Discrimination against Armed forces personnel

Morne_Joubert

I am currently serving in the armed forces and applied for my first mortgage through HSBC. I have saved up a deposit of £40 000 and wish to purchase a house valued at £130 000. During my phone call with the mortgage advisor, he asked me about my future plans. I mentioned that I have done 9 years and I'm currently on a 24 Year contract (Pretty much standard) with the possibility to get commissioned and serve longer. He immediately put 1 and 1 together and said because I only have another 14 years remaining, I can only get a mortgage for 14 years...

I think this is unfair as anyone in civvie street can get retrenched or let off with a months notice while the army gives it's personnel a greater sense of job security. Yes, I can get permanently injured meaning that I am no longer suitable for army service but so can anyone else.

Just wanted to hear your point of view or thoughts about it as I think this is discrimination against service personnel all across the MOD.

glosoli

When we deal with applications for applicants who work in police or the armed forces who tend to leave these roles relatively young we simply ask what is your likely plans for when you leave and what do you anticipate to happen to your income etc.

Maybe go back to him and say when you leave the army you anticipate to get civilian employment using skills you obtained and for all points and purposes wont retire from working until you are at state pension age?

Silvertabby

Cobblers. You must have spoken to someone who, for one reason or another, is anti Armed Forces. We took out our mortgage with HSBC in 1994, when Mr S had just 6 years left to serve, and I had 9. We had no trouble getting a 25 year mortgage.

sultanabran

Silvertabby wrote: »

Cobblers. You must have spoken to someone who, for one reason or another, is anti Armed Forces. We took out our mortgage with HSBC in 1994, when Mr S had just 6 years left to serve, and I had 9. We had no trouble getting a 25 year mortgage.

Mortgage regulations in 1994 were different to what they are now.

Silvertabby

“ Cobblers. You must have spoken to someone who, for one reason or another, is anti Armed Forces. We took out our mortgage with HSBC in 1994, when Mr S had just 6 years left to serve, and I had 9. We had no trouble getting a 25 year mortgage.
Originally posted by Silvertabby ”

Mortgage regulations in 1994 were different to what they are now.

Yes, but there hasn't been a law passed which says 'thou must discriminate against members of the Armed Forces' - unless a current HSBC employee can tell us otherwise?

OP is right - if he worked for a civilian company there's no way HSBC would ask for confirmation of employment for the next 25 years. If they did no-one would get a mortgage.

NiaS90

My partner and I have just been accepted for a mortgage he is currently serving and has 20 years remaining we have had no issues with what he plans to do after this and our mortgage is for 30 years. Our mortgage is with Nationwide i would go back to HSBC as express your concerns!! They can't assume you won't be working after the 14 years.

stator

Almost certain this is someone misinterpreting the rules. Phone up and speak to someone at HSBC who knows what they are talking about!

Neutrinno

I wouldn't say it's discrimination, it's sensible lending. You are obviously in a high risk job which places a lot of risk on the lender. They aren't obliged to lend to anyone, it's their lending terms as they are the one's risking hundreds of thousands of their own money.

I'm sure other lenders may be more flexible though so why don't you try elsewhere, or even better use a broker who will do this for you.

TrickyDicky101

Neutrinno wrote: »

I wouldn't say it's discrimination, it's sensible lending. You are obviously in a high risk job which places a lot of risk on the lender. They aren't obliged to lend to anyone, it's their lending terms as they are the one's risking hundreds of thousands of their own money.

I'm sure other lenders may be more flexible though so why don't you try elsewhere, or even better use a broker who will do this for you.

Except that isn't why the OP was declined/refused - which according to them is because of the 14 year remaining contractual term.

Neutrinno

TrickyDicky101 wrote: »

Except that isn't why the OP was declined/refused - which according to them is because of the 14 year remaining contractual term.

Yes but you could argue that this restriction is in place because of the nature of his job, which could be deemed higher risk, which in turn would lead to tighter lending criteria.

I'm sure they wouldn't put this sort of restriction on someone on any other contract.

In all honesty though I think this is just a case of the mortgage adviser dictating the term or not understanding their own policy properly, I don't believe HSBC's actual criteria to say armed forces can only lend during the term of their employed contract, infact I can't even see anything like this detailed on their intermediary website. Maybe he should of tried to understand the OP's plans to repay the mortgage once the contract has finished better.

kingstreet

I'm with Neutrinno.

The person the OP spoke to has taken things far too literally. It's one of the dangers of the uninitiated speaking to someone who works for a lender who has little knowledge of the outside world and believes, quite wrongly, that how their employer does it is how everyone else does it.

Since MMR (April 2014) when lenders were forced to start advising on every mortgage, many who work for lenders have been forced to ask questions and act upon the answers when a broker with many more years' experience can appreciate the nuances and will know what further questions to ask to get to the borrower's true meaning.