Self employed maternity leave mortgage

greasypalmer

I am self employed and earn a similar profit year on year. My husband is employed. We are looking at selling our house and buying a bigger one in approximately 2 years. No problems so far, as we are allowed to borrow what we need.

The issue however, is this year because we are due to have our first baby and I will be going on maternity leave for a few months and so my profits will plummet for the coming year. This will mean the bank won't allow me to borrow as much.

I was wondering if anybody knows of any flexibility that the banks give you in this situation. It doesn't seem fair because if I was 'employed' and on maternity leave, they would take into account the salary when not on maternity leave....but in my case it seems they would take into account my lowered profits just for that one year!!!! Can anyone shed any light and hopefully please tell me that the banks allow for maternity leave for the self employed???

ACG

They base it on your historical accounts, not future income - you might pick up a massive contract? Who knows.

Answer the questions as they are asked, dont create problems that might not be there. Some lenders might have an issue with you being off work for mat leave but others wont - there is a reason why your income will drop in future its not like your business is going down the pan.