First time buyer advice

Michelle245

Hi all,

We want to buy our first house and have been working really hard to save a deposit. I checked on experian and both our credit scores are good. We are not on electoral role.. we were at my husbands parents address until my mother in law passed away and my father in law took us off due to it being cheaper if he was on his own. We had moved out by this point but left that as our address for better credit and we didnt want to use our rental address as its a shared mailbox.

Now I am worried not being on the electoral role will ruin our chances of getting a mortgage. Do we just change all our addresses and register at our rental (in the hopes we receieve all our post) and wait a few months for our credit to settle? Or go ahead with a mortgage application regardless of being on the register. Sorry for the long post. I dont want to end up paying into buying a house for an application to get refused at last minute.

Thanks!

steampowered

You need to be on the electoral roll. Register at your rental.

shortcrust

This is the advice from this site. Link: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/boost-mortgage-chances/

Register to vote or you'll have no chance

This is a dealbreaker. While you can have a perfect credit score without being on the electoral roll, it's still ALMOST impossible to get a mortgage without it. Lenders use electoral roll data in identity checks (to ensure you are who you say you are, and live where you say you live and that you're not laundering money).

Your credit file will say if you're on the electoral roll or not, but you can also check with your local council. Do this as early as possible. While you can usually be added within a month, in late summer and early autumn it could take longer.

If you're not on it, you can register on the electoral roll for free. If you're not a UK or EU national and thus can't get on the electoral roll to vote, then you can put a notice of correction on your file, saying you have other proofs of address and ID you can offer lenders (assuming that you do).

ACG

Not being on the electoral roll should not be a deal breaker.
This is one of those cases where certain lenders will outright decline you, others will ask a few questions and want some evidence you are living at the address and then there are some lenders who will be fine with it if you update your bank statements online or have some insurance at the current address.

It would probably be a good idea to use a broker if you want to proceed sooner rather than later, just to make sure you are not wasting time using lenders who will not accept you as things stand.

Michelle245

Thanks for the replies. I thought it might be a deal breaker. we asked my father in law if we could go back on there at his address (where we have all our stuff registered) for a few months and he agreed! So i put us straight on there!