New mortgage for civil servants - continuity of employment

mouthscradle

Quick question for anyone who has experience of securing a mortgage as a civil servant.

My husband and I both work for a national government department, but are looking to relocate 250 miles away. We will need to port our existing mortgage (to avoid the early repayment charge) and possibly take out additional borrowing if we want to upsize.

We will need to find new employment, our current department has no offices up north. This worries me, in terms of our current lender (First Direct) approving the port and any additional borrowing if we had new positions and were potentially in probationary periods.

There are a few other government departments that we could try and transfer to, if we applied for and secured a position with them. From what I can gather (currently getting confirmation on this from the various HR departments), the civil service would treat this as a period of continued employment for the purpose of calculating things like entitlement to leave allowances and other benefits. I think we would also not be subject to a probation period, as this would be deemed to have been served already.

Does anyone have experience of mortgage lenders' view on this continuity of service for civil servants who are transferring between departments?

Thanks

kingstreet

As you have one specific lender to choose from, it would be sensible to ask them, rather than hope for someone on here being able to mirror your situation.

mouthscradle

I have, but as with all of my questions they've been very vague and won't say for sure without me actually making the application.

kingstreet

That's helpful.

Whoknowskt89

I can't answer for first direct but....

I was working for one government department, looking for a flat, found flat (in the October) new job with a different government department started in the November. Had no problems getting a mortgage with natwest

mouthscradle

Thank you That's good to know.

Were you on a probationary period with the new department, or was it a case of if you've already served one with the old department, you're exempt?

Whoknowskt89

No probation period despite being a promotion and another department.
Generally, if you are looking at the jobs via civil service site, most of them should be no probation period as you would have done one previously.

If you want to know more details about the departments, you can pm me