Alternative to Self-Certified Mortgage

Chrisa10

Hi

Im posing on behalf of a friend....

She works part-time (she spends the rest looking after her children) so recvieves a small salery. She also recieves money from her Ex (child maintainance), and also some child benifits etc.

Unfortunately she has previously had to go the Self-Certified route as the multiples simple dont add up as most seem to base the figures on her low wages only.

Has anyone any alternative or suggestions for other routes? Are some lenders more realistic about a persons income above and beyond a wage?

Your help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

toonfish

some lenders will consider benefits, such as tax credits, and maintainence providing it is via a court order. It's difficult to be more specific without knowing how much borrowing is needed and a breakdown of the income.

Self certified also means that you need the income, you just don't have to be able to prove it.

HelpWhereIcan

The quick answer is yes.

For example, Halifax, Bank of Scotland lenders should look at all her income as should Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Accord/Yorkshire Buidling Society - depending on what evidence she has to prove her income. There are a significant number of lenders who will take some but not all of her income and all will have slightly different criteria so the question is actually more difficult to answer in a forum than you may think.

Depending on the amount that she needs to borrow there may be no reason at all for her to self certify as lenders are much more flexible than they were even 5 years ago.

Unless she is 100% sure of being able to do it herself, she should get some advice from a whole of market broker.

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

Chrisa10

Thanks for the info....

She got her last mortgage about 4 years ago - so perhaps she hasnt looked around too much.

She currently has a mortgage with Halifax, and as they have been suggested as one who might take into account maintainence etc and she has a good payment record with them they may be a bit more flexible!

Her Income would be around:-

Wages £900.00
Maintainence £412.00
Child Benefit £170.00
Benefit £516.00

Total £1,998.00

She would be looking for a mortgage of around £180k which i think means that her monthly mortgage payment would be (say) £1000. She plans to either remortgage or downsize to a smaller property - i know that without outgoings aswell these income figures are fairly pointless. From memory when i got a mortgage it was not done on salery multiplier but by affordability after the "main" bills have been accounted for, so hopefully this will be the same.



Thanks again :beer:

Mr_helpful

Is she remortgaging or trying to move house

Chrisa10

Im going to be really helpfull here and say she is looking into both!

Her house is on the market, but not many bites on the hook so far.

Its gonna be a case of stay put, remortgage and tidy the house up, or just move house.

Mr_helpful

If she stays put it might be easier for her to go back to halifax and ask for better deal

HelpWhereIcan

Mr_helpful wrote: »

If she stays put it might be easier for her to go back to halifax and ask for better deal

Plus, if she is already with them, they would look to do it as a product transfer so would not neccesarily need proof of income. A whole of market broker will have access to her options with the halifax and would be able to compare them to switching to another lender. If she is best off with the Halifax, a broker will be able to arrange the switch for her but at least she would know that she has looked at other options as well.

A broker would also be able to give advice on which deals would suit her best while she is trying to make the decision about whether to move or stay put eg a deal with no ties or if she could take a deal that is portable to use when she does buy again