Single mortgage application when married

Racbells

Hi, hoping someone may be able to share their pearls of wisdom. I got married 3.5 years ago. Unfortunately my husband has a terrible credit history. He can't even get a mobile phone contract. I knew this before we got married so we have always maintained entirely seperate finance, no joint bank accounts etc. I have kept my maiden name on everything, nowhere am I a Mrs.
I had a mortgage on a flat before I met my husband, and sold the property last year to move into a rented house as we had a baby and needed more room.
We would now like to get back on the property ladder. I would apply for the mortgage on my own due to my husbands bad credit. How will a lender view this? As a married woman applying without her husband? I'm concerned if they ask why, of I say it's due to his credit history will they then turn me down? I had thought of saying its because my husband is going to become a house husband too look after our daughter. (not true, my other will be doing childcare for me while I'm at work)
Any thoughts or experiences appreciated.

Conrad

Grey area this. Sometimes I find such cases go through unapposed, as long as a single party can support the dependants and new mortgage, but other times lenders have declined on the basis the non mortgaging party is a risk to the household budget managment.

On balance most go through ok.

Racbells

Thanks for the response Conrad. Yes I technically can afford the repayments, bills, supporting my daughter etc on my salary alone. The mortgage repayment would be similar or less to what I'm paying in rent. (Our rental is done in just my name) I've looked around on the Internet and not really found much relating to this issue. It turns my stomach to think I might have ruined my chances of getting a mortgage because I married my bad credit hubby. Especially as I've done everything else to keep our finances separate. (Idle thought; I wonder how the situation would be I'd we were divorced. Doesnt mean I don't want to be with him!)

Racbells

I assume they do ask your marital status when applying? It's been a good few years since I applied for mortgage I can't remember. And I was single at the time so it wasn't an issue.

jamiefly

My wife applied for a mortgage in her sole name with 25% deposit and borrowing x2 basic salary. The bank was fine with this however the underwriters weren't so I had to put my name on the application too and take a 1% equity stake for the approval. This was two years ago.

I technically have no income although I've always managed my borrowings very well. Never missing a payment etc etc

iharding

I already had a mortgage with Nationwide in my name only, dating from before marriage. When my wife and I wanted to move to a new house, and borrow more money to do so, the adviser initially suggested just using my details and income (already on file of course) just because it would avoid the hassle of a credit check on my wife and additional paperwork. In the end we added her because my income wasn't quite enough on its own, but up until that point they were happy to attempt to proceed in my name only even though they were aware we were married.

Ian

Racbells

Thanks everyone. It does seem to be a mixed bag, and perhaps a case of "pot luck" depending on the lender and who you speak too. It's so frustrating, I'm really worried now that its going to be years before we can get back on the property ladder. I kind of wish we had stayed put in our pokey 1 bed flat. It was small but at least it was ours. (Well, half mine and half housing association as was purchased on shared ownership) would be better off if we had never got married!

Racbells

I think that perhaps I should say its a single application because my husband is a stay at home dad. How could they check this? I don't want to reach the point where divorce is the best option!

sockpuppet

We do lots of applications with various high street lenders in the name of just the husband (but not the wife) or vice versa. I cant say it has ever caused much of a problem. Obviously your affordability will be affected as you will be treated as having another dependent.
The only lender I can think of (off the top of my head) that insists on married couples applying jointly is Accord - there may be others but cant remember off the cuff

Racbells

Thanks sockpuppet. I had my last mortgage with Woolwich and was thinking of initially speaking to them. I hope they might look on me favourably due to my past (good) history with them. It's all unfortunate as my husband does earn a good wage, so monthly budget wise we have more than enough money coming in.

dsab

I just bought a house without my wife being on the Mortgage, as she has not yet been given Permanent residency in the UK (legally she has, but her formal residence application is still in process, so no paperwork to prove it), and our Mortgage Provider didn't have any problems with it.

But she had to get her own solicitor to get some paperwork signed, confirming that she won't lay any claim on the property and that she won't fight a repossession in case that I don't pay the Mortgage.

We went through a broker, and some Banks didn't want to take those circumstances, while others were just fine. Probably a good idea to get a Broker to do the legwork for you.