Job change before Exchange/completion

Buyer777

Hi All,

I am in a bit of a tricky situation and was wondering if anyone of you have had any similar experience and what the outcome was.

My spouse and I made a joint application for a mortgage after a while of applying she changed her job because she couldn't stand it anymore. The new job however pays £6k less annually than the job she quit (which was used while applying). In the meanwhile the underwriters approved our mortgage and we received the final offer.

However, as it is the right thing to do we informed our mortgage broker of our situation. They spoke with the business development team at Barclays and after running some numbers through their calculators they came back saying that based on the new sal they will be able to grant us a mortgage of £1k less, which we feel is fine and manageable as our LTV will still be around 90% and we can afford the extra 1k. However this is still subject to underwriter approval.

Given that my wife just joined her new job, the only income/employment proof we have is the new contract. Was wondering if any of you have had a similar experience with Barclays and what was the outcome. Would you happen to know if Barclays accept contracts only, especially if it is a change of job situation on an offer that they already made?
Having read through their lending criteria online it sounds like they need 3 months payslips for those who are employed but was wondering if any of you knew if they make exceptions based on situations or is their lending criteria hard and fast? My mortgage broker thinks it ideally shouldn't be an issue at this stage but just thought of checking if there are others out there who have experienced this before.

Mortgage_Adviser

Of what I remember Barclays need to see one payslip.


You are lucky though that you weren't with the lender who would just withdraw the offer as many don't accept the clients with probation.


As a broker I would always always advice my clients against changing jobs or taking on any new credit commitments before the completion of the mortgage.


Could've she not managed to 'suffer' at the job she didn't like so much for an extra month or so for a greater benefit of the house ownership?
She could've gone off sick with stress in the worst case...

Buyer777

I guess she could have but the consequences are something that came to light only after the fact.

I dont think probation should be a problem as she was on probation in her previous job as well and we got an offer from Barclays despite that. I read Barclay's lending criteria again and seems like they need you to be in your job for at least 3 months OR continuously employed for the past 18 months. However, I couldn't find anything on supporting documents for someone in a new job. Any one here with any luck getting a positive decision from Barclay's with a new job and a clean credit history?

The mortgage advisors have informed me that they have submitted the info to the bank and it is in queue to be assessed and can take up to Friday to be picked up. So wont find anything out until next week I guess. Nerve racking.

Buyer777

So for the benefit of anyone else in a similar situation as we are. Barclays do not accept contracts. Heard back from the mortgage advisor today and while our application hasn't been rejected, they are not willing to move it back to offer unless we provide at least 1 payslip and a bank statement showing the corresponding salary credit.

Given that my wife will paid not before end of month and we were hoping to complete before christmas, we were thinking of just abandoning this application and applying to Halifax who I know take contracts and require a letter from the employer. Do you guys see any downside to this? Does it cause problems to have a mortgage application open with one lender but apply to another as well? Surely the mortgage advisor will explain our situation to Halifax on application.

Buyer777

So for the benefit of anyone else in a similar situation as me in the future. Barclay's does not accept contracts, doesn't matter if your mortage broker thinks they might...they wont! they were insisting on at least one payslip plus a bank statement reflecting that salary credit. And this criteria is pretty clear on their lending criteria page.

what I did was switched lenders. I went to Halifax and have an offer now in exactly 2 weeks. Halifax do accept job contracts. Of'course the documents they require largely depends on your credit score. In my case all we required were 3 months salary slips from me and my wife's job contract and it worked out. I was quite surprised that they didn't ask for bank statements or even an ID proof. I guess they verify everything from your credit file.

There was a minor difference in rate between Barclays and Halifax (1.77 vs 1.8 for a 2 year fixed at 90%LTV) and the overall mortgage fees were higher for Halifax and even the valuation wasn't free like it was with Barclays. But at least i have a mortgage offer.

Also, applying to two lenders didn't affect my credit score (checked on credit karma that updates every week). Also I was upfront with Halifax that i have an open case with Barclays and they were ok with it.

Will start a separate thread detailing my experience of going to Halifax direct vs using a mortgage broker.

Hopefully things go well between now and completion. Fingers crossed.

Stebani

Thanks for the running updates OP, I'm sure it will help prospective borrowers getting here through a google search.