Mortgage broker - ask me anything

Louise_G_1983

My mortgage application is going backwards and forwards with Vida. I am on a DMP (maintained well) and my husband has a good credit rating, however he took out some short term loans in 2019 (finished early 2020) as we had a 'tight spot' and husband had other debts. We have now cleared his debts and it's just my DMP remaining but I'm worried the short term loans are going to hinder us. I believe our case is now with a senior underwriter for final checks after lots of questions and requests for information  but I'm so worried they are dragging things out to decline us. In your experience do lenders tend to decline sooner in the process? Or can they decline right at the end? My broker said it would be unusual to decline now but its so stressful. We are hoping to buy a new build and reserved 4th April so builders are starting to chase up the offer. Any advice to give me peace of mind would be appreciated. 

K_S

@louise_g_1983 With a payday loan that has ended more almost 18m ago, I doubt that would be an issue to trip up a Vida case this late. To be frank, Vida has no reason to drag it out and then decline. If they found something worth declining for, they'd just do it and not waste any more time on the case.

I know its easier said than done but try not to stress and just trust what your broker has said. Good luck!

Louise_G_1983

Thank you, I'll try and keep calm. Its horrible waiting when we have limited options. But it does seem like it's moving forwards. 

hellosunshine17

Hi, my husband has a small second income from self employed work which we have not factored into our mortgage application with Nationwide as he's now got a full time job and will stop trading soon. Will SEISS payments have any impact on our application? The last two months he has been mistakenly paid by his employer into his business account (he used to contract for them as part of his self employed job) instead of his personal account, so Nationwide will see the SEISS payment on his bank statements. Is this going to affect us at all? Thanks!

K_S

@hellosunshine17 Is any of his income being used for mortgage affordability purposes?

I'm reading what you said as him moving from contracting for them to being a PAYE employee, how long ago was that? 

hellosunshine17

@K_S He went on their payroll end of last year part time, and moved to full time from 1st April. We're not using any of his self employed income for affordability.

hellosunshine17

hellosunshine17 said:

@K_S He went on their payroll end of last year part time, and moved to full time from 1st April. We're not using any of his self employed income for affordability.

Posted too soon - affordability is based on both my and his PAYE only

K_S

hellosunshine17 said:

hellosunshine17 said:

@K_S He went on their payroll end of last year part time, and moved to full time from 1st April. We're not using any of his self employed income for affordability.

Posted too soon - affordability is based on both my and his PAYE only

@hellosunshine17 I can't discuss lender practices in detail but with an underwriter's hat on, the primary aspect I'd want to make sure isn't contrived (for the purposes of the mortgage application) is the employment arrangement and how recent the move to full-time pay is. Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting that you are doing anything untoward, just mentioning how the underwriter may look at it. I hope that makes sense.

marvelman1985

Hi again guys. Quick question on some confusing and conflicting potential mortgage offer amounts I’m getting from NatWest - direct via two sources, as well as through my broker…

Basically, I got a decision in principle from NatWest via their website at £177k. Then, from another thread on here, I found the RBS Group mortgage calculator for intermediaries and entered the exact same info as I’d entered to get my decision in principle, and was presented with a second figure of £166k. Finally, my broker says NatWest will only lend me £163k - different yet again.

Any idea what could be going on here? Especially with regard to the two different figures direct from NatWest?

I guess the obvious answer in terms of my broker’s figure is that he may have entered some income details incorrectly (the offending item could be around the discretionary bonus I receive from my employer, of which NatWest intermediary guidance suggests they will consider 50% of the lower total annual value from the past two years. When we last spoke - before I’d read that guidance - it sounded like the figure my broker was using was 100% of the lower figure. However, if anything this means I am underestimating my income versus him, yet still seemingly obtaining higher offers!)

One other thing it could be related to is dependents - the intermediary calculator asks for ‘number of dependents’ and, of course, I know that my two year old son is a dependent, but do I also need to count my wife due to her not being employed at the moment (while looking after our little one)?

When I enter ‘2’ in the dependents box, the offer (understandably!) drops to £153k. But again, this is different from my broker’s £163k figure. (Using his incorrectly higher bonus figure ups it to £159k, still different!) 

What’s odd about the dependents thing is that I was able to specify my wife as ‘not employed’ on the NatWest decision in principle tool, yet it gave me the highest offer of the lot!

I’m so confused as to what figure to trust as we embark on our house hunt and making potential offers! At this point the only thing I can think to do is try another broker?

hellosunshine17

Thanks @K_S not sure I fully understand - they might think we're trying to play the system somehow? He's worked for them for years as a contractor part time on the promise of a full time PAYE job once the company could afford it. Covid meant they couldn't take him on full time til April, so he applied for the grant to cover the last of the lost self employed income up to that point. Do you know what we'd have to do to get around this? It's all done honestly (though I wish my husband had spoken to me first before applying) but I suppose that's impossible to prove! Thanks so much for your advice, really appreciate it!