Mortgage and Maternity issue

sheff_blue13

Hi there,

I'll try to keep this as short and clear as possible…

My wife and I are in the process of buying a house and have already had an offer accepted, received a firm mortgage offer from the lender and also had a full survey carried out with no real major issues being found.

We're now at a point where we're starting to discuss more detail ahead of the contracts being agreed and exchanged.

However, we're really concerned about the fact the lenders could pull out of the agreement 'after' we've exchanged contracts and how likely this actually is? My wife is now due to go on Maternity leave from the end of September/Start of October but we haven't told the lender of this as when we started the process a couple of months ago we didn't think it was an issue, and so now are concerned that there's a chance they could pull out and we could lose our 10% deposit and the house, not to mention letting down the sellers.

We can cover the payments with no problem and have budgeted on the money we 'will' have, rather than what we earn between two of us on full salaries, but know they will probably just refuse to lend us the full money we need now because of a tick box rather than look at individual circumstances.

We're so close to finally getting through everything and near completion, which is why we're scared to tell them in case it jeopardises everything and they might not even run any further checks or ever find out in which case we could be getting upset about nothing!

Has anybody else been in the same position or have any experience of this, as we're really stuck and just don't know what to do now?

Thanks for any help!

kingstreet

Many lenders will ask to see evidence of savings to cover the maternity period, plus an employer's reference to confirm the re-start date after maternity leave and a letter from your wife confirming she will return and her anticipated return date.

Attempting to hide this, was not a smart idea.

Duskylady

I have just exchanged on a house whilst on maternity leave. I had to write a letter stating when I was returning to work and my work had to send a letter of my return to work date.

However this was all supplied as part of the mortgage application not afterwards.

Your options are to provide the info to the mortgage lender and hope your offer still stands or hope they don't find out and carry on. How would they know?

Kayalana99

I was on Mat leave when they did my mortage... never had any problems or had to write a letter etc.

I think if your that close to exchange I would hold on and not say anything... personally.

Assuming shes paid for the work she does (not in advance) it won't come up shes on SMP pay till mid sept + ? Are they asking you to keep them updated on wage slips?

Paully232000

From our experience the mortgage lender wanted a letter from my partner to state the date she was planning on going back to work and evidence of what her pay was before, during and after maternity leave. This was provided during the mortgage application to our broker before offer.

cwcw

We were up front about this when applying as my wife was already on maternity leave (we had previously pulled out of a purchase before it, deciding to keep quiet as it was some way off).

The lender just wanted a letter to confirm when she'd return to work and on how much (she only went back part time). They were fine about it and we completed while she was still off work. I'm glad we were open about it, even if we didn't have much choice due to payslips, because during our previous attempt on the other property there was always a niggling worry it would drag on for ages and they'd find out.

sheff_blue13

Thanks for all the replies everybody... it's such a difficult decision!

@Kingstreet - Attempting to hide this, was not a smart idea.

That really wasn't our intention at all, we didn't really consider it to be an issue because of how we'd worked out our money and it never came up during the application process at all.

I just wonder what other people would do now in our position, carry on and hope.. or inform them of where we're at and still hope?!

Kayalana99

If you tell them know it could change everything, delay the exchange etc.

Is it going to cross over? I.e Is the exchange going to be longer then the end of sept?

I dont see how they will find out unless you give them a payslip with SMP on it.

sheff_blue13

@Kayalana99 - Yeah it's likely as there are still a few things to sort out regarding some minor work, electrical survey etc.

They haven't asked for any further payslips etc though yet, it's more just the worry that if they do find out now and we haven't declared it we wouldn't have much come back.

Most people have told us we're worrying too much, but that's easier said than done when you could lose a £20k deposit, we've saved a few years for!

Kayalana99

Hmmmmm I might be wrong but dont the solictors get the money for the house before the exchange? Once the money has been paid over from the mortage company then their would be nothing to worry about? I might be wrong their but think thats what happened with ours...

Then once exchange has taken place they couldn't just take the offer away - end day you havn't done anything wrong but same time telling them now they might see fit that you 'cant afford' to take a mortage and want to look at things again etc etc...

If I am correct though you are worrying over nothing?

I'd still hold on, personally.

hawk30

Kayalana99 wrote: »

Hmmmmm I might be wrong but dont the solictors get the money for the house before the exchange? Once the money has been paid over from the mortage company then their would be nothing to worry about? I might be wrong their but think thats what happened with ours...

Then once exchange has taken place they couldn't just take the offer away - end day you havn't done anything wrong but same time telling them now they might see fit that you 'cant afford' to take a mortage and want to look at things again etc etc...

If I am correct though you are worrying over nothing?

I'd still hold on, personally.

No, they get the money just before completion, which is commonly sometime after exchange (although you can exchange and complete on the same day). Therefore it is possible for a mortgage offer to be withdrawn between exchange and completion.