and approved the transfer.

Also, Halifax? They will only take 60% of benefit income and they cap the amount of benefit they use to the amount of earned income from self employment or employment. Many other lenders would take 100% of the benefit income. I wouldn't normally recommend a lender without doing a full assessment of income,circumstances and expenditure - but there are far better lenders for affordability than Halifax with the limited information we have on OPs financial situation.

@Lazypuppy

My brother in law had his bank watching him for 6 months to show he could pay the mortgage but they have now agreed to lend more so the mortgage is solely in his name so it does happen.

If you can prove you can afford it

Which bank did you BIL use? X

Yes what bank was that with please?

@chattycathy83 - Assessing income and expenditure over the last 3 months and approving a mortgage well out of the range of the OP are two different scenarios.

The underwriters will occasionally consider looking at income v expenditure over 6 months if you are borderline for affordability, and particularly if you can make a case for your financial stability improving in the future i.e. upcoming promotion. The OP isn’t borderline, she’s nowhere near the affordability criteria, entirely reliant on benefits, and doesn’t appear to have any plan to return to work. It’s disingenuous to get her hopes up.

Selling up really is the best option. It isn’t a matter of simply your ex keeping his name on the mortgage and waiving any right to increase in equity (which he would be advised against doing by a solicitor anyway) apart from anything else, your partner won’t want to be tied to this mortgage long term and he can go to court to force a sale at any point. Do you really want that hanging over your head, considering it’s an acrimonious break-up? If a solicitor is confident you’d get the greater share of equity despite not being married then take that and run with it.

@ComtesseDeSpair - Totally agree.