Will maternity leave and fixed term contract affect mortgage offer?

[trrk]

Due to a delay in the chain we now have to reapply for our mortgage. When we first applied I had normal payslips but I will be down to the last 3 months of maternity leave and on no pay. How will this affect our mortgage offer? I can get a letter saying I will go back to work but it will probably state my contract us only until Oct this year. It will most likely be extended but I’m not sure when.

I would think it is likely to affect the offer. Is it with the same bank? Presumably they knew you were pregnant when you applied.
Are you using a broker? Ours was brilliant with this kind of thing.

What will your childcare situation be? They are very hot on asking about that.

My employer wrote to say that I'd be retunring to work on x date at X salary on a permanent contract, not sure how fixed term would go? And as another poster says they will want to know what you'll be paying for childcare.

Thanks for the responses! I was already on maternity leave when we applied the first time (but still on full pay) so our baby has been declared as a dependent. I don't remember being asked about childcare costs but baby will be in nursery when I go back to work. They only really asked for payslips and evidence we had the deposit I think. We did go through a broker who knows all the details of our personal circumstances. I guess it will be through the same provider unless the broker advises otherwise.

I've done a mortgage application in the last 3 months of mat leave - the no payslips wasn't a problem, the asked for 1 payslip pre mat leave and my most recent one from being on mat leave.
I was going back to a permanent job though - I think you need pt ask your hr for a return to work letter and see what the wording is when you get it. If your OH has a decent permanent job then I doubt you'd get turned down, just might decrease the top amount you can borrow.

It's the fixed term that will be the main issue

Thanks again all! I just have to hope my contract has been extended by the time we need to apply then. I have worked for the same employer for 12 years but always on a fixed term contract due to the nature of the position (funded by research grants). OH has a permanent job and is the higher earner.

My experience with Nationwide was that my maternity + baby made them withdraw my offer of a mortgage with my DH completely.

Nationwide said, even though I had a permanent job with 3 months notice and enhanced maternity pay for 6 months.

Even though we had demonstrated the mortgage was affordable on DH income even if I wasn’t working.

And even though the childcare I had signed up to had a 1 month notice period whereas my job was 3 months notice (so I said, if I lost my job and couldn’t get another then I would have time to exit the nursery contract so I wouldn’t be tied into fees at nursery with no income).

so yes - lost our mortgage offer because I had a baby I could easily afford. They wanked around asking more an more obtuse questions for ages until we realised their affordability model is a piece of poo. (DH and are both work in finance and really don’t struggle to manage a simple cash flow model, unlike Nationwide apparently).

i wouldn’t go near NATIONWIDE again with a barge pole ever again as we nearly lost our house because of it.

DH applied to HSBC for a mortgage in his name only, and we put the house in his name. Got the offer online and couldn’t have been simpler - only took a week to have it all nailed down.

Ah yes. Ask your colleagues who they are with if they got a mortgage?

Halifax are very good about academics on repeated fixed term contracts, in case that's of any interest to you.