Mortgage application (maternity)

grich84

Evening all,

I'm new here, and just looking for some advice.

My wife and I are currently in the process of applying for a mortgage on a new house, My wife’s maternity leave has just come to an end mid-December. Her December payslip shows half the month paid as the first half was maternity pay and the rest full pay (annual leave). We provided the last 3 payslips before maternity leave as requested by the lender, they asked for a letter from payroll asking for the December payslip to be justified. This is what they put:

I am writing to confirm your maternity leave ended on 16th December.
The abs.offset on your December payslip is for your unpaid maternity leave 1-15/12/19
You returned to the business on the 16th December

The problem is that in January my wife goes onto part time salary but December pay is full pay on full hours. I guess my question is, is this letter substantial enough? Only her payroll have advised they won’t make any chances to it… helpful! We wanted to just get the application before her hours changed meaning we could borrow more.

Any advice is most welcome

ACG

Lenders generally want a letter that says what your pay will be when you return.

If anything your employer's have probably done you a favour by being vague as there is still a chance the lender will use the higher figure. Had they been more open the lender would be using the lower figure. It is 50/50 as to how this will go.

If you need the higher income figure I think you need to prefer for the worst and hope for the best and also hope the lender doesn't take objection to the fact you have not been open on your application.

grich84

Thank you for your quick reply, it's very much appreciated.

That's interesting what you say about the employer doing us a favour, I never looked at like that. But I guess we will just have to cross our fingers and toes in the hope they offer the higher amount. There isn't much more we can do really, even our financial advisor isn't sure on this one.

haras_nosirrah

A lot of lenders ask for confirmation as to what your return to work pay will be and whether your terms and conditions will be the same. They also want cobfirmation of childcare arrangements. As a broker I would have gone from your return to work pay.

I fear you may come unstuck here.

Thrugelmir

grich84 wrote: »

The problem is that in January my wife goes onto part time salary but December pay is full pay on full hours.

What's the problem? If you've inaccurately declared your wife's future salary that amounts to application fraud. Not a wise move to make.

grich84

We put the application in before my wife's change in hours.

As it stands the December salary reflects full time hours, the lender only knows this so far but of course if/when they ask for January's payslip they will want to know why the change in salary.

Hindsight we should of started this process before maternity leave

csgohan4

grich84 wrote: »

We put the application in before my wife's change in hours.

As it stands the December salary reflects full time hours, the lender only knows this so far but of course if/when they ask for January's payslip they will want to know why the change in salary.

Hindsight we should of started this process before maternity leave

Lenders can AND do request further bank statements and/or payslips after exchange, if they picked this up, you would have some explaining to do.

Not worth risking your mortgage nor being on a fraud register

ACG

Did you submit the application before you knew her hours would be reducing?
Even if the answer to that is yes, you and the broker have an obligation to tell the lender of any changes or expected changes to your circumstances.

Im not here to judge, but had you been honest your stress levels would be lower. This is why I am a big believer in doing things the right way, blood pressure is lower and I am 99.9% sure the customer will get their mortgage and we will get paid.

haras_nosirrah

One of the questions on the form would have been 'do you know of any future changes to income or expenditure'

grich84

Quite right this has been rather stressful, we are resigned to the fact that this isn't going in our favour which is understandable.

As mentioned above if they ask for payslips after the change in hours then it's not worth the risk!

The lender just asked for December's payslip to be justified, and surprised they didn't ask of any upcoming changes following maternity leave.

It's a shame as we went full steam ahead with putting on offer on a house as our financial advisor didn't see there being any issues with our application.. Live and learn I guess ��

haras_nosirrah

You may get lucky but I would never have submitted it on full time hours to start with.
Mentally prepare yourselves for it not going your way.