What I wish I knew before applying for a mortgage...

T4taylor

I'm starting this thread from the position of a first time buyer who thought themselves relatively financially savvy! Since starting this mortgage malarkey there's been plenty I've come across that I previously had no clue about! Please feel free to add your own experiences and maybe we can help future FTBs!

1) Having multiple bank accounts is a nightmare- following Martin's advice I have a personal account, joint bills account, high interest savings account and H2B Isa and my husband has his own accounts. Trying to navigate around the online banking of Nationwide, Barclays, First Direct, Halifax and Lloyds, as well as spending hours on hold to their help lines has not been fun!
2) They wanted 6 months of bank statements, this may have just been our particular lender but we had only been especially well behaved with our banking for the last 3 months so this came as a shock.
3) collecting paper statements, online print outs are not acceptable and requesting paper ones held things up as they took 7-10 working days to arrive. Also proof of H2B Isas needed to be sought and this is not straight forward as monthly statements are not usually produced.
4) married/maiden name issues. I knew I should have sorted this since getting wed last year but I did not think telling my utility providers was a massive deal at the time.
5) matching signatures! Unbelievably they sent back our contract as my husband's signature did not match closely enough to the one in his passport.
6) have cash ready for mortgage application fees, valuation fees and 10% of solicitor's fees before you begin anything.
7) have proof of income ready too, we had this spread across our different accounts at the point bank statements were requested and have to hope this hasn't caused too much of an issue.

Think that's all for now although I'm sure I'll think of some more. I may have been naive with some of these but it was also due to lack of knowledge. Anything else you wished you knew?

amnblog

T4taylor wrote: »

1) Having multiple bank accounts is a nightmare- following Martin's advice I have a personal account, joint bills account, high interest savings account and H2B Isa and my husband has his own accounts. Trying to navigate around the online banking of Nationwide, Barclays, First Direct, Halifax and Lloyds, as well as spending hours on hold to their help lines has not been fun!

True - Holding Multiple Bank Accounts doubles or triples the work here in some cases.

We provide a guide to our applicants on how to obtain their Bank Statements online to save them time on help lines.

T4taylor wrote: »

2) They wanted 6 months of bank statements, this may have just been our particular lender but we had only been especially well behaved with our banking for the last 3 months so this came as a shock.

6 months is more common with the Lenders handling adverse cases. Bear in mind though that any Lender could ask for more than 3 months statements.

T4taylor wrote: »

3) collecting paper statements, online print outs are not acceptable and requesting paper ones held things up as they took 7-10 working days to arrive. Also proof of H2B Isas needed to be sought and this is not straight forward as monthly statements are not usually produced.

Online print outs are acceptable provided they are in the correct format which most Banks now provide. They must show:

Your name
The Bank's Name
Sort Code
Account Number

The two big No No's are csv files and screenshots

T4taylor wrote: »

4) married/maiden name issues. I knew I should have sorted this since getting wed last year but I did not think telling my utility providers was a massive deal at the time.

Often happens with newly married applicants. If you are applying as Mrs Jones and all your history is Miss Smith, the Lender needs a way to confirm they are the same person.

Proof of ID or address in a maiden name is not a massive issue if we have a copy of the marriage certificate.

Bear in mind that a new name means you should update your documents or risk fines (the most common one left untouched is new address on the driving licence)

T4taylor wrote: »

5) matching signatures! Unbelievably they sent back our contract as my husband's signature did not match closely enough to the one in his passport.

Rare issue, but understandably a concern for a Lender.

T4taylor wrote: »

6) have cash ready for mortgage application fees, valuation fees and 10% of solicitor's fees before you begin anything.

Everyone puts their hands in your pocket when you buy a property.

T4taylor wrote: »

7) have proof of income ready too, we had this spread across our different accounts at the point bank statements were requested and have to hope this hasn't caused too much of an issue.

In most cases income needs to be seen credited into your bank account. For employed applicants, a mismatch between the net figure on a payslip and the bank credit, even by a few pence will lead to a query.

davidmcn

amnblog wrote: »

Bear in mind that a new name means you should update your documents or risk fines (the most common one left untouched is new address on the driving licence)

Going off-topic a bit here, but in the UK we don't have the concept of having a single "official" name - it isn't illegal to continue to use more than one name as long as you're not trying to defraud. Many people use maiden and married names for different purposes e.g. if they're already well-known in their professional life.

amnblog

Mainly referring to DVLA £1,000 fine if driving licence address not up to date David.

lwhiteman88

Things that came up that we didnt expect:

Tax year overview and SA302 did not match. Our own fault for not spotting but had to wait 10 days for the copies from HMRC. If self employed I would ask HMRC for all copies to be safe.

Wife is Icelandic and has been asked for proof of residency. The EEA have a right to reside but we now may need to wait for her permanent residency application to be approved before we can complete (we have had our offer on this condition)! this is a new/ongoing one. Fingers crossed they do not require this application as proof as it can take up to 6 months (currently 5 weeks in)

kingstreet

lwhiteman88 wrote: »

If self employed I would ask HMRC for all copies to be safe

No longer possible if your lender is on the HMRC list of those accepting SA Online Tax Calcs & TYOs.

It changed on 4 September.

lwhiteman88

kingstreet wrote: »

No longer possible if your lender is on the HMRC list of those accepting SA Online Tax Calcs & TYOs.

It changed on 4 September.

My lenders on the list and I requested mine on the 15th September...Maybe a transition period?

CheBee

This is really helpful as I am currently in the process of getting a mortgage

haf1

we now may need to wait for her permanent residency application to be approved before we can complete

She already has permanent residency after living/working in the UK for 5 years, i.e. the PR card only confirms the fact. If the mortgage goes through before the PRC application, passport + some sort of proof (e.g., P60s, HRMC statement) might do the trick.

Fingers crossed all goes well for you (we'll be facing the same problem when we remortgage next year).