Are we being unwise to continue with this house move?

[MrsCherryBlossom]

We are due to sign contracts on our dream home on Friday. It will be a financial stretch for us which will ease in a couple of years when children will have finished university.
Yesterday, my partner was made redundant with 3 months notice and a decent severance package. They work in a very high demand industry and have already been put forward for a couple of roles by recruitment agencies. They are confident that they will quickly get another role, although acknowledge that it may be slightly lower salary initially than the current role due to having to settle because of the timeframe.
We have enough savings to pay the mortgage off for the next three years even without partners salary (money we were going to use for cosmetic improvements) and obviously it’s not our ideal scenario to drain this.
Should we pull out of this move - we have already spent thousands on solicitors, surveys, movers etc and we got a great price for our current house - or is this too risky? I was having major house move anxiety before this and now I am beyond stressed.

Hmm, lots of factors to consider here

• when you say the dream house is a stretch, how much of a stretch? if your DH didn't get a job for 5 years, would you manage?
• do you work? and have scope to increase your earnings if DH's job search doesn't work out
• is the dream house totally unique or would there be other 'dream houses' if you wait 6 months?
• how old are you both and how big is the mortgage? how long to retirement? with university age kids, i'm guessing you aren't in your 30s. so is this a small / shorter term mortgage?

Are you not supposed to tell your bank if circumstances change?

With three years possible contingency, I'd do it and proceed. What if a future salary was lower and you could still afford it but didn't quality for a mortgage. If it's the dream house I would risk it.

Where are you living at the moment?

It sounds like you have plenty of savings to cover any gaps, if it really is a dream house, I’d go ahead.

3 years of mortgage payments? Go ahead with it!! You will regret it otherwise.

How would you feel if you pulled out the purchase, then a few weeks later your partner landed a job paying about the same as they're on now?

You could regret that for a very long time.

How would you feel if you didnt pull out of the purchase, then a few months later your partner still hadnt landed a job paying about the same as they're on now?

You could regret that for a very long time

Do you have to declare changes in circumstances? That's the initial question.

The norm is you have to tell your lender if your circs change - check the paperwork and don't proceed without telling them if supposed to. It's possible they'll retract the offer.

If on paper you could still manage comfortably even if he didn’t get a job for the whole three years (does seem unlikely), I’d go ahead.

You don't say if your partner is a man or a woman. Age discrimination is worse for women so it might not be as simple to walk into another job. But maybe if the 'they' is a man it'll be fine.

I'd go for it. Hope your partner gets a good new job ASAP, but you have a good buffer if she/he doesn't.

Definitely just go for it. Anything can happen in three years. You can get to two years and if still panicky then sell it and hopefully make some money on the house.

This happened to me 5 years ago. The exact scenario. We had already exchanged contracts though so we had to keep quiet and pray the mortgage company didn't find out! It all worked out in the end. I got a new job in 6 weeks and it has been fine since. We didn't have your level of savings either so it really was a very worrying time. I say go for it.

I would explain your circumstances personally and ask them to wait a couple of weeks for your husband to get a new job.