how to get a mortgage after bankruptcy

No.Looking.Back

Hi,

I've done a lot of reading & now looks like i'll be doing a lot of posting on MSE!

Great thread. Thanks to everyone who has given up their time to tell their stories of after Bankruptcy and for even sharing valuable research which I can now follow up on!

For anyone who has gone through this process could you let me know how much the underwriters need in terms of your bank statements? E.g. Is it any and all accounts that you hold or just your main current account? Is it the last 12 months? 2 years? 3 years? How far back do they need to go?

Thanks in advance!! )

colmac71

Hi, in my experience with the Mansfield Building Society they wanted 3 months statements for all accounts. They did go through them with a fine toothcomb and they questioned any payments that I hadn't said I paid out on a monthly basis. For example there was a credit from Virgin for a credit card that I had a positive balance on from way back and they wanted to make sure it wasn't active etc. I think it may vary from lender to lender but just make sure you are squeaky clean and you've been upfront from the start.

Good luck!

No.Looking.Back

Legend colmac71. Thanks! Yup making sure my credit files are crystal clear (what a process lol) and yes everything will be on the table. I just don't want to lose out on any unnecessary technicalities..

3 months suits me.

Anyone else?

Cheers!

colmac71

Have you got a lender in mind at all? Also have you got a good deposit? And are you still within your 6 years bankruptcy or are you now out. Mine drops off my credit files in 42 days! (Not that I'm counting!)

No.Looking.Back

I have a few in mind at this stage. Firstly though, I'm simply getting my credit files ironed out. That'll take a couple of months I reckon. (Several errors with all of them). I'll have a 25% deposit.

I'll eventually be looking at some of the reputable building societies as listed on this thread. Yep the bankruptcy is still be on my credit files for another couple of years. (I know that rules me out with some of the listed lenders as they'll want it off file completely before they look at me)..

I simply want to ensure that my bank statements are all good too.. If they can see I've been spending too much at Wagamamas or had the odd online flutter on Will Hill then its probably not going to look good and I'd hate for that to be the thing that got me denied.

I'll be making sure my statements don't have anything seen as adverse for a while then. Maybe even the next 12 months!

grogan52

hi all

I went BR in March 2008 so just passed 6yrs (5yrs discharged).

I have been squeaky clean since and earn a decent salary. I have a good understanding of mortgages and checked with Nationwide recently to confirm that they would consider my application for a mortgage as opposed to an automatic decline which they said they would.

as my partner is selling her property for us to buy a different one we have a decent deposit. as a precaution after reading this thread I thought I would check my credit files before we apply.

With both Equifax and Experian there is NO record of my BR at all. Can anyone help me understand why this may be? As a result I am unable to check everything to do with my BR is satisfied (or does this mean it is?)

thanks

downhillfast

grogan52 wrote: »

I went BR in March 2008...

...With both Equifax and Experian there is NO record of my BR at all. Can anyone help me understand why this may be? As a result I am unable to check everything to do with my BR is satisfied (or does this mean it is?)

thanks

Your bankruptcy should drop off your credit file six years after your BR date (not discharge) so it looks like Experian and Equifax must've had correct information re dates etc and it has just dropped off. :beer:

grogan52

I have previous reports stored from Experian over the last few years and it does not appear on them either. I have just never bothered doing anything about it as I have not required any credit.

so, as I understand it, it should have appeared on those reports that I have paid for over the last few years then?

thanks again in anticipation.

regards

nick

fiveyearplan

dave_howard wrote: »

I have found out i can get about £98.000 discount on my council property so only need £40.000. Is there a bank that would give me a mortgage with this in mind?
My pay is £30,000 pa and ive been in the same job for 27 years and have quite a good credit score now only owing a bit on a credit card? (which was just to build up my credit rating)

Thanks

Have you had any luck with your mortgage? Where have you tried and what was their response? Grateful for any update.

inthegroove2010

The_Lorax wrote: »

You too can get a mortgage after bankruptcy.
I have just bought a house for £250k after being declared bankrupt in April 2005. Conventional wisdom that Bankruptcy ends your chances of ever getting a mortgage is just not true but there are some golden rules to follow.
If you want to know how I did it, read on.
Golden Rule One – Sort your life out.
I’m not here to judge, I went bankrupt through a combination of bad luck, greed, laziness and burying my head in the sand. The important thing is learn from your mistake.
Since then my wife and I have been pretty much perfect customers, pay all your bills on time, live within your means. When you can get a credit card use it but pay it off every month. I used mine just for petrol and paid in full as soon as the bill came in. when the time is right apply for catalogues and do the same. You need to rebuild your credit footprint by getting the low end low value lending and making the most of it.
We owned a house and my wife had to get a loan from the bank to buy out my half of the interest in it. We scrimped and paid that off in half of its planned term. It was not easy but it hugely increased her customer score at her bank.
Likewise I left lots of money in my account as long as I could to look like a stable character.
Do your life laundry; cut your outgoings, find bargains, it all helps. Check your credit file with a fine tooth comb. Make sure that each lender shows your account as settled or partially settled and with the settlement date as the date of your bankruptcy discharge. I had several that had either not put it as settled or had it showing as settled years after discharge. This has the effect of making you look as though your money troubles have continued since bankruptcy and will make any financial institution give you a very wide berth. It can be difficult to get it corrected but persist using all the advice on the rest of this site as it is essential.
Final tip here if you owed a lot of money when you went bankrupt you probably had PPI. I had a loan from my bank pre BR which they said I had to take out PPI for or they wouldn’t let me have it. When I complained to the Financial Ombudsman I got £3,000 back which enabled me to replace my car when it died without having to borrow money.
So rule one, sort your life out. If you haven’t done this, don’t even bother with the rest.
Golden Rule Two: Persist
I went to a broker on a personal recommendation; someone who purported to be experienced in my kind of case. He told me I had no chance and would have to wait at least another year and even then wouldn’t be able to afford a house at more than £200k. (His name was Jon Shaw from Positive Solutions – don’t even bother)
A good friend of mine told me not to give up but to phone around mortgage companies myself. I phoned as many as I could find. In the end I phoned 84 different mortgage providers and 18 said that they would consider me. I have listed them at the bottom but you have to do it for yourself. They judge it on individual circumstances and they change their policies all the time.
Golden Rule Three: Do your research
At this stage don’t give your real name (you don’t want to leave footprints and some of them will want to do a soft search on you.) but be completely honest about everything else. First explain how long you have been discharged and your position and ask whether they will consider you. If they say yes then you need to know what their lending policy is. Some still do multiples of income, most say they base in on affordability the reality is that they are all different. Some will give you a formula, some will ask you for your details and then say how much you can borrow without telling you how it is worked out, some won’t go that far without running a credit check.
The next stage is to ask how they assess customers. Some do a hard computerised credit score. This is likely to be a problem for you. Firstly you have an adverse history so it will probably knock you out, second it will record a visible search on your file. If you apply for a mortgage and another lender searched you two weeks ago then the second lender can be pretty sure the first one said no and mark you down for it.
Other lenders use a combination of scoring and other techniques. If you have an account with a lender already they will take into account your customer score which is internal to that institution.
For me, the best bet was to go with a building society that didn’t score at all. Instead they got full credit files for myself and my wife and went through them with a fine tooth comb. They also went through bank statements, payslips, everything. They raised lots of queries, wanted to know what certain payments were for. The bottom line is that a human being came to a judgement about whether I had sorted my life out and decided I had.
Everyone is different though and so what worked for me might be different for you. Try to get the people from the lenders talking, explain what you are doing. Some will be friendly, some downright snooty and rude. The friendly ones, however, can give you some really useful information.
Don’t go with the first one you find. Go through all the lenders you can find and then make us a short list. Prioritise them. If necessary ring round again and get further details.
Ultimately you will get down to a handful that look really promising. Then decide who you are going with. It can still break down even at this point. I didn’t get a mortgage with the provider at the top of my list and you might not either.
Golden Rule Four: Don’t ever give up!!
You are then faced with an agonising time of sending information back and forth but hopefully it will be worth it.
I moved in October 2010. I earn about £45k a year. I bought a house for just under £250k on an 80% mortgage; the other 20% came from equity in the house I already owned. i'm now paying £1021 a month for my mortgage.
Getting a mortgage is not easy after a bankruptcy but if you get yourself sorted it is possible so don’t give up.
The lists of those I rang and those who said yes are below BUT EVERYONES DIFFERENT SO YOU HAVE TO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH

If you want to know any more, just ask.

Good Luck!!
The people I rang were:
Royal Bank of Scotland
Cheltenham and Gloucester
Halifax
Manchester Building Society
Yorkshire Building Society
Abbey
One Account
ING Direct
HSBC
First Direct
nationwide Buiding Society
newcastle Building Society
Scottish Widows Bank
Barnsley BS
Cambridge BS
Chorley & District BS
Coventry BS
Natwest
Britannia
GMAC
Mortgage Express
accord
aldermore
alliance and Leicester Direct
Bank of Ireland (NI)
Bank of Scotland (Mortgages)
Beverley
BM Solutions
Buckinghamshire Building Society
Chelsea BS
Cheshire BS
Clydesdale Bank
Cumberland
Darlington BS
Derbyshire BS
Direct Line
Dudley BS
Dunfermline BS
First Active
Furness BS
Hanley Economic BS
Intelligent Finance
Ipswich BS
ITL Mortgages
Kensington
Kent Reliance BS
Leeds BS
Leek United
Legal & General Mortgage Club
Lloyds TSB
Loughborough
Mansfield
market Harborough BS
Marsden
Melton Mowbray
Monmouthshire BS
National Counties BS
Natwest
Newbury BS
Northern Rock
Norwich & Peterborough BS
Nottingham BS
Pink Home Loans
Platform
PMS
Post Office Ltd
Principality BS
Progressive BS
Saffron BS
Scottish BS
Shepshed BS
Skipton BS
Stroud Swindon BS
Teachers BS
Co-operative Bank
Mortgage Works
Tipton & Coseley
Vernon
West Bromwich Building Society
Woolwich (Barclays)
Yorkshire Bank
Bath investment and BS
Chesham BS

The ones that said yes were:
Norwich & Peterbororgh
Saffron BS
/skipton BS
Tipton & Coseley
Cheltenham and Gloucester
Halifax
Manchester BS
Yorkshire BS
Barnsley BS
Cambridge BS
Coventry BS
Clydesdale Bank
Dudley BS
Furness BS
Kent Reliance
Leeds BS
Leek United
Mansfield

　
　

Just as an update, Halifax will not offer any product no matter how long your bankruptcy is discharged unless you have an existing product and it betters your position i.e less repayment amount.

Hope that helps, i say this from personal experience as a 7 year discharged bankrupt who had passed Halifax credit score and received 3 agreements in principal.