Mortgage broker - ask me anything

silvercar

My son is looking to buy a flat in London. Many of the flats he sees have cladding issues which are in the process of being sorted.
Estate agents tell him that obtaining a mortgage won’t be a problem if the resolution (to the cladding issue) and it’s funding is all sorted, even though the work hasn’t started. I’m a bit suspect of this. 

K_S

silvercar said:

My son is looking to buy a flat in London. Many of the flats he sees have cladding issues which are in the process of being sorted.
Estate agents tell him that obtaining a mortgage won’t be a problem if the resolution (to the cladding issue) and it’s funding is all sorted, even though the work hasn’t started. I’m a bit suspect of this. 

@silvercar You are broadly correct in being sceptical. Lender policy is as per what's in place today and that means most purpose-built block of flats require an A1, A2 or B1 rating on an EWS1 form. EAs will often quote the < 18m guidance but unfortunately the lenders aren't bound by that and valuers will often ask for EWS1 certificates even for those blocks.

Once there is a concrete policy in place to 'resolve' the issue of funding remedial works, I'm sure lender criteria in this matter will loosen.

The easiest/cheapest way of checking mortgageability of the block independently is looking up sales in the block in the last couple of years, downloading the title register from the land registry (£3 a pop) and checking to see if the property was bought with a mortgage or not.

Crow28

Crow28 8 February at 5:21PM

Hi we got out mortgage approved then pulled for an audit now been declined because of my work contract which I am getting done . Can a mortgage be approved after an aduit 

Skint_yet_Again

Thank you @K_S for your quick response. I am selling to Son & his girlfriend. I am gifting son £20k and his gf’s parents are gifting her 20k so it seemed to make sense to sell to them at market value and then they can use their deposits separate ? 

K_S

Crow28 said:

Crow28 8 February at 5:21PM

Hi we got out mortgage approved then pulled for an audit now been declined because of my work contract which I am getting done . Can a mortgage be approved after an aduit 

@crow28 It depends on the reason for the decline. If it's a criteria/policy issue that is resolved by something you can do/correct, then potentially yes. If it's due to suspected irregularities (they are unlikely to tell you as much), then it's unlikely that it will be overturned.

silvercar

K_S said:

silvercar said:

My son is looking to buy a flat in London. Many of the flats he sees have cladding issues which are in the process of being sorted.
Estate agents tell him that obtaining a mortgage won’t be a problem if the resolution (to the cladding issue) and it’s funding is all sorted, even though the work hasn’t started. I’m a bit suspect of this. 

@silvercar You are broadly correct in being sceptical. Lender policy is as per what's in place today and that means most purpose-built block of flats require an A1, A2 or B1 rating on an EWS1 form. EAs will often quote the < 18m guidance but unfortunately the lenders aren't bound by that and valuers will often ask for EWS1 certificates even for those blocks.

Once there is a concrete policy in place to 'resolve' the issue of funding remedial works, I'm sure lender criteria in this matter will loosen.

The easiest/cheapest way of checking mortgageability of the block independently is looking up sales in the block in the last couple of years, downloading the title register from the land registry (£3 a pop) and checking to see if the property was bought with a mortgage or not.

Many thanks, you’ve confirmed what I suspected.

ab07ash_2

haras_n0sirrah said:

Thought I would start a thread where people can ask the brokers opinion on things @ACG @LRmortgage @kingstreet @Deleted_User (any other brokers want to chip in - these were the main other brokers who came to mind.
It is definately an interesting market - probably the busiest I have ever been but at the same time lenders are sooo slow. 
Anyone got a question? Ask away

HI,

I declared bankruptcy in 2016 due to being injured and off work for 18 months before i was able to have an operation and get back to work.
This May will be 6 years so it should come off my record altogether.  I have since married and we have been able to save a 10% deposit to buy our first home.
The only debt we now have is my wife had a loan to buy a car which will be paid off in September this year.  Would it be best to pay this off before we apply for a mortgage?  Are there any tips you have that we should do between now and May before applying to enhance our chances of being successful?

Quip

Hello.

I'm almost 50 and have a £25k repayment mortgage, overpaying for the last few years.   

Is there any benefit for stopping overpayments to keep the mortgage going for longer, if I needed to remortgage in the next few years, or should I continue to pay off my mortgage fully ASAP?

Last time I remortgaged, the additional debt was in the form of a separate account, rather than an extension of the existing one, so on the face of it there appears to be no benefit to keep an old mortgage account alive for longer than necessary.

K_S

ab07ash_2 said:

haras_n0sirrah said:

Thought I would start a thread where people can ask the brokers opinion on things @ACG @LRmortgage @kingstreet @Deleted_User (any other brokers want to chip in - these were the main other brokers who came to mind.
It is definately an interesting market - probably the busiest I have ever been but at the same time lenders are sooo slow. 
Anyone got a question? Ask away

HI,

I declared bankruptcy in 2016 due to being injured and off work for 18 months before i was able to have an operation and get back to work.
This May will be 6 years so it should come off my record altogether.  I have since married and we have been able to save a 10% deposit to buy our first home.
The only debt we now have is my wife had a loan to buy a car which will be paid off in September this year.  Would it be best to pay this off before we apply for a mortgage?  Are there any tips you have that we should do between now and May before applying to enhance our chances of being successful?

@ab07ash2 If it has been 6+ years since your bankruptcy was discharged, then other than a few lenders who will not lend to ex-BRs, it shouldn't have any material impact on your mortgage options.

Depending on how much you need to borrow vs your income, the car loan may not have any adverse impact. If you're applying after May and the loan ends in September, a lot of lenders will ignore it for the purpose of affordability as it's a commitment that ends within the next 6 months.

If you haven't already, the one thing I would suggest is getting all 3 of your credit files and making sure that any default dates align with the BR dates. If the BR involved a repo, mortgage lenders often get this date wrong. 

K_S

Quip said:

Hello.

I'm almost 50 and have a £25k repayment mortgage, overpaying for the last few years.   

Is there any benefit for stopping overpayments to keep the mortgage going for longer, if I needed to remortgage in the next few years, or should I continue to pay off my mortgage fully ASAP?

Last time I remortgaged, the additional debt was in the form of a separate account, rather than an extension of the existing one, so on the face of it there appears to be no benefit to keep an old mortgage account alive for longer than necessary.

@quip If you think you will need to raise cash through a remortgage in the next few years then it may make sense to leave the mortgage running with a small balance as it can make the process a bit easier. If you are confident that you won't need to release any cash from the property and there are no penalties for paying it off then I guess it may be worth considering paying it off.