First mortgage advice

TF03

Hi everyone,

Long time lurker/reader, first time poster.

I'm hoping for a bit of advice as my partner and I look to apply for our first mortgage this year.

Firstly, my credit file.
I have a few defaults and one settled CCJ on my file. Am I right in saying that these will drop off 6 years on from the default/CCJ date?
All of these were incurred in 2012 (a bad year for me) so if I am right, they will gradually fall off my file regardless of settled or unsettled (even though they are all paid) this year?
I am concerned that checking my report, it says for a couple of them "updated in Jan 2018" for example. Does this effect when they come off my report?

With that, and they do come off then by July by report will be squeaky clean. I do have a loan with my bank (Natwest) which I have paid off on time every month (£6500 balance left to pay, used to finance car/home improvement). I also have a credit card which I spend and pay off every month (with a small £400 limit).

I'm guessing this is a no brainer, but should we wait to apply for a mortgage until these have dropped of my file? We were offered a mortgage from a broker last year when we were considering moving then (can't remember the rate) but I imagine, with a much cleaner, tidier credit file I would potentially be offered a much better rate/be more attractive to more lenders?
I have also, started a new role last month (with the same company I have been with for 3 years) which is paying me £5k more a year. I am guessing that after 3-6 months of this increased income, that will also really help our application out?

This will be my first mortgage, however we are home owners. We were very lucky to have received inheritance form grandparents and bought our first property (1 bed maisonette) cash.
Am I right in saying that when applying for our mortgage for our new property, we can use whatever we sell our current house for as the deposit? It's been valued at £150-170k.
We have been basing our mortgage calculations on £150k deposit and looking at property up to £300k, meaning roughly a 50% LTV which I'm lead to believe will put us in a good light to lenders due to the ratio and the size of our deposit?

If we sell our property for £170k for example, but we have applied for a mortgage based on a £150k deposit, can we keep that £20k for ourselves to use for home improvements etc?
If I/we apply for the mortgage with Natwest (my bank) with whom I have the loan with, would they absorb that into a mortgage and would that be worth it?

Thanks in advance for your help.

ACG

The defaults/CCJs drop off after 6 years of registration. So they should start to drop off this year. You will have more options if you hold fire, but you should have options now.

Your deposit, you can use as much or as little as you like, you do not need to use every penny you have.