Joint mortgage viability as a sort-of-maybe-freelancer

sk1312

Hi all,

Bear with - slightly complicated scenario.

So my partner and I are in the midst of a two-year tenancy in a rented property. This will come up for renewal later this year, at which point we’d like to - if we can - try and hop on the property ladder. We’ve crunched the numbers and we should comfortably be able to do it via the London Help To Buy.

But I’m not sure what the logistics would be of us getting approved for a mortgage.

My partner’s employed and on around £50,000 a year. I’m employed on £34,000 but I also write scripts for TV on the side (this is technically freelance). I’ve been doing this extra freelance work for just over a year - the gross income from that year was £36,000 (so my annual pre-tax income overall last year was around £70k). Now I am very keen to pack in my full-time job and focus on the freelance scriptwriting work, so - presumably - this will half my income.

I have heard from friends that freelancers need to have been at it for a couple of years before mortgage lenders will give them the time of day. Is this the case? If so, assuming I quit my full-time job now - would lenders look at my time as a freelancer as starting now, or back in December 2016 when I began doing it on top of my regular employment?

If this is the case and I wouldn't be able to get a look-in for a couple of years, would it be advisable for my partner to apply for the mortgage alone - or does that open up a whole new can of worms? My hunch is that perhaps we just put this on the backburner and come back to it in a couple of years' time... but wanted to put the feelers out.

Sorry this is so babbly - any pearls of wisdom appreciated!

ACG

As a general rule of thumb, lenders will want 2 years worth of evidence of income from the self employed job, that is basically 2 SA302s (April 2017 and April 2018 in your case).

There are lenders who will do it with one years worth, but your options will be massively restricted.

In terms of how they will view them, most would average the last 2 years out and use that so if you had £36k up to April 2016 and £40k from April 16 to April 17 that would average out at £38k (sorry for the maths for dummies lesson) and that is the figure they would use.

Sit down with a broker, you will probably find it worthwhile especially with you being self employed.

amnblog

'Sort-of-maybe-freelancer' not a phrase I'd be offering to a Lender

tyllwyd

I'm freelance and married - things may have tightened up since we took out our mortgage 10 years ago, but since we were able to afford our mortgage on my OH's income alone, we applied for our mortgage in joint names but taking only his income into account.

sk1312

amnblog wrote: »

'Sort-of-maybe-freelancer' not a phrase I'd be offering to a Lender

Sage wisdom

sk1312

V useful, thanks all!