can anyone help?

angry_bird_5

hi, myself and my husband are currently selling his property to get a house together. We have been living together for 2 years and recently got married.

We are selling our house for £127,000 and purchasing another for £177,000. The problem we have come across is in applying for a "top-up" mortgage in joint name with our current provider (Halifax). Whilst both our income is acceptable for the £133,000 in total we are looking for, the request got declined for "credit reasons". We both checked out credit scores on Equifax and they both came as good/excellent. The only blip was that in 2009 I had a few instances on my loan and old mortgage with the ex where payments were not made on time (both are now settled). All my credit since 2009 is in the green. This is the only reason we can see for it being declined. We are currently appealing the decision based on the personal situation of these late payments being due to the breakup of a relationship. Do Mortgage lenders take this into account given that in the last 2 years credit is excellent?? Does anyone know of anyone that would? Does anyone know of other ways around this as the husbands wage alone would fall slightly short of what we would be looking to borrow?

Many Thanks

hcb42

it is normal, you dont apply for a top up loan, you apply for a whole new loan (mortgage) on current lending criteria.

Try a broker if the appeal doesnt work.

angry_bird_5

normal for them to decline???
just wondered if an appeal is likely to be successful given the situation

Meeper

Doubtful the appeal will be successful. Forgive me for saying, but the lender doesn't care about your relationship breakdown, they care about you paying your commitments regardless of what happens.

Are you in a tie-in period with Halifax? If not, you should look to the wider market and find an appropriate deal for the full amount elsewhere. Take a copy of your credit file to a decent adviser who should be able to assist.

angry_bird_5

thanks for advice confirmed what i thought really

hcb42

angry_bird wrote: »

normal for them to decline???
just wondered if an appeal is likely to be successful given the situation

No, i meant it is normal for them to have gone through due process. you refer to a top up loan, it doesnt work like that.

An appeal might work, we dont know all the factors here to comment.

opinions4u

We both checked out credit scores on Equifax and they both came as good/excellent. The only blip was that in 2009 I had a few instances on my loan and old mortgage with the ex where payments were not made on time (both are now settled). All my credit since 2009 is in the green. This is the only reason we can see for it being declined

It's a fairly god example of why the scores / ratings people buy from the CRAs are meaningless.

Look at it from a lender's point of view. "The only reason ..." is a fairly significant one.

Just two years ago you couldn't afford your mortgage. Now you want to buy a more expensive house and add £50k or so to the amount you owe them. Why should they take on that risk? You've already demonstrated difficulties in maintaining a much smaller debt.

If you're looking at borrowing £133k on a £177k property, that's over 75%. Lowering the loan by £250 may trigger a better credit score outcome with the lender (although I'd guess any decent mortgage arranger would already have done this and you've just rounded up the amount in your post).

angry_bird_5

The thing is, I could afford to pay the mortgage & loans at the time, but due to a mix up with the ex who was hopeless with his finances, it ended up being late. The amount was paid, just not on the standard day. I was just hoping that they would take into consideration that since ending that relationship and moving on my credit rating has been nothing but perfect which would show that it was the other person who was causing the problems. Hopeful I know, but not great to hear (

The LTV is 75%, figures have been slightly rounded. I think we may have to look at other options such as Guarantees to come in with it somehow so that my husband can get it on his own as he is only about £3k short! The only reason we are staying with them is to avoid a £1,600 early repayment charge. Prehaps we would be better off taking the hit and finding another lender since both our overall credit scores are good.

Thanks for all the advice.