Mortgage and Maternity issue

CKhalvashi

hawk30 wrote: »

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 Therefore it is possible for a mortgage offer to be withdrawn between exchange and completion.

We always have done both on the same day.

OP, as long as a payslip with SMP doesn't end on the lenders hands, there should not be a problem.

CK

Goldiegirl

I worked for a big lender for many years, and, in spite for what you might read on forums, it is VERY rare for an offer to be withdrawn. In fact I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of offers that were ever withdrawn.

If a lender is aware that an applicant is going on maternity leave, as described already in this thread, they have various underwriting requirements.

As you have your offer already, it is very unlikely that they'd now become aware that your wife is pregnant. Even if she walked into a branch of the lenders, in a heavily pregnant state, they are hardly going to recognise her, and rush to her mortgage application file and see what she said about her maternity leave.

As far as I see it, you have two options.

You tell them she is going on maternity leave and provide the information they'll request about this.

Or you don't tell them, but risk the small chance that they'll find out, and then provide the information that they'll request. And also factor in the minuscule risk of the offer being withdrawn.

Really, it's whatever option gives you the most peace of mind.

Thrugelmir

sheff_blue13 wrote: »

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.

People tend to be overly optimistic when it comes to their own finances. Paying the mortgage is only one part of the equation. Another dependent is going to impact your finances as well in some way. So there's nothing clever in over stretching oneself financially. As it's how many people start getting into trouble. Then the unexpected expense comes along. This gets put on the credit card. And so on.

kingstreet

Goldiegirl wrote: »

I worked for a big lender for many years, and, in spite for what you might read on forums, it is VERY rare for an offer to be withdrawn. In fact I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of offers that were ever withdrawn.

If a lender is aware that an applicant is going on maternity leave, as described already in this thread, they have various underwriting requirements.

As you have your offer already, it is very unlikely that they'd now become aware that your wife is pregnant. Even if she walked into a branch of the lenders, in a heavily pregnant state, they are hardly going to recognise her, and rush to her mortgage application file and see what she said about her maternity leave.

As far as I see it, you have two options.

You tell them she is going on maternity leave and provide the information they'll request about this.

Or you don't tell them, but risk the small chance that they'll find out, and then provide the information that they'll request. And also factor in the minuscule risk of the offer being withdrawn.

Really, it's whatever option gives you the most peace of mind.

TBH you worked for one of a handful of lenders who have little issue over maternity leave. I've recently tried to place a case at a decent rate fixed for five years and many of the lenders I spoke to expected the borrowers to have savings to cover the maternity period, wanted evidence and would (in two cases) exclude the applicant's salary.

Plainly, you and I would stick to the lenders we know are likely to be more accepting of the situation.

The OP has not mentioned the lender concerned, so we can't say how it would react to the situation being identified. This would also be a "firefight" to battle after the event, rather than up-front discussion and proper placement.

moneyshoe

Thrugelmir wrote: »

People tend to be overly optimistic when it comes to their own finances. Paying the mortgage is only one part of the equation. Another dependent is going to impact your finances as well in some way. So there's nothing clever in over stretching oneself financially. As it's how many people start getting into trouble. Then the unexpected expense comes along. This gets put on the credit card. And so on.

Without knowing their full circumstances surely it is a little unfair to comment on how the OP is going to survive whilst his wife is on maternity leave. We actually saved money and overpaid our mortgage during my period of maternity leave as the dependent didn't cost nearly as much as my gym membership, clothes, nights out and cinema trips........

OP I don't know enough to comment on this but I do think I would just keep quiet and hope nobody noticed. I don't see why they would. In my experience (3 mortgages approved so far) I have only ever been asked for my payslips once during the application process. During the time we had our last mortgage I had two periods of maternity leave and my husband gave up his job to stay at home and look after our kids - we didn't tell our lender any of this and as long as the money came in each month they didn't seem to care.

Goldiegirl

kingstreet wrote: »

TBH you worked for one of a handful of lenders who have little issue over maternity leave. I've recently tried to place a case at a decent rate fixed for five years and many of the lenders I spoke to expected the borrowers to have savings to cover the maternity period, wanted evidence and would (in two cases) exclude the applicant's salary.

Plainly, you and I would stick to the lenders we know are likely to be more accepting of the situation.

The OP has not mentioned the lender concerned, so we can't say how it would react to the situation being identified. This would also be a "firefight" to battle after the event, rather than up-front discussion and proper placement.

When I was working there, I must admit I did feel they were a little casual on the issues of affordability during the period of maternity leave

On the other hand I was surprised to read that some lenders would discount the maternity leave applicants salary altogether - I would have thought there would be some sort of discrimination issue there, if a female's income was discounted altogether.

It'll be interesting to find out who the OP has applied to, so we'll know what that lenders attitude is to maternity leave.

amnblog

Who is your lender sheff_blue?

sheff_blue13

Thanks for all the further replies, been a long day at work so only now able to read the posts!

We've applied through FirstDirect and have read mixed feedback on various forums to their stance on maternity, so it's hard to say.

With reference to some of the other posts, appreciate the sentiment but we haven't stretched ourselves too much and are pretty sensible. We've saved up extra money and will continue to save whilst my wife's on maternity, not saying it's going to be easy, but when is life?!

Paully232000

Surely, with regards to discounting maternity pay altogether it depends on the circumstances.
For instance, we were allowed to use my partners mat pay as she gets full pay for the 6 months she is off, then if she wanted 3 months half pay and then three months stat maternity pay (plus then a bonus at the end of the year which could make up for the 3 months on stat mat pay).

I could understand if a person doesn't get anything other than stat pay, as could be a big drop in wages, but if it isnt then should be counted.
But i guess each mortgage provider is different.

uzubairu

First Direct are very thorough and even though we currently have a mortgage with them (since 2010 - 50% LTV at the time), they still wanted a shed load of information and documents for our new application (house move) last month. We even had to explain some of the ATM withdrawals on on of my current accounts.

On the phone application they asked me and OH probing questions about what we had spent our money on.
They are just being cautious.
Other lenders may be less intrusive, but may have less favourable rates.