What are our chances?

CurlySue2017

Myself and my OH are currently in a private rental however we have had some issues during the 3 years we have lived here with having bad neighbours move and would really like to move. The basic facts are:

• Working couple, both in full time, long term positions. My salary is £24k, his is lower around the £19k mark
• My credit is spotless, his is shot to pieces
• I have owned a home before, he has never owned
• Less than £1k savings at the moment (due to trying to overcome OH's financial troubles) but working on this as best we can
• Living in the NW where property is probably as cheap as you can get. I also will not leave this area as my Dad needs help with care so we can't be far away

The problem we have is that we are struggling to rent a new place from a private landlord because of OH's credit situation and we do not qualify for any type of social housing (two working adults, why would we?) so we are very stuck at the moment and very, very unhappy.

I would love to be able to buy a property again, I hate renting and not having any security and not being able to enjoy my own home, but I don't know if this is, or ever will be, possible sadly.

I understand that this is going to be mortgage broker territory if anything, but based on the above, is there even any point in approaching a broker, or would we simply be laughed out of their office?

I suspect I know the answer but there are some experts here so I would really appreciate any input

muhandis

I think a lot of it depends on what you mean by "his credit rating is shot to pieces"

Does he have a recent default, CCJ, late payments, etc? What exactly are the issues in his credit history?

foxy-stoat

As legal fees, searches and moving costs will be over £1000, you are better off trying to save 5-10% of the purchase price before thinking about a mortgage.

If you can list the issues with the credit file, not the scores, we can see if there is anything you can do in the mean time.

Any new builds your way with the HTB schemes?

CurlySue2017

Thanks for the reply, I wasn't sure how much detail I needed to give.

Basically as bad as it can probably get! Old debts that lead to CCJ's that resulted in him having to apply for a DRO. The debts were old ones and came about before we were together, I have simply helped him through the process of facing up to them and getting things resolved. But of course this has impacted his credit massively.

The moratorium period on the DRO is almost over and we will then start to try and rebuild his credit file, but of course in the meantime we are basically stuck.....and I think probably will be for some time to come because it will stay on his record for 6 years.

We have no financial links, so my thought was to apply in my sole name, but again, I have no idea about the implications of this.

Plus the fact that my salary is not great and I am over 40 so age may also play a part. I just feel like it is too late for me to ever own my own home again and if that is the case, I need to forget it and move on because at the moment, I can't stop hoping.....

muhandis

You probably already know this, but I highly doubt your OH would be able to get any kind of credit, let alone a mortgage.

If you don't mind me asking, are you financially associated with him on your credit file? That could potentially have a bearing on whether or not you can borrow on your own.

What kind of house prices are you looking at in your area?

CurlySue2017

Yeah unfortunately I do know this, which leads me to your second question, the answer to which is no, absolutely not.


I knew from early on that his financial mistakes were going to be a problem. He never lied about it or hid anything from me so right from the word go I made it clear that I would do what I could to help, but had to protect myself at the same time so there is no financial association at all.
Properties up here are relatively cheap, so we would find something liveable for £90 - 100K, possibky less than that based on recent searches. There are cheaper properties but these would need quite a lot of work.

Sorry Foxy - I missed your post!
I didn't think we could use HTB as I am not a first time buyer? In any case, neither of us want a new build property to be honest, they are massively overpriced

RelievedSheff

As your finances currently stand you don't have enough to cover the legal and moving costs never mind the absolute minimum 5% deposit you will require.

It sounds as though you would probably struggle to find a lender even if you did have the deposit in any case.

You can always speak to a mortgage advisor of course and find out if there are any other options available.

ACG

I think you need to speak to a broker.

The devil with anything like this is in the detail and (not wanting to sound rude) there is not a lot of detail in your posts. We need dates, amounts and potentially who was involved.

You could possibly look to do it solely in your name but if any of the deposit is joint or coming from your partner, you may find options are limited. If you are married they could be further reduced.

CurlySue2017

RelievedSheff wrote: »

As your finances currently stand you don't have enough to cover the legal and moving costs never mind the absolute minimum 5% deposit you will require.

It sounds as though you would probably struggle to find a lender even if you did have the deposit in any case.

You can always speak to a mortgage advisor of course and find out if there are any other options available.

In fairness, I think that this is the reality......I just needed to hear it from someone else to make it "real" I suppose. It's very very saddening for me, but facts is facts as they say

CurlySue2017

ACG wrote: »

I think you need to speak to a broker.

The devil with anything like this is in the detail and (not wanting to sound rude) there is not a lot of detail in your posts. We need dates, amounts and potentially who was involved.

You could possibly look to do it solely in your name but if any of the deposit is joint or coming from your partner, you may find options are limited. If you are married they could be further reduced.

Whilst I understand the need for detail and also not wanting to sound rude, I will not post in that much detail I'm afraid.

If I was to try and do it in my sole name, nothing would come from him at all it would just be me and marriage is definitely not on the cards anytime soon!

RelievedSheff

CurlySue2017 wrote: »

In fairness, I think that this is the reality......I just needed to hear it from someone else to make it "real" I suppose. It's very very saddening for me, but facts is facts as they say

Things can only get better though and if you both work hard at improving the OH's credit file and save for your deposit you can get that house and become a home owner again.

You don't need a sparkly clean credit history to get a mortgage. We recently got one and whilst the OH's file is clean as a whistle I have two CCJ's on mine. One unsatisfied which will drop off my file in a couple of months and one satisfied from 2015. So it is possible albeit we are paying a high interest rate. But it got us the house we had dreamed of and the high rate is only for a couple of years when we should be able to apply with a mainstream lender again :beer: