Kensington Mortgages Review 2019

Kannef

Hello everyone,

I thought I'd post this as there aren't many positive reviews on Kensington Mortgages and when I came on here and read what people had said, I panicked! So.. I will try and explain as briefly as I can, the situation I'm in and how I ended up having to go with Kensington.

Sheer stupidity when I was younger, I got into debt, ended up on a Debt Management Plan which finished January 2019. I have 5 defaults on my credit file (shocking I know). I always thought there would be no chance, ever that I'd be able to get a mortgage! But I was wrong. By no means are Kensington easy to deal with, they will have you jump through hoops with some documents but you will get there eventually.
My partner also had rubbish credit history, late payments and defaults. Again, no way did we think we'd ever get a mortgage!

So basically... we had our DIP with Kensington 8th February 2019. We submitted full application and had all documents ready for when Kensington would send over their list of what they required. They asked for 3 months bank statements, P60, 3 months pay slips, a letter from us both explaining adverse credit, statement from my DMP, proof of residency from 2015, 2016 and 2017. We sent full application on Friday 22nd February. Kensington instructed valuation for Friday 8th March. Everything went quiet until yesterday (Tuesday 26th March). Our mortgage advisor called and Kensington were querying why my partner's signature was different on the application from his passport. By 3pm yesterday the mortgage offer had been agreed. We were expecting a really long winded, stupid question process with Kensington but ours went through pretty quickly without any questions!
Our bank statements fell over Christmas, we spent every penny we had left in our banks and this wasnt questioned. I did panic when reading reviews on here when people said they didn't like things like Costa etc. None of this was questioned with ours. No transactions were queried either. The only one was from HMRC who paid my £36 tax rebate.
I was anxious for weeks and didn't think we would pass the underwriting due to how we spent our money mainly. I thought I'd post this for people to read! There is hope! And Kensington will really get there in the end I cant complain one bit that they've been slow and asked ridiculous questions, they've been great for us. If you are quick at responding to their requests for information and have everything ready for them, you'll have no issues.

Northstar1979

H Kannef were you able to complete the mortgage with Kensington ? Thanks

bronzebomber

mines pretty similar apart from I had no DMP but did have 4 defaults (last one in 2015) and quite high utilisation of my credit cards , applied the end of last October and got the mortgage offer back in just over 2 weeks.

Apart from the usual 3 months bank statements , p60 , the only additional thing we were asked for was an explanation about my student loan and how much was left on it as I had completely forgotten about putting it down on the application as it's been that long since I was at uni I had sort of forgotten about it

Took a bit longer than we thought to exchange/complete due to our sellers and were nearly at the end of our mortgage offer but they did say they couldn't see a problem if we needed an extension to it.

Couldn't fault Kensington or our broker at all. The interest rate is a bit higher than some places but much better than renting and hopefully we will be able to go to the banks/building society when our 2 year fixed rate is up

sourcrates

One word of caution here, if you have been accepted on a fixed rate basis for 3 years or whatever, do be aware that when that fixed rate ends, you will revert back to standard rate, which is often higher than other providers rates, (as they are a sub prime lender) and you may not be able to switch due to your credit files.

Our mortgage payment went up by £185.00 per month, this was few years ago though.
.

Northstar1979

Hi

Sorry to bother you but you seem to answer a lot of questions on the forums and have a lot of knowledge.

Me and my other half are trying to get a mortgage £190/195k was approved in AIP but full application with Halifax the advised they may offer £130k to maybe £165k but has to go to the underwriters tried with Santander and they declined.

All this done via a financial advisor

I have a default on a loan with NRam which was taken out in 2007 and defaulted August 2014 on file same with the mortgage but this was settled in August 2014. This was a house and loan with ex from northern rock. there is still £22400 left to pay which me and the ex are paying £50 a month each sep, the original loan was for £31000. (This is on my credit file) however is a DMP. Just shows up as a default.

We have £70k deposit on a £260k house.

My credit history is good my partners is excellent. I’ve had loans, credit cards, car finance in my name since 2010, never defaulted and settled etc. This shows on my credit file

My broker just applied to Kensington on Friday. Do you think they will accept us?

He’s put 5yr fixed rate over 31yrs my partner will be 75 then, we do have pension etc. We would look at remortgaging after 5yrs.

On the affordability it comes up £231k with Kensington we can borrow. We have twins who are 2yr old but get free nursery next year. We get child benefit of £138 a month for them, my partner can do over time, he gets a bonus of £1600 yearly or more. His credit history is excellent. It’s just mine with the default from 2014 and still outstanding £22k

Any advice is great, also how long does the application take to be approved. It went in Friday, they have done a credit hard check.

RelievedSheff

Our mortgage approval with Kensington went through really quickly.

AIP 19.03.19
Full application 21.03.19
Valuation 26.03.19
Offer 01.04.19
Completed on our new build property 18.04.19

Have to say that we found the process to be very quick and efficient and we could not complain at all.

My partners credit history was clean other than he had taken our finance on a car two months before the mortgage application. I have one unsatisfied CCJ due to disappear from my credit file in October and a satisfied CCJ due to drop off in July 2021.

Kensington approved us for a 90% LTV 2 year fixed deal. Hopefully in two years my credit file should be looking much better and we can remortgage to a mainstream lender with much better rates. However for now the mortgage with Kensington has allowed us to get into the home we have always wanted even if our payments are higher than we would have hoped for.

Northstar1979

@reliveedsheff

How much do you owe on a ccj? And can I ask how much mortgage and are you on a fixed term? We are asking for 5yrs.

RelievedSheff

The satisfied CCJ was for £235. The unsatisfied one was for £475.

We took out a 90% mortgage of £188995 which was 2.8 times our combined salary.

Northstar1979

Congratulations on your home.

Our application went in on Friday, today they come back with


1. As discussed, I have reduced the term by 1 year to ensure repayment by Applicant 1’s 75th Birthday. A new illustration is available on the portal.
2. Copy of signed & dated declaration (page 4 required) & copy direct debit mandate, both available on our website.
3. Copy of the fully completed & signed lending Past State Retirement Declaration.
4. Valid ID for Applicant 2
5. Latest P60 & last 3 months payslips for Applicant 1
6. Latest P60 & last 3 months payslips for Applicant 2
7. Latest full month’s personal bank statements for both applicants showing salary credits and day to day expenditure
8. Can you confirm the number of bedrooms at the property being purchased.
9.memo of sale

Do you think this is good?

Scottaj

Can I ask what the repayments are on your mortgage with Kensington

Scottaj

Sorry to add to that question we have our application in being assessed
Was asked for usual P60’s bank statements payslips and also proof of address 2016 and 2017
Our valuation is booked for this Friday