Flexible employment contract the same as 0 hours?

[BrewsD]

Hi all, wondering if somebody can help.

I was employed full time until April 2018. I was then off sick for most of April due to pregnancy complications & decided to leave in May due not being up to doing the work anymore. I decided to return to part time hospitality work which would be more manageable for me.

However, my partner and I have recently started looking at mortgages. My contract states I am on a Flexible Employment Contract. Is this the same as a 0 Hours Contract? I work about 20hours a week, never have a week without work, but obviously mortgage advisors and lenders will be reluctant to give us anything if I am on a 0 Hours Contract or something similar!

Baby is also due in November so there's not much chance of finding another job with a better contract at the moment.

I don't know if they are the same type of contracts or not.
But, I'm on a flexible hours contract (between 5-18 hours per week) and got a mortgage earlier in the year. We went through a mortgage adviser and got accepted for the first one we applied for through him. Husband had only been his job for 4 months when we applied.
They wanted a copy of my contract and all my pay slips.
Hope it works out for you!

It could be a 0 hour contract unless your contract states you will get a minimum of X hours or between X and Y hours a week. You need to get your contract and review what the terms are - if it doesnt state you have guaranteed or normal working hours then it will be a 0 hour one.

Thanks @ksa103 just all very confusing! Our mortgage advisor did mention if it's a 0 hour contract I may need to supply 12months worth of payslips, which is possible but only a few would be the current employer, the others would be my previous employer.

@Changednancy it does mention that they "anticipate 8hours a week however actual hours may go up or down" which isn't very clear!

It is effectively the same in that they don't guarantee you a minimum number of hours.

It won't necessarily stop you getting a mortgage, that will depend on your overall household income. A good broker will know how different lenders treat nil/ flexible hours contracts.

@brewsD I would say this then is a 0 hour contract as they do not guarantee any hours. As Bombardier said a good mortgage broker will be able to help you.

It sounds lke it is in your case, but it's not always - I have a colleague whose contract says he finishes at 3:15pm, so he can do the school run (that bit isn't stated in the contract, just the time, but it's why he requested it.) Others do 3 or 4 day weeks or have agreements to work from home. What makes them flexible working contracts is that they we agreed after flexible working requests, so are subject to review under those rules, and at some point, the company could say, "this doesn't work for the business any more, you need to go back to 9-5 hours/5 days a week/whatever."