New mortgage rules, affordability and other income

debtfreedreams

I am finally debt free after my soon-to-be-husband remortgaged to pay off my debt 1.5 years ago (there was no other way, believe me). I did have to strike some deals with creditors and so will have quite a few defaults on my account.

My partner has an excellent credit score and so I wouldn't want his to be ruined by mine. However, the house we want is out of reach (we believe) based on his salary alone.

Under the new mortgage lending rules I understand that they take into account your spending to assess affordability. I therefore wonder if there is a way of getting around this and would be grateful if anyone can shed some light on whether the following would work:

1) Would they take into account the regular credit I have been making for 4 years when we get married?

2) If not, would it be better to not pay towards the mortgage and bills directly (as it wouldn't be counted) and instead for a few months before the mortgage application appear to live frugally by him living off my account and only spending minimally on things other than bills?

It seems a bit crazy to be honest if they don't take into account regular income from me, if that then means that we would be better of pretending I don't contribute and he doesn't spend money on socialising!

Any help would be appreciated!

ACG

1) Assuming you mean payments you have been making to your partner - no. Its not income.

2) As above, it would not count as income and the bills are usually taken from the ONS, not your actual payments.

Going off your method, im not party to the mortgage either - why not take my income into account? Its very much open to abuse, easiest way is to only take into account the income from the people going on the mortgage.

Get all 3 of your cried reports down to a broker. Defaults might not be enough to prevent you from getting the mortgage in joint names.

debtfreedreams

Thanks for your reply.

I suspected it would be the case that it wouldn't be taken into account, though I think a regular payment from a wife would be a little different than a random stranger! However, I get your point.

In relation to the second point, I don't quite get your response, which may be because I haven't been that clear. I am querying whether under the new rules they look at total income versus total bills (the bills are in his name and they are all house related) - i.e. mortgage, council tax, etc.

If that is the case and, on my understanding, they then look at all his outgoings, including socialising, then surely they can't prove his is spending more if I decided to stop paying towards the mortgage and instead kept back the money and kept is as cash for his spending. He would then look a lot more frugal under the new mortgage rules from what I understand.

Am I correct in thinking that?

I think we will need to go to a broker anyway but I just wanted to have an idea of what to expect. The problem still remains that I wouldn't want to ruin his credit rating by being financially associated with me.

ACG

Theoretically what you are saying is correct.
However, despite lenders asking how much you spend on socialising, utilities etc etc they use ONS figures (The office of national statistics) ie, they use an average rather than your actual figures in the majority of cases.

So your expenditure could be £0 but if the average is £700 then they would use the national average.

debtfreedreams

Thanks. I thought from reading a few blogs that they look at your bank statements. The blogs were recommending that you cut back on socialising and things. So this is not the case then? Or is it only the case if you go over the ONS figures?

ACG

They do not recommend you spend less.
There is no set rule but they check your accounts to ensure everything declared is correct and to ensure that your gas bill isnt 5x the norm for instance.

Funny_old_game

What I found was never have a double whopper a week before applying.

Thrugelmir

debtfreedreams wrote: »

I suspected it would be the case that it wouldn't be taken into account, though I think a regular payment from a wife would be a little different than a random stranger! However, I get your point.

In relation to the second point, I don't quite get your response, which may be because I haven't been that clear. I am querying whether under the new rules they look at total income versus total bills (the bills are in his name and they are all house related) - i.e. mortgage, council tax, etc.

If that is the case and, on my understanding, they then look at all his outgoings, including socialising, then surely they can't prove his is spending more if I decided to stop paying towards the mortgage and instead kept back the money and kept is as cash for his spending. He would then look a lot more frugal under the new mortgage rules from what I understand.

Lenders simply don't have the resources, nor the time, nor the profit margin to investigate each application in the detail you suggest. You are over thinking the situation.

Axled

For our recent mortgage app the bank asked for far more information than they did 4 years ago but not sure they looked in as much detail you are suggesting. I think just regular sensible use is all they were bothered about but they did ask for between 3 months worth of evidence for every account we own so not easy to get around by fiddling about with sums in each.

Think a broker could be useful in this situation

kidmugsy

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Lenders simply don't have the ....the profit margin to investigate each application in the detail you suggest.

What? My dear sir, these are well known to be the richest, greediest, most evil people in the world. Their profit margins are well-known to be billions of percent, and a bloke down the pub assures me that they pay no tax either.