Affordability with joint mortgage

rtho782

So, like many people I have a joint mortgage with my other half.

We got it on as short a term as we could afford, to pay it down as much as possible during the fixed term. This had the benefit over just overpaying of a) stopping us from not bothering to overpay and b) meaning that we still have our 10% overpayment allowance if we have extra money.

However, it means that our contracted payment is nearly as much as my sole salary. I have other (self employed) income as well, but neither of us could afford the place on our own. I could pay the mortgage, council tax, and utilities, but I'd have nothing left for food!

She actually earns more than me, and we both have income protection insurance in case of sickness or redundancy, so we're not too stretched.

However, it seems that when lenders look at affordability checks, they assume I pay the entire mortgage on my own. They ask how much we pay but won't take into account her earnings, so I stand no hope of passing on affordability.

Is this normal? Should I be only putting down half the mortgage payment?

Chappaz

That's the point of a joint mortgage, is it not?

It assumes that the combined earnings go into paying for the mortgage, as well as bills, council tax food and everything else.

How you decide to split the costs is up to you both. All the lender cares about is that the two people responsible have sufficient combined earnings to cover the bills.

Of course you wouldn't pass on affordability alone for the same mortgage, but if you were alone, you wouldn't have been offered that mortgage in the first place. If joint mortgages were based on the affordability of one of the parties alone, then joint mortgages would never offer larger borrowing compared to individual ones.

Unless I'm missing something, I'm not sure where the confusion is.

rtho782

No no, I mean...

I apply for a credit card in my sole name. They ask for my income, which is, let's say, £2k/m. They ask for my mortgage outgoings, this is, let's say, £1.5k/m. They don't ask for my partners income.

They think "Hmm, he only has £500 a month left, he has very poor affordability" and don't give me a card.

I could put £750 as the mortgage payment, but my credit file shows a mortgage with £1,500 monthly payments so they will just flag this as inaccurate.

The figures are made up to illustrate