Buying a house when pregnant - mortgage implications

[gardenlady1]

Hi there

My partner and I are looking to buy a house with 5% deposit between Jan and June next year. However, I'm currently 9 weeks pregnant (would be due early Jan).

I've been reading up and bit worried about implications for our mortgage - both for getting approved and repayments being high. I'm lucky that my work pays full pay first 6 months of mat leave, so hoping this may help. We earn over £100k combined, have rented together for 4 years, paid on time.

Any experience of this greatly appreciated

We remortgaged while I was pregnant, I'm sure I sent on my company's maternity policy and they weren't bothered. This will be really common and I'm sure loads of people don't tell them at all!

Honestly if I were you I would try to exchange and complete before the baby is born if at all possible. They aren’t supposed to ask you if you are pregnant but they do ask things like “are you expecting any changes to your circumstances”. They do take maternity leave and nos of dependents into account when assessing affordability.

I took the view that until the baby is actually born you don’t have a dependent and (god forbid) anything could happen before the birth.

They took my word that I would go back full time and had a letter from my employer stating my expected wages on return and all went through fine. :)

Thanks all. We can't move any earlier as we are still saving (it's v expensive where we live) so it will be after baby has arrived.

We are going to speak to mortgage broker end of this week to see what they recommend - my thinking as you say is that they must be used to this kind of thing. Xx

We remortgaged when I was pregnant, I didn’t even need to prove that I was getting enhanced maternity pay. I’d imagine if you’re on maternity leave when you’re applying they’ll just want something from your employer to say what hours/salary you’ll be on when you go back, I work in HR and remember writing those letters fairly often when I did an admin. Might have changed as that was over 10 years ago.

Mortgage company won't take unborn child into account, only if baby is born when you sign the paperwork it may affect it. Might be worth not telling them, when you complete the paperwork for application you won't have children (unborn doesn't count in their eyes). Al sorts can affect mortgages nowadays.

Hi!

We are due roughly the same time and are also buying again at the same time haha.

I was in this predicament 5 years ago when I had my son and I just didnt tell them! Wore big coats when meeting etc and just kept it fully silent. My payslips showed what they needed to and that was that!

@gardenlady1 I'm in the process of buying a house at 6 months pregnant here. We've applied for the mortgage and selected 0 dependents, not told them.

I do feel a bit awkward or like the wrong thing to do, however, until your baby is born technically you don't have a baby and we've done our own affordability calculations whilst I'm off so don't want to jeopardise things.

If they directly outright ask us in writing for any reason I would probably have to look at this again as I dont know what the legal implications are of outright lying. However not telling them is different.

I'm not sure I'd ask a mortgage broker about this if you're thinking of keeping it quiet as they probably would have a duty not to lie to the mortgage lender about a change in circumstances. Just say currently no dependents etc.

We remortgaged when I was 8 months' pregnant. It was all online or by phone. They didn't ask if I was pregnant; I didn't give them any information. I planned to - and did - return to work when DD was 7 months old and that was that.

I agree with this. When pregnant with my first I asked the question and they said unborn children don't count so don't mention it.

Interesting thank you - my worry is that baby may be here by time we are signing a mortgage and I'll be on MAT leave, it depends on whether any houses come up over autumn really. Thanks so much for all advice any more always welcome

If the baby is here, not only will they potentially take your maternity leave into account, but your affordability will
also be impacted by the fact you have a dependent.

Of course if there’s nothing you can do then it is what it is, but it’s likely to be easier for you to secure the mortgage before the baby arrives.

You will have no issues! I've just done this - started house hunting when I was early pregnant, got an offer accepted when I was 16 weeks. The mortgage advisor will go through it with you, but basically for affordability checks for your mortgage you need to put in your current wage, what it will go down to when you go on mat leave, the date you will return from mat leave, and they also want to know detailed childcare costs (baby isn't even born yet and we've already got them in nursery!). It didn't cause any issues for us and we were upfront about everything, we even over estimated the childcare costs. Your mortgage in principle will be valid for 3 months, so I'd get that sorted to see what you can be offered, and then get the ball rolling.. it will be much easier now than when baby's here.

It’s not that they don’t lend to people on maternity leave and people with kids, it’s that they lend them less than if they didn’t have any dependents.

Which is fine obviously if you could get what you needed even with the reduction. Depends on how close you are to the wire (and obviously you do need a financial buffer when you have kids!).

I don't know much about how much being pregnant would have affected our offer, to be honest. But before we even began looking for a house we knew what our budget was and the mortgage company offered us the perfect amount. We were renting and it was due to increase, so we used our rent as a guide for how much we could afford each month. We did end up going for a fixed deal for peace of mind.
We had saved for years to get a decent deposit which helped, think it was 10% in the end. I was told throughout the whole process that even though they hadn't put my baby down as a dependant yet they still needed to note it down for affordability reasons, because it would be a change in circumstances. We completed literally 3 weeks ago and I'm now on mat leave as the first payment is due so it makes sense I suppose.

So much incorrect info on this thread! Every lender is different, just give whoever you're interested a call to customer service and ask their policy. You don't need to give them any of your personal details for a general chat.

I'm a mortgage advisor for a high street lender and our policy is we would include the unborn baby as a dependent, we'll ask about estimated childcare costs, and if you're returning to work post mat leave will ask for a return to work letter from your employer confirming your return date and salary. We will use your normal income for affordability assessments.
It's nothing to be worried about or need to hide!

Most lenders also have affordability calculators on their website so you can run your details through there to see what difference a dependent adds to your borrowing power (generally, not a huge difference for 1 child)

@peachybee how do you know about unborn children? I thought it was discrimination (under the Equality Act 2010) to ask about this?

As you say yourself, estimated childcare costs (which are typically high) impact affordability. In 99% of cases the max amount you can lend a pregnant woman is less than a woman with no dependents, which is the point I was flagging to the OP. Please correct me if that is wrong though.

Just remortgaged while on statutory maternity pay (so no hope of contributing to the mortgage until I go back to work) and had no problem at all. They just wanted to see payslips from before I went on leave and confirmation of when I’ll be back at work. Actually being able to pay the mortgage while I’m on leave is a different matter - it’s been a struggle!

Exactly this.

And I hate to be the one to say it, but sadly, just because a woman is pregnant, doesn’t mean there is going to be a baby.

The thing that almost scuppered us was stating that baby would be going to nursery when I went back to work. We ended up having to re-jig and sort childcare with relatives two days a week. That said, they never performed any actual checks on our nursery fees etc - took our word for it. But it's definitely something to be aware of. It's also something to consider seriously when purchasing as full time nursery care is genuinely equivalent to a second mortgage (might be slightly better now the free hours kick in earlier - not sure).

RE my Mat Leave/work etc, they were just happy with a letter from my HR with my return to work date and anticipated salary etc.

Good luck!

@harrietm87 We would never ask if someone is pregnant, but if a pregnancy is disclosed we would include it in calculations.

The reason we do that is because although the child isn't here now, they would be dependent during the term of the mortgage (in most cases).

But yeah we can't ask so it doesn't have to be mentioned. There is a question of are you aware to any change in circumstances that would affect your finances so it normally crops up there.

You're not incorrect about max lending being lower for a person with dependents than a person with none (if they otherwise had the exact same income/outgoing) but that's not discrimination that's just a fact- they don't have to financially support another person so their income goes further.

We moved when DD was 5 months old. All the mortgage company asked for was payslips to show my income pre maternity and a copy of my maternity leave form which has a statement of intention to return which had my hours noted on it. No issues 💖

Don't tell them. They will ask if you have any children but technically you don't.

Yes exactly.

So just to repeat what I said earlier in the thread and what you have now confirmed:

• if the OP completes before the baby is born she can borrow more than if she completes afterwards
• she is under no obligation to tell a prospective lender that she is pregnant and they are not legally permitted to ask
• the “are you aware of any change in circumstances” is often used by lenders to get around the fact they can’t ask about pregnancy directly. To be clear, there is no obligation to divulge pregnancy in response to this question either.
• if the OP volunteers the information it will be taken into account and the max amount that she can borrow will be lower than if she did not disclose it.

It’s obviously true that babies are expensive and the OP should absolutely factor that into her financial decisions, but it’s worth being aware of the facts around this.