What would make you worry about applying for a mortgage or remortgage – let’s talk about it with L&C Mortgages

[YanaMumsnet]

There are lots of situations that people think would make securing a mortgage or remortgage tricky, such as while pregnant or on maternity leave, going part-time or freelance, or maybe while on probation in a new job. With this in mind, L&C Mortgages would like to find out more about the concerns and risks you are faced with or might even put you off from applying for a mortgage or remortgage.

Here’s what L&C has to say: “At L&C we make mortgages easy. There are lots of myths about how difficult it is to apply for one in certain situations but we can demystify them for you. If you’re looking for a mortgage deal while on maternity leave, are pregnant, going part-time or on a contract we’re here to help you. We search across 90 lenders to find the best deal for you and our qualified advisers use their experience and knowledge of which lenders are likely to be understanding about your situation. Our service is fee free and we’ll be there from start to finish taking care of the paperwork. Our aim is to make life easier for you so we’d really like to know what situations would concern parents or parents-to-be when applying for a mortgage or remortgage.”

So we are asking you, when do you think is the right time for you and your family to get a mortgage or to remortgage your home? Which personal circumstances do you think can be a problem to secure a mortgage? Were you able to secure a mortgage or remortgage in a tricky situation? What was your tricky situation? What advice would you give others in your situation?

Whatever your experiences and concerns are of your family’s mortgage situation, share them on the thread below and you’ll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw.
MNHQ
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[Fleabagging]

My age (fast approaching 50) makes me wonder if remortgaging will become trickier. Outgoings, with two teenagers at university, have also shot up recently, at the same time that my salary has dropped this year due to a loss of hours in a recent restructuring.

[Elllicam]

I worry about being part time and remortgaging.

[Elliebobtail]

We have only just got a mortgage. My biggest issue I had was that I was on maternity leave from a zero hours contract, and I wanted to be named on the mortgage too.

When we renew my aim is to have a fixed hours contract. Luckily I have a few years!

[Sunday38]

My current mortgage is affordable and fixed for another 5 years but we'll need to sell soon and I'm worried about paying the early exit fees as it will eat into the amount of deposit I'll have for the next house. Plus my STBEX researched and arranged the mortgage so I'll be doing it alone this time. Although I have a good income and savings I've had 2 lots of mat leave in the last 4 years so I don't know if this will affect the mortgage application as we got our first mortgage just before the affordability checks came in.

[claza93]

I am currently going through a remortgage - it started off smoothly and now I am finding that I am having to do all the chasing! It is stressing me as I need it completing by a certain date. Have this time gone for a 5 year fix so I can avoid the stress for a while

[HotChocolateLover]

Worry that DH won’t pass his probation at work (had it extended recently) and we will
only have my income for everything. It will not cover everything 🤦‍♀️

[burwellmum]

We are looking at helping our daughter and son in law get on the mortgage ladder. We are fortunate that we do not need to remortgage to help but the affordability calculations seem completely unrealistic in the market.

[Mummymummums]

I'm recently self employed and I'm assuming it'll be almost 3 years until I can get a mortgage as I won't have 2 years of accounts until then. I don't need a new mortgage at this time luckily.
My husband and I tried to move to a bigger house some years back prior to starting a family but after one property fell through we ended up completing on the purchase when I was over 6 months pregnant. I know it was wrong but I didn't declare it to the lender and kept it hidden from solicitor, mortgage broker etc. We knew we could pay it so
avoided the issue arising.
I love having fixed mortgage rates for certainty.

[TweetleBeetlesBattle]

I worry about getting a mortgage now I'm self employed and my salary varies so much month to month. Whilst I'm good with budgeting to let the good months carry the bad ones, I would struggle to have someone accept that as proof of affordability.

[Whyisitsodifficult]

We’ve recently remortgaged to fund some building work. My husband is self employed and we really struggled to get a mortgage. We had a tiny mortgage before and had 85% equity in the house and could easily afford to pay the extra mortgage. They looked at his books but because we only had 3 years of figures to show and the first year wasn’t overly profitable they would only loan us roughly half of what we wanted! We eventually found a mortgage advisor who found us a mortgage on what we could actually afford but it took us awhile!

[BestestBrownies]

Despite having the identical salary (same job, same employer, same length of time), as my partner and an almost perfect credit score, I was refused outright for a mortgage and he was instantly approved.

The reason? He has had a mortgage previously and I am a first-time buyer. Yet he is 10 years older (50+), and has two dependants; whereas I have none. Who determines these criteria? Why is it impossible to apply some common sense and logic to an individual's risk assessment?

'We' have managed to buy a property, but under his name only as I wasn't even allowed on the mortgage jointly (we have drawn up a contract between us stating I legally own a 50% share). The unfairness of all this makes me utterly furious.

[FoldyRoll]

We have a mortgage but I worry that we couldn't get a remortgage as cancer has forced me to retire (very) early. Can you get a mortgage if you're not likely to outlive the loan?

[FoldyRoll]

Sorry, same applies because our current house is too big for me to manage now. We'd like to move somewhere smaller but think my condition might make mortgage/life insurance impossible.

[dancemom]

As a lone parent being solely responsible for repayments and the outcome if I became ill : lost my job etc

[SleepyKat]

Definitely being on probation in a new job. Our last fixed period came to an end just as I was about to start a new job. I was too scared to tell the broker when we looked for a new fixed deal and just provided the last 3 wage slips from my old employer and didn’t tell them I’d changed job. Which I guess is very naughty.

[fish88]

Getting the mortgage for my current house was fine but remortgaging was difficult. We had had another child since and so our childcare fees were much higher. Lots of lenders wouldn't look at use because we had high outgoings even though we had never missed a payment and had made several overpayments.

[wellingtonsandwaffles]

We want to buy for retirement but due to working situation it would only ever be buy to let unless we bought when retired. How will we afford the buy to let deposit, is there any adjustment made for different career types, and can we still access first time buyer privileges?

[youllhavehadyourtea]

Being self employed and on short term contracts has in the past impacted on our ability to get a mortgage.

Now I'm more worried about our age.

[Spices001]

Even though I can afford the mortgage payments the lenders don’t believe I can so I’d worry I’d be refused

[BikeRunSki]

We’ve just remortgaged, and only have 3 years left to pay if all goes well. We’ve weathered mat leave, part time work and redundancy, but this time was probably the trickiest to remortgage as DH bought out a director at work. He was not able to borrow any money as his name has not been on the company accounts for 5 years. The mortgage is now all based on my salary, even though DH now earns twice what I do.

[kagglen]

I worry that we have taken onto much and if there is a problem how would we pay it off.

[veegstez]

I think the idea of getting a mortgage just makes me nervous, as its for such a lot of money. What if me and hubby both lost our hobs or became too ill to work, we might lose our home.

[Oohrhubarb1]

There is no way we would apply for a mortgage at the moment as there is no way we would pass affordability checks! I'll leave it at that!

[SSCRASE123]

Nothing really as I just wouldn't do it unless I knew I could afford the repayments including headroom for if and when rates rise.

[Katykate72]

If my financial circumstances change I worry weather I can keep up with repayments. Lots of jobs you apply for these days are only on temporary contracts too so income may not be guaranteed.