Getting a mortgage on a fixed term employment contract

[icelolly12]

Hi,

How challenging is it to get a mortgage if you're employed on a 12 month fixed term contract? Has anybody got personal experience of getting a mortgage while on a fixed term contract or advice to share please?

Thank you

If you are in an industry where such contracts are common and there is plenty of work, then a mortgage broker would be able to find you a mortgage. You will have to look for a specialist one who knows about your industry.

However you need to start the process when you have at least 6 months left on the contract and finish the process before the contract is ended.

The other way of doing it is finding out who other people in your industry have mortgages with. You will have to network in real life and online to get this information. Then you can approach these lenders directly.

Yes I've done this working in IT with my initial mortgage and re-mortgages. My broker retired after I got my initial mortgage, and while I approached another specialist for a remortgage in the end I found my own lender.

Ah okay thank you, so it's certainly a lot more complex, and most standard mortgage providers, e.g. halifax for example won't tend to lend on fixed terms?

OP I sent you a PM.

Some normal lenders will lend to you but you can't just walk into them and ask for a mortgage as you don't fulfill standard criteria.

You need to either investigate the area yourself or pay a mortgage broker.

I could sort out my own remortgages because I know other people who work on fixed term contracts, short contracts, are self-employed l, etc. so I found out the lenders they used. Some of these people were mortgaging with spouses who fulfilled standard criteria so it made it more complex.

I’ve only ever been on fixed term contracts and Dh is also self employed. We had no trouble getting a mortgage approved (first with Santander and then we switched to HSBC).

I highly recommend a good mortgage broker though. Ours was amazing. They will know where to go.

Hi OP. I user L&C brokers to book my last mortgage as my situation was not 100% straightforward. Didn't cost me any more then going direct, would recommend.

I got a mortgage directly from Santander with a six month fixed contract on their standard terms.

I provided a lot of contextual information that they officially couldn’t accept but made it clear I was not going to be unemployed, ultimately they offered 5x combined salaries but it all had to be processed by a human not the computer.

We had a big deposit, extensive financial records, and ultimately ended up wanting to borrow half what they offered to lend. They did also throw out their surveyors report and demands for a retention when I took issue with it also.

I was very impressed all in all with how flexible they were.

We’ve got an offset mortgage with Barclays as DH is a contractor.

Ah great this is all giving me hope and confidence to approach with my situation thank you

I had this - if my experience is anything to go by they are most interested in how likely the contract is to be extended.

I spoke to the HR person at my work and she said that she came across this all the time - she said they have a standard response along the lines of yes she is on a fixed term contract but we expect this to be renewed on an ongoing basis. She said HR would use this even if they knew the project was coming to an end as it was generally true - they usually redeploy internally before advertising for new staff.

And we were advised by a mortgage broker friend to apply for a mortgage with the bank where we had our accounts as they had a better idea of our finances etc, having been with them 10+ years. Not sure how crucial this is but anything to help.

So speak to your HR dept and ask about what response they will likely give before you apply to the mortgage company!