Mortgage with my foreign boyfriend

luiza8

My boyfriend an I are looking into getting our first home and starting to see what the market is like for price. We will have enough for a 10% deposit soon.

However, my boyfriend is Italian and has only been living in the U.K. for 3 months. He has a full time job, but was wondering what effect his nationality might have on a joint mortgage? He can't get residency for 5 years I think.

I will contact a mortgage advisor and go through it all with them, however I was just looking for some information before approaching one.

Thanks

kingstreet

With a short UK address history he will have a small pool of lenders to choose from but as an EU citizen he doesn't have to obtain a visa or indefinite leave to remain so 90% should be achievable.

A typical independent broker will know who to consider/avoid.

luiza8

What length of address history is 'standard' for a mortgage application?

Hopefully after Brexit he will still have the same rights which will be good news!

LRmortgage

As mentioned above, this should be fairly easy to place by an experienced / decent broker.

luiza8

Thank you.

I'm not looking for recommendations, but how do I sift the wheat from the chaff when it comes to mortgage brokers? Is there a list of reputable brokers, or not? Don't want to end up with some guy offering advice from his living room...

MortgageMamma

Hi Luiza

First of all, the best way to find a decent broker is through word of mouth. Ask all your friends and family and colleagues. Someone somewhere will have used a broker at some point.

If that does not work then there are websites that can help you find a broker in your area. One is called Vouched For, I think there are some others but the only other that springs to mind for me is Cherry Find. I think on vouched for they allow customer reviews so maybe check that one first. I'm not sure as I've not used it for a very long time.

Different brokers have varying business models as to what point in the process the free advice stops and the chargeable advice begins. You should have a fixed fee agreed at outset once you have decided who to go with..check under what conditions the fee may be refunded and when it is required to be paid - some brokers charge when they put your application in, some charge at mortgage offer stage and some charge at the end (completion). There is always massive debate between brokers regarding fees, in the past many didn't charge at all but now it is mostly large brokerages that work on huge volumes of cases that do not charge a fee and sometimes because of that you don't always get great personal service.

Another thing you need to ask your chosen brokers is are they truly whole of market? Some brokers claim to be whole of market but actually are unable to access some lenders due to being too small or the lender does not pay a procuration fee to the broker for submitting your application and all the things that go along with that.

As a first time buyer you would benefit from being led through the process by a professional and having everything explained to you at each stage.

Do ask the broker if they have experience in getting mortgages for foreign citizens and talk your situation through, ask your questions and get answers prior to committing to one particular broker. The fact your boyfriend is from Italy is not going to be a problem, but the lender will need to check work history as he's only been here 3 months, as well as address history and you may require a slightly larger deposit - a good broker will go away and investigate this for you even if they don't have immediate answers.

Good luck

MM

kingstreet

luiza8 wrote: »

What length of address history is 'standard' for a mortgage application?

There is no standard.

Lenders have different requirements. Some require a two or three year UK address history, some don't.

bhjm

As i am / was in the same situation

as mentioned: the is no standard rule of length of credit history is requested

it is good to

register on the electoral roll which improves and helps for identification a lot !
get him pay some DirectDebits - even just a 5er a month, phone, water, broadband, pension, charity even a credit card which can be used lets say for just 1-2 transaction per month, this should raise his credit score number(which is totally made up btw) within half a year to a very fair score, as soon the lender will see that he is a reliable source of income (paying the loan, credits and liabilities) I don`t see any issues with getting a mortgage. Unfortunately, UK is limited to UK Credit History, credit history obtained in foreign countries are ignored by 99% of lenders.