Proving you have a deposit

stuartw101

I'm due to speak to a mortgage broker in the next couple of days, although I thought in the meantime I wanted to see if anyone could help.

My partner and I have been looking to buy a house and currently have a 10% deposit which is fine in our account. We can increase this to a 25% deposit through help of family, the only issue is that our family will need some time to transfer the money to us, mainly due to it being used in investments currently.

At what stage would I need to prove that we have a 25% deposit in order to get a mortgage? Could we get offered rates based on the potential 25% deposit and then have some time before we actually have to show bank statements etc.

Thanks for your help

Twiggy_34

Mortgage advisor's should be able to give you figures based on the deposit you intend to have at the time of purchase. They'll note that part of the deposit is being loaned by family.

I forget exactly but I don't think we had ours in the bank until just a few weeks before completion, deposit monies usually go to the solicitors first who handle the transaction for you, so you need to make sure you have it available when they are likely to ask for it (and you're not likely to appoint your chosen solicitor until you have actually found a property and are ready to start making offers).

Good luck house hunting!

stuartw101

We've actually made an offer and are waiting for an answer, we also have an agreement in principle from my bank and have chosen a solicitor.

Like i say I'm just worried we may not have enough time to get the additional deposit to help get a better mortgage rate.

Twiggy_34

Ahh, sorry, I misinterpreted (obviously!). Do you know how long it's likely to take before you can get the money through from everyone? I think you probably have a few weeks before you need to start panicking, I'd guestimate 3 weeks minimum and that's only if things were to move quickly, but don't hold me to that! I've only done the house-buying thing once, but it's unlikely anyone will start asking for the deposit until the purchase approaches the final stages and the solicitors want to prepare to exchange money.

WRT the mortgage offer you currently have, the way I understand it is, provided you have the mortgage agreement from the bank that, in most cases I believe, remains valid for a period of time (3 months I think, but could be wrong and it could vary between lenders). You should be able to clarify with the lender how soon things would need to proceed so you don't lose the rates you've been offered, and then the rest of the proceedings will just have to wait until the deposit money is in place, if it isn't already...

kingstreet

Gifted deposit letter(s) from donors prepared for full application, with money in your account ready to transfer to solicitor around exchange of contracts.

stuartw101

Just to add to my previous comments - the end of March is roughly when we are aiming to complete by.

The investment side of things is in France (partner is French, currently lives in UK) would it be an option for my partner to take a loan out in France and transfer it to the UK, then pay the loan off using the investment funds when released? Or would this get traced back as being a loan, and as such would it be better for the loan to be in a parents name?

Thanks

gazfocus

I think it depends entirely on the lender. When I applied for my mortgage 20 months ago (wow that went fast), I had to sent bank statements showing I had the full deposit before the lender would make the mortgage offer.