Mortgage Affordability & Student Loan

pinchy90

Hello all,

I've tried searching but I can't find anything specific enough to our situation.

My parter and I went for a mortgage affordability check to find out how much we can borrow and we were really pleased with what they could offer us. But on the way home we realised that we forgot to mention to the advisor my partners student loan.... Because my parter currently doesn't earn enough money to pay off the loan currently would it affect us? We did mention that she went to university and the advisor didn't ask us about a loan? So what I'm asking is will it reduce the amount of money we could borrow even if it's she's not paying any of it yet? In theory when she does have to pay it off she will be earning more so it shouldn't matter surely?

Thanks in advance!

Bravestar

pinchy90 wrote: »

Hello all,

I've tried searching but I can't find anything specific enough to our situation.

My parter and I went for a mortgage affordability check to find out how much we can borrow and we were really pleased with what they could offer us. But on the way home we realised that we forgot to mention to the advisor my partners student loan.... Because my parter currently doesn't earn enough money to pay off the loan currently would it affect us? We did mention that she went to university and the advisor didn't ask us about a loan? So what I'm asking is will it reduce the amount of money we could borrow even if it's she's not paying any of it yet? In theory when she does have to pay it off she will be earning more so it shouldn't matter surely?

Thanks in advance!

On the face of it, I would agree with you

Firstly, I'll assume the student loan was taken out post 1998 (otherwise the following might not be appropriate/correct)

The student loan will not show up on any credit check.

Your AIP would have been based on affordability criteria, so what you earn less what you have to pay out in essence.

You say your partner doesn't yet earn enough to pay back the student loan and it'll be that level of income that is used (in conjunction with yours) to provide the income part of the affordabilty calculation. As she is not required to repay it on that income, then there is no outgoings in regard to the student loan.

If her income does increase to the point she does have to start repaying, then the net income (the income less the student loan expense) will always be greater than now, so no cause for concern to the lender.

And if she never earns enough, the student loan just gets wiped out in about 30 years time (you can't say that with any other loan I know).

BusyBargainz

My partner had a student loan which he doesn't pay back because he doesn't earn enough. We forgot to mention it when we first met our advisor but we mentioned it the second time and it made no difference whatsoever . He could see from the payslips we had to provide that nothing was being paid off it and said it generally didn't matter.