redundancy... help!!!!

bigbloomers30

we are close to exchanging contracts on our new house and have accepted the mortgage offer and signed all relevant solicitors forms concerning the mortgage. However my partner has just been made redundant this week!!.We know that we are supposed to inform the mortgage lender of this but obviously they will withdraw the mortgage offer if we do. Would we be able to get away with not saying anything ? My partner will be starting a new job next week and affording the mortgage repayments will not be a problem for us as I have also recently increased my hours at work. Is it likely that the lender will find out about his job loss unless we tell them ? It seems such a waste of money, time and effort to pull out at this time. Any opinions would be appreciated as we are extremely worried and confused at the moment.

HelpWhereIcan

Normally the only way the lender would find out is if you or your solicitor advises them. Do not forget that your solicitor also acts for the lender and would therefore need to tell the lender should you advise them.

The other way that a lender may find out is if your mortgage offer expires and they need to re-reference everything.

However, if your lender is one that does not have a minimum time in employment as part of their criteria, you may find that although they would withdraw the offer, they will reissue it on confirmation of his new job.

Hope this helps

stanmoresaver

The simple fact is that the declaration you signed almost certainly stated that you would advise them if there was a change in your curcumstance!

Therefore you have legal obligation, which you have to decide whether or not to fulfill.

sorry if this seems a tad blunt.

SS

MortgageMamma

I agree with SS, honesty is always the best policy with everything in life. if you can prove your husband has another job the lender could well make an exception. Also, you don't say in the post if your husbands salary is essential to raise the amount of money you are looking for?

alexandra1

Another point is that you may have taken mortgage protection which covers you/your husband/both should redundancy occur. Although this takes about 2 months to kick in, you should advise your lender anyway, you may not need it if your husband has another job to go to in a week, but at least your lender is aware.

bigbloomers30

Thanks for all of your opinions. I know that we should really be honest with our mortgage lender but I am still tempted to keep quiet as it would be the best thing for us and everyone else in the chain and there is no doubt that we would be able to manage the mortgage payments. Keeping quiet means that no one will lose out. This same situation happened to my boyfriend parents many years ago and they just carried on and bought their house.

Murtle

I didn't when I was made redundant. I did tell them when I went to renew it, and they never questioned my change in circumstances, and they were still the cheapest for me.

Just make sure you can afford the mortgage and pay it on time! I guess this is going through a solicitor? if so you might mention it to them and ask them?

MortgageMamma

I think if you are in doubt you should take a bit of legal advice from an outside conveyancing firm. If they are willing to pass comment that is. You need to know the implications, and, what would happen IF the lender found out.

silvercar

What would happen if you had already exchanged?

You would have committed to buy the house and would have to secure the mortgage. would you feel less of a need to declare the redundancy then?

notiesmortgagegirl

If exchange takes place, then it has to do so with a defined completion date (the day the money gets sent down form the lennder to the solicitor, and you get the ohone call from the estate agent telling you can pick up the keys to your new home.)

However, if after exchange the lender finds out about the redundency (maybe you mentioned it to the vendor, maybe the solicitor, maybe the lender decided to rereference the empoloyment details for any reason) then I'm afraid the mortgage offer could be withdrawn, you would lose your deposit (forfeited to the vendor) and be rersponsible for both your own and the vendors solicitors fees.

It's a hell of a risk to take.
I think it would be far better to tell the lender immediately, along with the new information about the new job, and not risk losing your deposit an having a big fees bill to pay, which if it you couldn;t do, might then end up with a tainted credit file and all the mortgage problemns atht that can cause.

Its hard but better to be upfront.
The vendor might be willing to wait for you to get back on track, especially if any other buyers have to gear themselves to be equaly proceedable

homer_j_3

Its not whether they feel the need - It is doing something that may make the mortgage company decide that they want to reposess the house due to not declaring information that could have made a difference to their lending decision. It could also land them in trouble with the law due to fraudulently obtaining funds through deception (or something along those lines - im a broker not a police officer or solicitor).

I know most mortgage companies will not have a reason to question anything if the payments are being made however, I certainly would not allow my client to proceed without notifying the lender if I was to know this from my client.

If the employment is continous then I cant see why there would be a problem if you declared it, have you tried discussing with your broker what issues may be caused by this? Clearly this would depend on the lender though.

You may feel that I/we (as brokers) are being a bit OTT with our stance but I would certainly not condone it nor would I allow somebody on here to feel a false sense of security.

Allowing the exchange to proceed without knowing that the lender will be behind you 100% could be financial suicide. Yes, if you dont declare you are not upsetting the chain but you are breaking the law. If you do declare and at worst case scenario have to re - source a different mortgage then fair enough for causing a delay, at least you will know that you have done the right thing without breaking the law.