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Original poster

Pregnant - mortgage application

22 replies

Al991 · 25/04/2023 11:02

Wondering if anyone could help as I’m in quite a specific situation. We’ve had a house offer accepted and looking at applying for a mortgage.

I’ve seen lots of people on here say you don’t need to mention pregnancy to them, however the house won’t be ready to move into for 6 months, so we will have a 1m old when we complete on the house (potentially). For this reason we won’t exactly be able to just omit the info!

Our childcare costs are going to be low - I work evenings and weekends and my partner works a normal day. We also have about 10k in savings left to cover Mat leave, which is easily provable. With this in mind, we will be able to afford the mortgage. However Im worried that since the mortgage will be assessed on hypothetical childcare costs rather than actual costs they won’t believe us that they will be so low.

Has anyone been through similar and how did it impact the amount the lender was willing to let you borrow? I’m worried we will lose the house because of the pregnancy, which isn’t right as we can afford the repayments!

OP posts:

HermioneKipper · 25/04/2023 11:05

I didn’t tell our lender when I was 6 months pregnant. How will they know or care when you have a one month old?

BobbidyBibbidyBob · 25/04/2023 11:06

Seconded.. how on earth would they know?

thebestsellingshow · 25/04/2023 11:16

I was on mat leave so had to mention it because the reduced salary was on my payslips. I had to provide a letter from my employer saying I intended to return to work (which I had to beg for because they said they didn't know I would return for sure until I did!), they didn't ask about childcare though but if they had I would've just said family!

CellophaneFlower · 25/04/2023 11:29

I didn't mention I was pregnant when we applied for our first mortgage. I wasn't showing at the time but definitely was when I had to go in to sign something. They didn't mention anything!

We moved shortly after again so had to apply for another and I wasn't returning to work. We were a bit short so our mortgage advisor suggested I get my old boss to lie and say I was returning. He refused... but luckily we managed to scrape the difference together!

dreamersdown · 25/04/2023 11:35

They don’t care - they base the mortgage on your salary and sometimes will ask for a letter from your employer asking them to confirm the salary you’re returning on. They will look at childcare costs as part of your affordability checks but only the childcare you’re actually paying out for already.

@CellophaneFlower thats extremely dodgy advice from your broker!

CellophaneFlower · 25/04/2023 11:47

dreamersdown · 25/04/2023 11:35

@CellophaneFlower thats extremely dodgy advice from your broker!

I know! She was an in house broker at the estate agents. I didn't actually want to use her but we were naive and I thought it gave us a higher chance of securing our house. She left midway through the process and I didn't get billed the final half of her fee, due on completion. I always wondered if she got sacked!

Lkgcsr · 25/04/2023 11:52

I wasn’t pregnant when we got our mortgage but was by the time we exchanged and completed. It didn’t really occur to me to mention it and seeing as nothing was face to face until the day we got the keys it never came up.

cinnamonbiscuit · 25/04/2023 13:03

I’m in a very similar situation to you currently- baby is due in august and we are hoping to move into our first purchased home in June. We did tell them we were pregnant because at the time we weren’t sure how long the whole process would take and if our payslips would need to be checked again later on when I might be on maternity leave.

The only thing the lender asked for was a statement from me about my maternity leave- length, savings and childcare for when I go back to work. I’m probably actually worse off than you in some ways as I only have a few thousand in savings to cover that time. However I work part time so SMP isn’t much less than my actual employed income so I suppose that helped, because it means our joint income won’t change much during that time. I said family would be providing childcare which is true- not that they could come back and check in a year’s time!

I honestly don’t think you would have any issue if you do tell them you’re pregnant. I don’t think they will base anything on hypothetical costs. I’m sure they probably wouldn’t find out if you did choose not to disclose, but for me personally I would worry about the process getting delayed somehow and then them finding out later.

Dibblydoodahdah · 25/04/2023 13:03

I was declined a mortgage once because I didn’t declare that I was pregnant. A pregnancy grant went into my bank account and the lender (who I had my current account with) picked it up and said that I should have told them. We went to a different lender and got the mortgage no problem. 12 years later I am still angry about the call with my bank. The person on the phone was so patronising, saying that I may decide not to go back to work “like his wife”. I pointed out that it had taken me years to qualify in my chosen profession and wouldn’t be giving it up. 12 years later I am still working, now on double what I earned back then. I bet he’s still working in a call centre!

Lcb123 · 25/04/2023 13:04

We've just applied for a mortgage (and been approved) via a broker. At no stage were we asked about any change to financial circumstance. If you are explicitly asked, I do think you need to be honest, but likely you won't be asked.

DappledOliveGroves · 25/04/2023 13:21

We got our new mortgage when I was pregnant. I didn't disclose anything. The new mortgage kicked in when DD was a month old. Again, we never mentioned anything to the lender.

ParentsTrapped · 25/04/2023 13:27

They aren’t supposed to ask but some do. I recently called our lender (NatWest) about remortgaging and they asked if we were planning another baby!

You don’t have to disclose it (sadly even if you are pregnant that is no guarantee there will be a baby) and they absolutely will take it into account when deciding how much to lend and at what rates. If I were you I would not mention it.

Movinghousehelp · 25/04/2023 13:34

We are applying for a new mortgage and they asked if we still only had one dependent and we said yes but another on the way, they updated the system to say two dependents and that was it. No further questions, no concerns from the advisor. Our mortgage in principle is about twice what we need to borrow though so it was never going to impact our application in a significant way.

I don’t know if we would have said anything if we hadn’t been asked, but there is no way I could intentionally deceive for fear of being accused of mortgage fraud. I’m a bit of a wuss like that.

lifehappens12 · 25/04/2023 13:53

I was on mat leave when I applied for a mortgage and it would have been obviously as they asked for payslips.

I wrote a letter to confirm I was intending to return and my HR at work provided a letter confiming my salary.

All was fine

PinkPlantCase · 25/04/2023 13:58

You only need to tell them if your on maternity leave and so your salary is reduced.

MariaDingbat · 25/04/2023 13:59

We bought a house when I was 5 months pregnant and we weren't asked about the pregnancy and we didn't offer the information. The sale took a year to complete, by which time we had a 7 month old, and we weren't asked and we didn't mention her. The sale eventually went through fine.

Original poster

Al991 · 25/04/2023 14:44

I appreciate this comments! Am torn about whether to tell them now. I wonder if I am too much of a wuss not to…. DP says we’d be mad to if not asked as others have said here! I think if we would be completing before the birth I would be less concerned but if we gain a dependent during the time in between being offered and completing I worry we’d have to start again 🤔

OP posts:

ParentsTrapped · 25/04/2023 15:43

Until the baby is born in the eyes of the law it doesn’t exist. You wouldn’t be lying if you said you had no dependents at the point of application. They will not ask you again once your mortgage offer has been approved. It would not be fraud as you would have answered truthfully at the time the question was asked.

It becomes murkier if they ask you on application if you are planning any dependents. They are not supposed to ask you this but imo they often do. If I was in that position I would respond by asking them to put the question in writing to you.

PinkPlantCase · 25/04/2023 17:47

We applied for a mortgage in February and moved in April. I was pregnant when we moved and we were TTC when applying.

At no point in any of the applications were we asked if we were planning anymore dependents

After the initial application we didn’t have any further contact with the mortgage company, apart from hearing that we had the offer and when they told us by text when they’d take our first mortgage payment.

Anyway your outgoings aren’t really any different with a one month old than they are now. If anything they’ll be less because you can’t go out and do fun stuff.

It works both ways, we were assessed with our huge childcare costs regardless of the fact that soon we’ll get 30 free hours and that we won’t have any children in childcare for the majority of the mortgage term. The application is just a snapshot.

PurBal · 25/04/2023 17:56

Complete the application honestly. Do you have dependents? No. I’ve applied for 2 mortgages whilst pregnant, they don’t ask.

ItsNotWhatItsNot · 25/04/2023 18:00

@Dibblydoodahdah why do you look down on call centre workers jobs?

LividHouse · 25/04/2023 18:05

I got a mortgage on mat leave.

Told them I was going back full time and my mum would do childcare.

Went back three days and my mum is an alcoholic. Sue me.

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