Mortgages and length of employment

Jamo1974

Does anyone know if mortgage lenders have any average rule for length of full time employment you have before they will consider your application?

melj16

i believe the most important thing is to be out of probation? I may be wrong.....

onlyroz

I had a mortgage approved after 3-months employment - but this was 6 years ago and so things might have changed since then.

ExpertAdvice

I have had mortgage approved with less than 1 month in job. However, it should be a permanent job (not in probation) and you should be able to provide a copy of contract stating the position, term, salary etc.

Jahoooly

I'm in process with Halifax... Graduated from uni last year so have been in employment 9 months. I've done quite a bit of research into this... some lenders want 6 months history in continuous employment at least, many want 12 months. Halifax was 12 months but apparently if you're in a professional occupation they can do 6 (it doesn't say this anywhere on their online lending criteria)... Had to send all my employment contracts off to underwriters (im also on a fixed term contract atm but this would lilely be extended to permanent) but they came back and said it was fine.

Previous poster is right about probation periods.

Advice would be put in some leg work and search online criteria and also ring round and ask as these are not set in stone (as in my case) - make sure they don't do any credit searches on you while you're just enquiring. Or use a decent broker

ACG

It can vary - some say continuous employment (ie if you left one job on the friday and started a new job on the monday) in theory you could apply the next day for a mortgage providing the overall time of employment had been 3, 6 or 12 months depending on the lender.

Other lenders say they want you to have been employed with your employer for 3, 6 or 12 months.

Get looking at lenders criteria or speak to a broker if you would prefer someone to do the leg work for you.

Jamo1974

Many thanks for the information posted. Seems like quite a spread on length of service required so will definitely get looking around.

gazter

ACG wrote: »

It can vary - some say continuous employment (ie if you left one job on the friday and started a new job on the monday) in theory you could apply the next day for a mortgage providing the overall time of employment had been 3, 6 or 12 months depending on the lender.

Other lenders say they want you to have been employed with your employer for 3, 6 or 12 months.

Get looking at lenders criteria or speak to a broker if you would prefer someone to do the leg work for you.

Its hard to believe just how easy it was to get a mortgage in the past.

In 2004 we got a mortgage with hsbc. I was in a commission only based position, which I had been in for about three months. Their reference was awful, they said they cant guarantee any work and they had no minimum term. My wife had been in the country about ten months, and was in a temporary contract. I was also in my first year of self employment.

We probably had about £18,000 a year between us. The lovely lady at hsbc gave us a mortgage for £55,000 on a property valued at £62,000 within an hour the whole thing was approved.
And that was on some amazing lifetime tracker of base +1% (i think).

Now, i feel like im jumping through more hoops than a lion in a circus. I had the lender i am waiting to seal the deal with ask me about my mobile phone bills, they even wanted to know about direct debits of £10.00 a month on my current account.

sulphate

Definitely depends on the lender, we just had a mortgage approved by Lloyds and I was still in a 6 month probation period, our advisor said it was fine because it was just standard procedure, they just wanted 3 months payslips. But it may also depend on your credit rating, LTV, affordability etc as to how picky they are.