Moving, porting mortgage, PhD

ncfcstar

Hi everyone,

I am being asked to move location for work, we currently have a mortgage on our home with Nationwide and it has 3 years left to run before reverting to the SVR. Obviously we'd like to port the mortgage over to our new home (as we should be able to keep our 75% loan to value ratio without too much worry).

At the moment I wouldn't see this as an issue if we both continued in full time employment? The one thing that may throw a small (hopefully) spanner in the works is that my partner is considering going back to University to complete a PhD. It would include a bursary of around £14k tax free, and this would be for living expenses etc. the course fees would be paid by the local authority. I believe I am correct in saying that after the first year she would then receive a salaried role whilst continuing her studies. Would this hinder our porting or potential remortgage with a different bank/building society?

It is something she has always wanted to do, but we don't want to have to go into rented accommodation for example just because the computer says no. I'd love you to put my mind at rest, but I fear that her potential studies may have an impact.

I hope I've given enough detail!

Thanks

ncfcstar

Anyone with any idea on this situation? It would really help if I could get some clarity.

vectistim

Ask Nationwide, see if you can get them to pretend it's an employment contract.
It says at the bottom of this page that Educational Grants/Bursaries are not acceptable income.
http://www.nationwide-intermediary.co.uk/lendingcriteria/general/income

ncfcstar

vectistim wrote: »

Ask Nationwide, see if you can get them to pretend it's an employment contract.
It says at the bottom of this page that Educational Grants/Bursaries are not acceptable income.
http://www.nationwide-intermediary.co.uk/lendingcriteria/general/income

Thanks for that useful link.

Paully232000

To play devils advocate here, surely that would be mortgage fraud and if caught not going to be pretty.

ncfcstar

Paully232000 wrote: »

To play devils advocate here, surely that would be mortgage fraud and if caught not going to be pretty.

I haven't suggested anything fraudulent? I assume you're referring to that suggestion that Nationwide may 'pretend' it's an employment contract?

Either way I just spoke to one of their advisors and they won't accept bursaries under any circumstance so that's the end of that. Even though the original person I was put through to said that they might!

Paully232000

I wasn't suggesting you had, I was referring to the other suggestion. I should have quoted the other post

vectistim

Paully232000 wrote: »

I wasn't suggesting you had, I was referring to the other suggestion. I should have quoted the other post

No, not fraud, but talking to them and trying to get them to treat it in the same way as a fixed term employment contract. A PhD stipend is about the safest money you can get and is tax free and typically for 3 or 3 1/2 years. And it's rather different to the typical educational bursaries that might offer a couple of thousand off of tuition fees.

Paully232000

vectistim wrote: »

No, not fraud, but talking to them and trying to get them to treat it in the same way as a fixed term employment contract. A PhD stipend is about the safest money you can get and is tax free and typically for 3 or 3 1/2 years. And it's rather different to the typical educational bursaries that might offer a couple of thousand off of tuition fees.

I understand now. Yes I am unsure why they wouldnt treat it as a FTC, and I have friends who get a stipend and do other work as well and earn somewhere in the region of 25K tax free doing a PhD and work like visiting lecturing, transcription, and some other related tasks, so not an inconsequential amount over 3 years.

ncfcstar

vectistim wrote: »

No, not fraud, but talking to them and trying to get them to treat it in the same way as a fixed term employment contract. A PhD stipend is about the safest money you can get and is tax free and typically for 3 or 3 1/2 years. And it's rather different to the typical educational bursaries that might offer a couple of thousand off of tuition fees.

Do you think speaking to someone in person would be better? Having spoken to their advisors on the telephone, they rejected it outright despite explaining that it was a PhD with a potential salaried placement in y2 and y3.

Ideally I would like to just port the mortgage, but it seems like Nationwide will play hard ball.

vectistim

Maybe an active mortgage adviser can give their thoughts.

If you phone them up you'll just get a low level employee with no discretion who will simply look at the simple criteria that says educational grants and bursaries = no. You need to get your question pushed further up the food chain. Avoid the words grants and bursaries.
She would be a PhD researcher being paid a tax free stipend for 3/3.5 years, and could they not treat that in the same way as a fixed term employment contract?
I'd also avoid talking about potential future salary, that would feel very vague, or will you need that extra income for affordability calculation purposes? If the basic stipend is £13,863 and the funding lasts for 3.5 years simply tell them that - that will be provable, anything beyond that will not.
Could you port the mortgage first?