Maternity leave refused mortgage transfer

teach28

Could anyone give me some advice please?

If you are on maternity leave is a mortgage company within their rights to refuse the transfer of an existing mortgage to a new property?

Comyface

A mortgage company doesn't have to agree to a 'transfer' of your mortgage from one property to another. What you have to do is pay off your existing mortgage and take out a new mortgage on the new property. You may have a portable product (fixed rate etc) which you can take with you, but you would make a new application and they would assess your application according to their criteria at that time.

Now, if you're on maternity leave can you be refused a new mortgage? I'm not sure, doesn't sound right, what grounds would they have? Income may change in the future (go back p/t etc) but who can predict the future? Difficult one, sorry I can't help with this bit. Hope someone else can.

opinions4u

If you confirm that you intend to return to work at the end of the maternity period, then they should not decline you on that basis.

To do so would, I believe, be sex discrimination. It might be worth googling!

That said, you must recognise that your income will drop during your maternity leave, so ensure you have made arrangements to afford the payments. Showing an adviser a savings account that will ensure payments are met may be useful.

Additionally, a lender can decline your application for many reasons. So if there are other doubts about your application, these may rise to the surface.