Buying our first house at the same time of a redundancy

AntRyan10

Hi everyone,

I'm in need of some help and advice from you all. My partner and I are a few weeks away from completion on our very first home. My partner happens to be cabin crew, and I'm sure you've all seen the news today about a certain travel agents potentially going bust within the next 24hrs.

Obviously this could all just be speculation, however I'd like to prepare for the worst case scenario. Let's say the company announces they're going into administration, what would you advise we do with the house? Do we go ahead and not tell HSBC (our mortgage lender) anything, or do we need to pull out of the purchase before we end up paying a ridiculous amount in fees?

My salary is just about enough to cover our mortgage payments/bills and it shouldn't be too hard for my partner to find something which helps pays the bills. I'm stressing out at the moment because we've been house hunting for a year now and we feel so close to finally moving in together, but this has come at the worst time possible. Let me know what you think we should do.

Thanks!

Socajam

I would continue with the purchase and not tell the lender
Your partner should start looking for a job as a matter of urgency.

System

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage or other loans secured on it.

00ec25

so you have to do what millions of others less fortunate than you do - you must make a decision on what compromises you are willing to make

a) keep the house, cover the mortgage from one salary, but do without some/all of those other things you feel "entitled" to because your combined income can no longer afford them

b) forget the house, carry on renting (?) start again at a future date when her situation is clearer

c) carry on regardless, make no lifestyle adjustments, end up in debt, lose the house anyway and wreck your credit for the future.

if were me, a) is the no brainer, but then I can control my spending and don't need the internet to tell me that

babyblade41

If you have exchanged then you will have to complete , so not sure where you are in the process.

If you haven't exchanged then you need to sit down and assess all likely scenarios and do a risk assessment to move forward and see which option you can realistically do

steampowered

I would also continue with the purchase.

You are generally better off being in an owned property than rented if you are made redundant, especially if the mortgage payments are less than the rent on a similar property.

If the travel chain does collapse, you can cover the mortgage yourself temporarily, and your partner can find another job I'm sure.

While a property can be repossessed by the lender if you fail to make mortgage payments, repossession is not a quick process - the lender is most unlikely to go down that road unless you have been in default for a very long time.

System

If HSBC find out that you did not inform them about something that was relevant to your circumstances and application, they may be annoyed, judge that you have breeched the terms of your mortgage and increase your rate, leading to default and repossession. Maybe you should take legal advice about whether you are legally required to inform them.

[Deleted User]

Diocletian_II wrote: »

If HSBC find out that you withheld that information from them, they may repossess the house after you have bought. Maybe you should take legal advice about whether you are legally required to inform them at this stage.

They wouldnt reposess the house if the payments are being made. Thats just insanity and scare mongering. The courts would laugh them out the building

A condition of the mortgage is that you tell them of any material change to the information they used to make a decision right up to completion. So that means you should tell them. You wont get a mortgage broker on here telling you otherwise.

I pretty much guarantee that 95% of people on here who arent in the industry will tell you to keep quiet about it. Ive seen too many of these threads and the split is always the same. Brokers - tell the lender, 95% of non-brokers - keep quiet you don't want to risk losing your mortgage

Its up to you. You should tell them as that's a condition of the loan but they wont find out unless you tell them.

I got made redundant from a bank years and years ago, there were about 10 people in the room buying a house with a mortgage with the same bank that was making us redundant. They dint pick up on it even then as post offer its very unlikely to have any manual intervention until funds release. No one looks at the news and then pulls a report of all their potential customers with that job

Taking on a mortgage when you are about to lose an income is a different question and without anyone seeing your budget and knowing your costs then its impossible to know. Whats the alternative? Paying rent? In which case its still an outgoing you have to pay to keep a roof over your head.


If youve already exchanged then its kind of a no brainer though. Either you buy the house and struggle through, or you dont buy the house and you get done for failure to complete.

System

Deleted_User wrote: »

They wouldnt reposess the house if the payments are being made. Thats just insanity and scare mongering. The courts would laugh them out the building

A condition of the mortgage is that you tell them of any material change to the information they used to make a decision right up to completion. So that means you should tell them. You wont get a mortgage broker on here telling you otherwise.

I pretty much guarantee that 95% of people on here who arent in the industry will tell you to keep quiet about it. Ive seen too many of these threads and the split is always the same. Brokers - tell the lender, 95% of non-brokers - keep quiet you don't want to risk losing your mortgage

Its up to you. You should tell them as that's a condition of the loan but they wont find out unless you tell them.

I got made redundant from a bank years and years ago, there were about 10 people in the room buying a house with a mortgage with the same bank that was making us redundant. They dint pick up on it even then as post offer its very unlikely to have any manual intervention until funds release. No one looks at the news and then pulls a report of all their potential customers with that job

Taking on a mortgage when you are about to lose an income is a different question and without anyone seeing your budget and knowing your costs then its impossible to know. Whats the alternative? Paying rent? In which case its still an outgoing you have to pay to keep a roof over your head.


If youve already exchanged then its kind of a no brainer though. Either you buy the house and struggle through, or you dont buy the house and you get done for failure to complete.

They may think the OP has breeched the terms of his mortgage by not informing them about something he knew (it is impossible to say they will never find out), and therefore calculate he is a higher credit risk, thus putting him on a higher interest rate, which he cannot afford, since he will only just make ends meet without his partners's job. This sounds similar to the stories of "liars' loans" in the 2008 US subprime crisis, where borrowers, encouraged by mortgage brokers, were getting mortgages by not providing the mortgage companies with the full facts about their circumstances. It ended badly.

mollycat

OP, I would go ahead with your purchase for the sensible reasons given above.

With regard to posts #7 and #9 can i caution you to the motivation of this poster.

A look at previous contributions (he has a thread further down the page), will allow you to make an impartial judgement on the credibility of his advice.

Good luck to your OH in finding another job

System

mollycat wrote: »

OP, I would go ahead with your purchase for the sensible reasons given above.

With regard to posts #7 and #9 can i caution you to the motivation of this poster.

A look at previous contributions (he has a thread further down the page), will allow you to make an impartial judgement on the credibility of his advice.

Good luck to your OH in finding another job

Well if you want to encourage the OP not to get proper legal advice, and potentially land himself in hot water, on your head be it - I presume you will also guarantee to reimburse him for any losses incurred in following your advice.