Have you had trouble getting a mortgage while pregnant?

DonnaLFerguson

I'm an approved journalist and have been given permission to post messages on the forum by the moneysavingexpert.com moderators.

I'm writing an article for the Observer next week on getting a mortgage while you are pregnant.

Looking for a case study who is willing to be photographed who had problems sorting a mortgage during pregnancy or is pregnant and having trouble with their application.

Anyone on here experienced this and is willing to be interviewed?

If so, please email me (donna.freelancer+media@gmail.com) or Tweet me @DonnaLferguson

Thanks.
Kind regards
Donna

pollyanna24

I bought my ex out of my house and my brother came on the mortgage instead when I was 8 months pregnant with my second.

I had to rush through everything and give the bank my last three months' payslips before I went on maternity leave. They didn't query the fact I would only be getting SMP for the next year.

Goldiegirl

I hope this isn't going to be an article looking for discrimination where none is present.


The lender I worked for used to (and still does as far as I know) wrote to the woman's employer to confirm details of what the salary would be when the woman returned to work after maternity leave. I think this is a reasonable action to take, to ensure that the mortgage remains affordable. Of course, there was the possibility that the woman would decide to return to work on different terms (e.g. part time) or not return at all. But at least the lender addressed the issue, and the woman couldn't accuse the lender of irresponsible lending.



I think you'd have to be careful to make sure that any interviewees 'problems' weren't caused by anything else, such as her credit history, or problems with the property. I would be extremely surprised if a woman's mortgage issues stemmed from the sole fact that she was a pregnant woman.


I await the article with interest

abundantia

I think far more interesting is the subject of single parents (most often mothers) with children, trying to get mortgages with dependent children.

On one hand, the government is encouraging/pushing parents to make informal arrangements for child support. CSA or whatever it's called these days now charges fees to both parents - the one paying and the one receiving - for collecting child support. Court orders for child support are also expensive to get.

On the other hand, when running affordability all lenders are now taking into consideration childcare costs and school fees (NB: this is also as a result of the recent government changes). These costs reduce the mortgage amount that single parents could get. And, at the same time, many lenders disregard the child support income received by the single parent, unless it's CSA-enforced or backed by a court order. Informal arrangements are not enough. And some lenders only take into account a percentage of the childcare support anyway, not all of it...

amnblog

We had client who was self employed Professional.

She had strong earnings, then a quiet year, the strong earnings again.

Her quiet year was when she took time out with he new baby.

A major lender refused to consider her self employed income at all for her mortgage due to the quiet year.

To make affordability on the lending we were only asking them to accept she could realistically earn 13k a year ( the average earning figure, applied by the lender usually, was above that) she was a qualified vet.

It may not have been intentional discrimination against a new mother, but that was the effect.

We had to place her and her husband with an alternate lender.