Mortgage broker - ask me anything

NewToThis2021

Hi there, I hope you can help...

I have an FTB application in with Santander via a broker. My illustration was on a 2yr fixed so I guess the application would be based on that product. Do you know if this could be changed to 5yr fixed at point of offer and would the application would need to be reviewed/submitted again? Thank you in advance 

zanux888

I’m very anxious and stressed about my mortgage application. Just a background information, I had some adverse history 2017-2019 missed payments and payday loans, nothing since but still have credit cards etc. 

I’m in process of purchasing 50% shared ownership property with 5% deposit.

my mortgage broker applied to Leeds Building society and so far it has been extremely slow process and I am so worried that I will be rejected and this will need to start again. 

18/03 full application submitted
12/04 valuation completed ( delayed due to sales team not available during Easter)
19/04 report received and enquiries raised all satisfied now but this caused around 3 week delay
5/05 3 month bank statements requested 
13/05 questions about transactions raised ( transfers to family)

17/05 spoke to Leeds today and been advised that it will be reviewed by next Wednesday.

would they decline application at this late stage? Currently turnaround for any documents to be reviewed is 9days

K_S

@zanux888 Obviously there are no guarantees but as long as they are still asking questions, it's positive   I hope it comes through soon, good luck!

Madeinireland101

Madeinireland101 said:

K_S said:

Madeinireland101 said:

K_S said:

Madeinireland101 said:

Hi,
My daughter works for NHS Professionals on the NHS Bank as a nurse. It’s a zero hours contract but is generally better thought of I think as there is no shortage of work and she can pick and choose shifts. She was abroad until April last year and she returned to the UK due to the pandemic. initially she had no thoughts of a house and just did a few odd shifts for a while to earn some money. Eventually she realised that she wouldn’t be returning abroad for a while and decided to buy a house in the UK - so over the last 9 months she ramped up her shifts appropriately. So she now has a 12 month record of employment using them but it’s very lobsided in that the earnings in the first 3 months were low. She got a DIP with Halifax (3 times actually) where they used her last 3 months payslips  to determine the amount they could lend. She has now found a house and is in the process of completing the process with them - except they now want the last 12 months worth of weekly payslips which was a bit if a surprise. If they are going to take the average then the amount they would be prepared to lend, I suspect, would fall short of what she requires and she is now worried about this. We will find out next week. She has a large deposit meaning her LTV ratio would be less than 75%.

i find it strange that Halifax don’t ask for the same information they requested for the DIP. What’s the point of the DIP then? It appears to have given us false hope on the amount that would be lent - hopefully not.

Is there anything else we could do apart from find additional deposit? Are there any other lenders we could investigate, while we wait, that would look favourably on a decent 9 month record which if annualised up would allow us to borrow an appropriate amount. I have tried Nationwide as they have the helping hand feature but they would only allow the income to be counted if she wasn’t the primary source of income. Most others seem to require a 12 month record and of course that falls short with the income multiples.

She is trying to borrow £235K with a £85k deposit. Her income for the year is approx £43k and for the last 9 months would annualise to more than £50k. For the last 6 months would annualise to £55k
Thanks...

@madeinireland101 Is there any particular reason you picked Halifax? Their criteria for zero-hours contracts is pretty clear

- The total of the last 12 calendar months income only will be used and all the income must be evidenced.

- 12 months payslips are required to evidence the income

So, they are likely to take 43k as the income with maximum lending around 205k or so.

A DIP is only as good as the information you put in, so if you put in 55k, you'll get that. If you put in 43k, you'll get a corresponding number.

If Halifax doesn't work out I would recommend getting in touch with a broker who can place the case accordingly (if at all possible) or else all she needs to do is wait for a few more months (appreciate she may lose this property though).

The reason we went for Halifax is that the criteria for NHS bank is last 3 consecutive payslips not the 12 months you have stated. They treat NHS bank different to other zero hour contracts for some reason. This is stated in their Mortgage lending criteria. I suspect the agent we called did not realise there was a difference in the way they are treated.
As it happens I have managed to find another lender (yet to speak to them as it was Sunday) Principality and their lending criteria states last 6 months payslips which should be perfect for us so I will be contacting them tomorrow morning to confirm.

@madeinireland101 In that case you should definitely escalate it with Halifax. Shouldn't have to use another lender just because a Halifax employee messed up. No need to pay Principality rates if you are eligible for Halifax. Good luck, hope it works out in the end!

Thanks - Yes we spoke to another advisor and pointed out the problem and they were going to point out the mistake to the guy who was initially dealing with us. We should hear back on Monday. The problem is the last 3 consecutive payslips are not good enough either due to recent holiday -  we feel sure it would make more sense for that to be 3 months as our daughter in paid weekly. Principality is a backup in case Halifax doesn’t work out but in actual fact they are cheaper on repayments for a 5 year fix compared to Halifax although their setup fee is higher £953 / month compared to £968.

Just a bit of an update: How crazy is the mortgage criteria for Halifax for NHS Bank? The last 3 consecutive payslips is really crazy when you are paid weekly. They refused to consider the last 3 months instead which is surely a far better measure of your ability to pay. So in order to get round the problem my daughter is working more hours this week and taking some holiday pay (which she could choose at any time) to ensure the last 3 weeks add up to the required amount - with the last week probably the majority. How crazy? Surely the underwriters are more sensible than that?

K_S

Madeinireland101 said:

Madeinireland101 said:

K_S said:

Madeinireland101 said:

K_S said:

Madeinireland101 said:

Hi,
My daughter works for NHS Professionals on the NHS Bank as a nurse. It’s a zero hours contract but is generally better thought of I think as there is no shortage of work and she can pick and choose shifts. She was abroad until April last year and she returned to the UK due to the pandemic. initially she had no thoughts of a house and just did a few odd shifts for a while to earn some money. Eventually she realised that she wouldn’t be returning abroad for a while and decided to buy a house in the UK - so over the last 9 months she ramped up her shifts appropriately. So she now has a 12 month record of employment using them but it’s very lobsided in that the earnings in the first 3 months were low. She got a DIP with Halifax (3 times actually) where they used her last 3 months payslips  to determine the amount they could lend. She has now found a house and is in the process of completing the process with them - except they now want the last 12 months worth of weekly payslips which was a bit if a surprise. If they are going to take the average then the amount they would be prepared to lend, I suspect, would fall short of what she requires and she is now worried about this. We will find out next week. She has a large deposit meaning her LTV ratio would be less than 75%.

i find it strange that Halifax don’t ask for the same information they requested for the DIP. What’s the point of the DIP then? It appears to have given us false hope on the amount that would be lent - hopefully not.

Is there anything else we could do apart from find additional deposit? Are there any other lenders we could investigate, while we wait, that would look favourably on a decent 9 month record which if annualised up would allow us to borrow an appropriate amount. I have tried Nationwide as they have the helping hand feature but they would only allow the income to be counted if she wasn’t the primary source of income. Most others seem to require a 12 month record and of course that falls short with the income multiples.

She is trying to borrow £235K with a £85k deposit. Her income for the year is approx £43k and for the last 9 months would annualise to more than £50k. For the last 6 months would annualise to £55k
Thanks...

@madeinireland101 Is there any particular reason you picked Halifax? Their criteria for zero-hours contracts is pretty clear

- The total of the last 12 calendar months income only will be used and all the income must be evidenced.

- 12 months payslips are required to evidence the income

So, they are likely to take 43k as the income with maximum lending around 205k or so.

A DIP is only as good as the information you put in, so if you put in 55k, you'll get that. If you put in 43k, you'll get a corresponding number.

If Halifax doesn't work out I would recommend getting in touch with a broker who can place the case accordingly (if at all possible) or else all she needs to do is wait for a few more months (appreciate she may lose this property though).

The reason we went for Halifax is that the criteria for NHS bank is last 3 consecutive payslips not the 12 months you have stated. They treat NHS bank different to other zero hour contracts for some reason. This is stated in their Mortgage lending criteria. I suspect the agent we called did not realise there was a difference in the way they are treated.
As it happens I have managed to find another lender (yet to speak to them as it was Sunday) Principality and their lending criteria states last 6 months payslips which should be perfect for us so I will be contacting them tomorrow morning to confirm.

@madeinireland101 In that case you should definitely escalate it with Halifax. Shouldn't have to use another lender just because a Halifax employee messed up. No need to pay Principality rates if you are eligible for Halifax. Good luck, hope it works out in the end!

Thanks - Yes we spoke to another advisor and pointed out the problem and they were going to point out the mistake to the guy who was initially dealing with us. We should hear back on Monday. The problem is the last 3 consecutive payslips are not good enough either due to recent holiday -  we feel sure it would make more sense for that to be 3 months as our daughter in paid weekly. Principality is a backup in case Halifax doesn’t work out but in actual fact they are cheaper on repayments for a 5 year fix compared to Halifax although their setup fee is higher £953 / month compared to £968.

Just a bit of an update: How crazy is the mortgage criteria for Halifax for NHS Bank? The last 3 consecutive payslips is really crazy when you are paid weekly. They refused to consider the last 3 months instead which is surely a far better measure of your ability to pay. So in order to get round the problem my daughter is working more hours this week and taking some holiday pay (which she could choose at any time) to ensure the last 3 weeks add up to the required amount - with the last week probably the majority. How crazy? Surely the underwriters are more sensible than that?

@madeinreland101 Haha, welcome to my world That's a good snapshot of how mainstream lenders process applications. Surely even a child could understand that 3 weeks of pay is far easier to game than 3 months! It doesn't make any sense but there you go. I wouldn't be surprised if they later asked for 13+ weeks worth of payslips anyway because of the holiday pay on the payslips.

What did Principality say?

Madeinireland101

K_S said:

Madeinireland101 said:

Madeinireland101 said:

K_S said:

Madeinireland101 said:

K_S said:

Madeinireland101 said:

Hi,
My daughter works for NHS Professionals on the NHS Bank as a nurse. It’s a zero hours contract but is generally better thought of I think as there is no shortage of work and she can pick and choose shifts. She was abroad until April last year and she returned to the UK due to the pandemic. initially she had no thoughts of a house and just did a few odd shifts for a while to earn some money. Eventually she realised that she wouldn’t be returning abroad for a while and decided to buy a house in the UK - so over the last 9 months she ramped up her shifts appropriately. So she now has a 12 month record of employment using them but it’s very lobsided in that the earnings in the first 3 months were low. She got a DIP with Halifax (3 times actually) where they used her last 3 months payslips  to determine the amount they could lend. She has now found a house and is in the process of completing the process with them - except they now want the last 12 months worth of weekly payslips which was a bit if a surprise. If they are going to take the average then the amount they would be prepared to lend, I suspect, would fall short of what she requires and she is now worried about this. We will find out next week. She has a large deposit meaning her LTV ratio would be less than 75%.

i find it strange that Halifax don’t ask for the same information they requested for the DIP. What’s the point of the DIP then? It appears to have given us false hope on the amount that would be lent - hopefully not.

Is there anything else we could do apart from find additional deposit? Are there any other lenders we could investigate, while we wait, that would look favourably on a decent 9 month record which if annualised up would allow us to borrow an appropriate amount. I have tried Nationwide as they have the helping hand feature but they would only allow the income to be counted if she wasn’t the primary source of income. Most others seem to require a 12 month record and of course that falls short with the income multiples.

She is trying to borrow £235K with a £85k deposit. Her income for the year is approx £43k and for the last 9 months would annualise to more than £50k. For the last 6 months would annualise to £55k
Thanks...

@madeinireland101 Is there any particular reason you picked Halifax? Their criteria for zero-hours contracts is pretty clear

- The total of the last 12 calendar months income only will be used and all the income must be evidenced.

- 12 months payslips are required to evidence the income

So, they are likely to take 43k as the income with maximum lending around 205k or so.

A DIP is only as good as the information you put in, so if you put in 55k, you'll get that. If you put in 43k, you'll get a corresponding number.

If Halifax doesn't work out I would recommend getting in touch with a broker who can place the case accordingly (if at all possible) or else all she needs to do is wait for a few more months (appreciate she may lose this property though).

The reason we went for Halifax is that the criteria for NHS bank is last 3 consecutive payslips not the 12 months you have stated. They treat NHS bank different to other zero hour contracts for some reason. This is stated in their Mortgage lending criteria. I suspect the agent we called did not realise there was a difference in the way they are treated.
As it happens I have managed to find another lender (yet to speak to them as it was Sunday) Principality and their lending criteria states last 6 months payslips which should be perfect for us so I will be contacting them tomorrow morning to confirm.

@madeinireland101 In that case you should definitely escalate it with Halifax. Shouldn't have to use another lender just because a Halifax employee messed up. No need to pay Principality rates if you are eligible for Halifax. Good luck, hope it works out in the end!

Thanks - Yes we spoke to another advisor and pointed out the problem and they were going to point out the mistake to the guy who was initially dealing with us. We should hear back on Monday. The problem is the last 3 consecutive payslips are not good enough either due to recent holiday -  we feel sure it would make more sense for that to be 3 months as our daughter in paid weekly. Principality is a backup in case Halifax doesn’t work out but in actual fact they are cheaper on repayments for a 5 year fix compared to Halifax although their setup fee is higher £953 / month compared to £968.

Just a bit of an update: How crazy is the mortgage criteria for Halifax for NHS Bank? The last 3 consecutive payslips is really crazy when you are paid weekly. They refused to consider the last 3 months instead which is surely a far better measure of your ability to pay. So in order to get round the problem my daughter is working more hours this week and taking some holiday pay (which she could choose at any time) to ensure the last 3 weeks add up to the required amount - with the last week probably the majority. How crazy? Surely the underwriters are more sensible than that?

@madeinreland101 Haha, welcome to my world That's a good snapshot of how mainstream lenders process applications. Surely even a child could understand that 3 weeks of pay is far easier to game than 3 months! It doesn't make any sense but there you go. I wouldn't be surprised if they later asked for 13 weeks worth of payslips anyway because of the holiday pay on the payslips.

What did Principality say?

We are calling Principality tomorrow. As they are cheaper they are probably our preferred route - just keeping Halifax warm if that doesn’t work. Unfortunately our solicitor isn’t on the Principality panel but we are warming up a new one who is and they are about £400 cheaper too. So the downsides to this is that I think (after reading other info) Principality will take longer to make a decision and we are a bit worried that switching solicitor will spook the seller. Any advise on either of those two would be good. The offer was only accepted last Thursday so it’s not like we are really dragging our heels 😀 - Ideally we would like to keep both lenders alive until a decision is made but I suppose we will have to commit some funds to them at some point for the surveyor - but as I’ve not bought a house for a long time I’m not sure if and when they will ask us for funds.

Madeinireland101

One other question if I may....As my daughter was working yesterday and today I called Principality to try and progress but she will have to call them herself - hence calling them tomorrow. One thing they mention was a required for a history of a UK residential address for 3 years. My daughter returned from abroad in April last year as she was on a working holiday. She obviously being 20+ has a long UK residential address history living with us but not the last 3 years which was interrupted for a while by her working holiday. While away she has remained on the NHS bank payroll and on the occasions she returned for a short trip she did the odd shift. She also remained on the Electoral roll etc.- Is that likely to scupper us?
Thanks...

K_S

@madeinireland101

- Generally speaking, yes Principality usually will take longer than the likes of Halifax.

- You've only had an offer accepted a few days ago, I don't see any reason why the EA would be spooked by a change in solicitors.

- As you have described it, the time away on holiday is unlikely to be an issue.

ASL1976

Hello - looking for some help! My wife and I have a single income of around £3,400 a month (from my job). For the past three years I have been paying my debts back via StepChange. This arrangement was a Debt Management Plan. My rent is currently £1,600.00 a month and I was paying StepChange £550 a month. We think if we can get a mortgage for around £800 a month that would mean we were significantly stronger financially (half the rent and no stepchange = £1,350.00 spare a month). My debts were all paid back and closed off in April. I have no debt at all now and my wife also has no debt. She is not currently working - so we just have my income (as per the above). We are committed to buying a property and have a deposit of £125,000.00 from the sale of a property that was inherited last year. I applied for an agreement in principle with Barclays on Saturday and was turned down - presumably because of the history of debt. I totally understand that position, but I am trying to look to the future and wondered what I could do to move forward and obtain a mortgage for a house. As I say, financially we are now sound and we would be so much better off with a mortgage than continuing to pay rent. It is understandable that Barclays would be refusing, but such a refusal is made on a credit score and not a completely accurate appraisal of our financial position. Any advice or help is really appreciated. Thank you.

K_S

ASL1976 said:

Hello - looking for some help! My wife and I have a single income of around £3,400 a month (from my job). For the past three years I have been paying my debts back via StepChange. This arrangement was a Debt Management Plan. My rent is currently £1,600.00 a month and I was paying StepChange £550 a month. We think if we can get a mortgage for around £800 a month that would mean we were significantly stronger financially (half the rent and no stepchange = £1,350.00 spare a month). My debts were all paid back and closed off in April. I have no debt at all now and my wife also has no debt. She is not currently working - so we just have my income (as per the above). We are committed to buying a property and have a deposit of £125,000.00 from the sale of a property that was inherited last year. I applied for an agreement in principle with Barclays on Saturday and was turned down - presumably because of the history of debt. I totally understand that position, but I am trying to look to the future and wondered what I could do to move forward and obtain a mortgage for a house. As I say, financially we are now sound and we would be so much better off with a mortgage than continuing to pay rent. It is understandable that Barclays would be refusing, but such a refusal is made on a credit score and not a completely accurate appraisal of our financial position. Any advice or help is really appreciated. Thank you.

@asl1976 Is there any reason you picked Barclays? If you are looking to move quickly, I would recommend getting in touch with an experienced broker to place your case appropriately. With a recently concluded DMP, a lot of mainstream lenders will be off the table. Unfortunately, all mainstream lenders will credit-score but there are lenders who don't who may be more appropriate for your scenario.