NatWest if you have applied for SSEIS

skinnymonkey

they will not consider any other income if you have applied for SSEIS

anonymouse2202

Just wanted to say that I really appreciate you sharing this- my partner applied for SEISS but got a tiny amount because of not working a couple of years ago, and one year's income that they inputted wrong. After you posted this on the other thread we spoke to NatWest who confirmed that they use the SEISS amount over any other income source- as a result she's paid the loan back so we are hoping (with every fibre of our being) that this will be enough to make them use her actual income for the last 2 years in their calculations as opposed to the SEISS one (less than 3K per annum!!). If we get an offer it really will be thanks to you in a big way! 

skinnymonkey

I had very candid conversation with NatWest regarding their decision to downgrade loan amount!!!. Implied that if you took a grant, you needed it and therefore automatically deemed affected by Covid. My argument is that when grant applications went in no-one could forsee the impact of Covid. Who wouldn't accept a salary top up ? taxed as income and therefore should only be deemed as supplementary income to "stay home." My partner after 10 weeks of isolation in line with government guidelines has worked doubly hard to fulfil all his work and is booked until December, with a number of upcoming projects. He will earn more than last year's reported SA. They are not considering bank statements showing income deposited as not reported income. So I am not sure where this leaves any applicant .
 They haven't made this public knowledge. And they have introduced part way through my application. So I have wasted another 6 weeks (after a failed application due to their admin failures). So 3 months after valuation survey I am still left in the balance looking at alternative lending or homeless! I really do wish you all the best. I have my fingers crossed for you.... M

chillicheesedog

This is really weird since SEISS doesn't mean you don't work, people still work and totally right, who can foresee what the future brings. If since, work has been coming in and earnings are seemingly stable, it seems incredibly harsh to use SEISS amount as income, especially when most lenders have reduced the affordability calculation down to 4.5 or less because of Covid already.
Why even ask for any bank statements and other income proof when they'll just use that figure anyway?
Hope HSBC don't do this...

skinnymonkey

Exactly! It feels like you are penalised for staying at home! Crazy.... I am not sure how many others have experienced this... I am sure Rishi wasn't expecting any self employed to be subject to this when he issued SSEIS.

Jamaicanmelaff

chillicheesedog said:

This is really weird since SEISS doesn't mean you don't work, people still work and totally right, who can foresee what the future brings. If since, work has been coming in and earnings are seemingly stable, it seems incredibly harsh to use SEISS amount as income, especially when most lenders have reduced the affordability calculation down to 4.5 or less because of Covid already.
Why even ask for any bank statements and other income proof when they'll just use that figure anyway?
Hope HSBC don't do this...

I didn’t claim the SEISS, but HSBC asked me for proof of my income over the last few months plus business bank statements. I don’t have a business bank because I’m a sole trader, but I sent them all of my invoices from March to end of May (they asked at the start of June), most of which matched money already paid into my account, as that’s all I had and they accepted that. I got my offer last Thursday. Good luck!

anonymouse2202

skinnymonkey said:

I had very candid conversation with NatWest regarding their decision to downgrade loan amount!!!. Implied that if you took a grant, you needed it and therefore automatically deemed affected by Covid. My argument is that when grant applications went in no-one could forsee the impact of Covid. Who wouldn't accept a salary top up ? taxed as income and therefore should only be deemed as supplementary income to "stay home." My partner after 10 weeks of isolation in line with government guidelines has worked doubly hard to fulfil all his work and is booked until December, with a number of upcoming projects. He will earn more than last year's reported SA. They are not considering bank statements showing income deposited as not reported income. So I am not sure where this leaves any applicant .
 They haven't made this public knowledge. And they have introduced part way through my application. So I have wasted another 6 weeks (after a failed application due to their admin failures). So 3 months after valuation survey I am still left in the balance looking at alternative lending or homeless! I really do wish you all the best. I have my fingers crossed for you.... M

Thank you! What an awful situation for you. We have been going mad with the stress so I can only imagine what you are going through. Got my fingers crossed for you too.

chillicheesedog

Jamaicanmelaff said:

chillicheesedog said:

This is really weird since SEISS doesn't mean you don't work, people still work and totally right, who can foresee what the future brings. If since, work has been coming in and earnings are seemingly stable, it seems incredibly harsh to use SEISS amount as income, especially when most lenders have reduced the affordability calculation down to 4.5 or less because of Covid already.
Why even ask for any bank statements and other income proof when they'll just use that figure anyway?
Hope HSBC don't do this...

I didn’t claim the SEISS, but HSBC asked me for proof of my income over the last few months plus business bank statements. I don’t have a business bank because I’m a sole trader, but I sent them all of my invoices from March to end of May (they asked at the start of June), most of which matched money already paid into my account, as that’s all I had and they accepted that. I got my offer last Thursday. Good luck!

Thank you! It's been 2.5 weeks since application and a week since they asked for additional docs from self employed husband. I know reading other people's waiting time that's no time at all but feels like an eternity. 
Husband took SEISS because a couple of projects fell through and he couldn't foresee what was going to happen, luckily everything was fine in the end and he won't need to apply for the second grant now. Hopefully we'll hear back this week.

Jamaicanmelaff

chillicheesedog said:

Jamaicanmelaff said:

chillicheesedog said:

This is really weird since SEISS doesn't mean you don't work, people still work and totally right, who can foresee what the future brings. If since, work has been coming in and earnings are seemingly stable, it seems incredibly harsh to use SEISS amount as income, especially when most lenders have reduced the affordability calculation down to 4.5 or less because of Covid already.
Why even ask for any bank statements and other income proof when they'll just use that figure anyway?
Hope HSBC don't do this...

I didn’t claim the SEISS, but HSBC asked me for proof of my income over the last few months plus business bank statements. I don’t have a business bank because I’m a sole trader, but I sent them all of my invoices from March to end of May (they asked at the start of June), most of which matched money already paid into my account, as that’s all I had and they accepted that. I got my offer last Thursday. Good luck!

Thank you! It's been 2.5 weeks since application and a week since they asked for additional docs from self employed husband. I know reading other people's waiting time that's no time at all but feels like an eternity. 
Husband took SEISS because a couple of projects fell through and he couldn't foresee what was going to happen, luckily everything was fine in the end and he won't need to apply for the second grant now. Hopefully we'll hear back this week.

I got stuck in a 4 week "queue" after submitting initial documents, which turned out to be not a queue at all but HSBC having issues with their legacy portal (my income is foreign) so not noticing the additional docs had been submitted, despite having been emailed them too. Once that was sorted and the underwriters started assessing, it was quite quick. 1 week for the underwriting team to assess and sign everything off, then passed to senior underwriters to check and approve which took 4 days. It was escalated by the BDM, who also instructed the valuation, though because of the 4 week delay.

skinnymonkey

Sounds like HSBC has had their "troubles" too, but less than ShatWest! I really wish you all the best and thank you for taking the time to share your experiences... My head is spinning.... Don't know where to turn to! Trying NatWest to underwriter to broker with a better understanding of their evaluation criteria... I found out today that the last 3 years of SA302 were not even considered!!! How can that be?!!! 🤷🏼‍♀️

Thrugelmir

skinnymonkey said:

 My argument is that when grant applications went in no-one could forsee the impact of Covid. 

Events are far from other as well. The wider economy has a very long way to recover before there'll be more stability. Hardly surprising that lenders are being ultra cautious. Someone taking the grant would naturally be assumed to require it. Lenders cannot micro manage every mortgage application to the micro level. Hence lending criteria set at board level.