Help with mortgage application - maternity leave

Canary_Yellow

We're hoping to move house next month but my wife is on maternity leave.

It's not yet been determined whether she will go back three days a week or full time.

We submitted our mortgage application to Santander with all the details of earnings etc, but put my wife's in at the lower amount (I.e. Assuming she will go back three days per week).

They have declined our application on the basis they can't include her income as they think she might not go back to work if her three days per week application is refused. This is an insane decision, isn't it?

We could have just submitted the mortgage on the basis of her full time salary and they would have been none the wiser!

It's been appealed but I don't hold out much hope. It feels like discrimination, but I'm sure they've got an excuse to hide behind.

Anyone got any suggestions or advice? If we have to go to an alternative lender we'll have to pay an early repayment fee on our current product as it's still in the fixed period.

Bonfire_Bride

I don't think it's discrimination as they are checking affordability and many employers will refuse reduced hours if it is not beneficial to the business. When is your wife's maternity leave due to end?

Santander are a pretty stringent mortgage lender.

Canary_Yellow

End of November.

The fundamental point is that if they say no she's a full time employee paid 5/3 times as much as she would be if part time.

I think it's discrimination because every employee has the right to submit a flexible working request, but it's because she's on maternity leave that she's being treated differently.

Thrugelmir

Canary_Yellow wrote: »

They have declined our application on the basis they can't include her income as they think she might not go back to work if her three days per week application is refused. This is an insane decision, isn't it?

No. Lenders base underwriting decisions on fact not speculation. Will be the lenders policy not specific to your application either.

Canary_Yellow

That's the point though, it isn't based on fact.

Fact is that she will either go back part time or full time (almost certainly part time) but it doesn't matter which because we can comfortably afford the mortgage either way.

Them speculating that she might not go back if she isn't given part time hours is the only non factual element.

lush_walrus

But you haven't provided them with facts from what you are saying. You are presenting my wife may do this or may do that Why didn't you resolve the work hours before applying, November is not far into the future? Then you would be able to provide the company you are asking to trust you to pay back the loan the actual strategy you will be using to repay. Lenders now wish to understand childcare costs as part of the application presumably you are unable to provide that also without knowing hours working.

amnblog

The joys of applying direct to Lender.

They have point. If you want three days work and the employer won't offer it you may well not go back at all. If you were going back on the basic of the current contract there is no problem.

Why should they take that risk when they understand it to be possible?

Now you need another Lender and engaging a broker would be a smart idea as it would have been at outset.

kingstreet

Correct lender and appropriate paperwork for this would have been straightforward.

upoiupou

Canary_Yellow wrote: »

I think it's discrimination because every employee has the right to submit a flexible working request, but it's because she's on maternity leave that she's being treated differently.

Just because you don't like a decision and your wife is on maternity leave, that doesn't make it discrimination. There's no evidence of that. You'd have to know that someone got a mortgage when they weren't pregnant and did a similar thing - ie submitted an application saying they wanted to change to part time working in a couple of months but hadn't sorted it out yet. I suspect the bank would equally assume they'd be unikely to stay in that job if refused - but unless you have an example then neither of us knows.

Citing discrimination is focusing on the wrong thing - the fact that in any circumstances you need to present a lender with certainty rather than unconfirmed plans.

You'd be better off turning your attention to your wife asking her employer to change her contract to three days a week from November and getting that in writing. In many places they could turn this around in a couple of days, but if it takes longer then the sooner she starts the better.

amnblog

I would not persevere with Santander. They are not big on changing their mind.

Canary_Yellow

We are using a broker.

We shouldn't have been so honest and prudent and should have just submitted the application based on her full salary. It would have gone through no problem.

Oh well you live and learn. Being dishonest is apparently the way to do things.