Any mortgage advisors? Where to from here please??

moatmeister

My wife late 38yrs (self employed with 5 years accounts plus director of profitable limited company with 1 years accounts) and I 45yrs (employed by limited company) have applied jointly for a mortgage with Abbey through the Alliance and Leicester as
a) I understood that they were currently taking a more "relaxed" view to new applications as they wanted to grow their business under their new Santander brand
and (b)
I bank with them on two fronts and consider myself to be a good customer.

Was originally looking at self cert due to complicated income and no limited company accounts and trading history. also stupidly expensive arrangement fees. As this has all dragged on a bit, we have now got 12 months trading and accounts done for limited company and decided to go for a more traditional route

Application submitted last week for £225k against a £300k purchase. Good credit history and management of accounts, credit score and affordability check passed ok. All other requirements inc 6 months bank statements and pay slips for me fulfilled.
My wife qualified for fast track but I didnt.
Application went to the underwriters and was declined without appeal on the basis that I work for my wife's company and although I get a declared fixed salary of £40k net, it doesnt get paid on a regular date each month just because I didnt think that would make any difference and it was easiest thing to do when we set everything up and so it is a variable amount but never less than £2500/month net
They said reapply in another year and they would consider it. Very gracious of them but no good as we have found a perfectly located lifestyle property we want to buy now to live and work from home in.

So where to from here please?

moatmeister

Anybody???

betmunch

Get your Yellow pages out and pick a Mortgage Consultant from there.

Or better still, ask friends for a recommendation of someone they have used and found helpfull

Cheers

HelpWhereIcan

The main issue you have is not the fact that your income is paid on an irregular basis. It is that you are employed by a company owned by your wife.

This means that most lenders will class you as self employed when looking at the checks they require i.e. they will not accept a reference from the company/your wife and would need to have the income confirmed by an accountant. More than that, they would normally want to be sure that the company can afford to continue to pay your salary and is not running at a loss if it does so.

From what you have posted, I assume that this part of your application was ok with the Abbey.

If so, it is just as well because you would not normally qualify for fast track with any lender on this basis alone (you work for a company controlled by a relative) and that means that you need to expect any application to be fully assessed and, in many ways, looked at more closely than 'normal'.

Most lenders would have no problems with your income if she has been trading for 5 years but switched from sole trader to Ltd company a year ago. They will take 1 year Ltd Co accounts, 2 years sole trader and confirmation from the accountant that your salary does not make the company non profitable.

If it is a completely seperate business, those lenders who will accept a company with only one year's accounts would normally be ok with whatever income your accountant can confirm for you.

Another important thing to know is how dependent on your income the application is.

If the income for which your wife has 5 years' accounts will cover most of the mortgage on its own a lender may well be willing to 'take a view' of your income even if the limited company is a seperate business (although they would normallly want it to be a related business in which she has experience).

The upshot is that I do not see that your case would be impossible to place, but you need to speak with an independent adviser rather than act on advice in a forum as too many direct applications will only weaken your score - especially in the current climate.

As betmunch says, you should ideally use personal reccomendations to pick one or even something like the Yellow pages etc.

No harm in speaking to more than one and always make sure to ask the questions Martin suggests in http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1101649966,86816#step2.

Be careful of anyone who approaches you unsolicited and use the services of a face to face adviser unless you are confident enough to deal with someone via post & email.

Hope this helps

Good Luck

moatmeister

Thanks to HelpwhereIcan for taking the time to provide an excellent reply.
Just to clarify, wifes sole trader business with 5 years accounts is unrelated and completely seperate to the limited company. It shows a relatively small but growing and sustainable income from her own full time job.

She also is sole director of seperate Ltd company which employs me and others and turns over £150k/year working in an industry I have been directly involved in for 25yrs.

I earn a salary of £40k nett which has historically been paid as a variable amount each month just to help the company cash flow but as of this month will now be fixed at the expense of our suppliers! She potentially has dividends from the Ltd company which the abbey would not take into account due to the one year trading, and an income of about £10k but growing from her own business.

As the accounts are still being prepared, I could potentially be employed or self employed to suit the mortgage scenario. What companies out there would be prepared to consider a 1 year account situation? Otherwise it looks like Self Cert with beacon with their massive set up charges which I would like to avoid if possible

I can see that if my wife was not a director this would be much less of a potential problem to the lenders. But if this is the case we are being penalised for making a marital comittment to each other which i feel is the wrong attitude of ""responsible"" lenders.

moatmeister

Anybody out there prepared to provide a list of lenders who we should talk to based on "flexibility" and "open minded-ness?" Cant afford to keep chipping away at my excellent credit file making applications to people who blatently dont want my money which is just as good as anyone else's!!!

betmunch

As I said earlier, just arrange to see a professional mortgage consultant.

Is there some reason you dont want to?

moatmeister

Thanks for your replies.
I have a good and experianced full market independent mortgage advisor and I have just got off the phone to her. She was away yesterday so I was just trying to do some groundwork and get ahead of the game as time is pressing for us. She has gone off to have another think. In her initial conversation with abbey they said that this income thing would not be a problem as long as it can be justified with bank statements, accountants references etc which it can. Even the Abbey inhouse mortgage advisor was confident. We were not expecting a point blank refusal from the underwriters.

HelpWhereIcan

moatmeister wrote: »

Anybody out there prepared to provide a list of lenders who we should talk to based on "flexibility" and "open minded-ness?"

The only problem with what you are asking is that, in some respects, you are asking us to put you in the position where you do actually

moatmeister wrote: »

keep chipping away at my excellent credit file making applications to people who blatently dont want my money which is just as good as anyone else's!!!

Because we (who don't know the full picture) suggest a lender that is not right for one reason or another.

However, on the assumption that you are receiving advice from someone and that you will speak with her before acting:

I would expect that the she is looking at lenders like the Alliance & Leicester and the Halifax as they have criteria that means that they are more likely to take a view than most.

This is in no way a reccomendation and you will need to speak to your own adviser who has the full picture before proceeding with an application.

moatmeister

Thanks very much.

But please bear in mind it was the Alliance and Leicester (offering Abbey products only now) that have declined us.

I will ask MA's advice on the Halifax.

Once again, thanks for taking the time to provide a comprehensive answer