Mortgage broker - ask me anything

GreenCat80

I’ve been paying off my old (dmp) debts, I am hoping to have the last ones paid by the end of the month (🤞🏻) (the defaults are over 6yrs old so they’re not on my file anymore) Plus my CCJ will be coming off on the 25th April. My ex is hassling me to get my mortgage to buy him out of my home as he has found a house to buy, but I’m wondering if I should wait until after the ccj comes off now as it’s so close? Are the 2 debts plus the ccj going to greatly affect my chances/the rates I can get? 

K_S

GreenCat80 said:

I’ve been paying off my old (dmp) debts, I am hoping to have the last ones paid by the end of the month (🤞🏻) (the defaults are over 6yrs old so they’re not on my file anymore) Plus my CCJ will be coming off on the 25th April. My ex is hassling me to get my mortgage to buy him out of my home as he has found a house to buy, but I’m wondering if I should wait until after the ccj comes off now as it’s so close? Are the 2 debts plus the ccj going to greatly affect my chances/the rates I can get? 

@greencat80 A CCJ on file will impact the pool of potential lenders. Whether the impact will be minor or major will depend on the details.

Given that you're barely a month away, you are probably best off waiting until the end of April, getting a copy of your three credit reports and checking to confirm that the CCJ no longer shows on any of the reports. Once that's all ok, you should be good to go.

Billxx

Hi, I read somewhere that the BoE is likely to change the mortgage stress tests and that this may affect the "loan to income flow limit".  Does this mean that buyers could get bigger mortgages based on their annual income?  If so, what sort of factors are likely, 5 times?

K_S

Billxx said:

Hi, I read somewhere that the BoE is likely to change the mortgage stress tests and that this may affect the "loan to income flow limit".  Does this mean that buyers could get bigger mortgages based on their annual income?  If so, what sort of factors are likely, 5 times?

@billx The proposal (very likely to be implemented as per what I hear in the trade press) is the dropping of one of the main affordability rules imposed by the BoE, specifically a stress test by adding a 3% interest rate rise. Dropping it would mean that, in theory, lenders no longer have to test affordability based on future interest rates, thus opening the doors to higher borrowing on the same income.

In practice, it's unlikely to make a huge change straightaway, especially with mainstream lenders and in a rising interest rate environment. I would expect the specialist sector (more used to higher risk lending) to make use of it to offer products with relaxed affordability, at a premium interest rate.

I've no idea as to what that might mean for income multiples. 5-5.5x is already available across a few lenders depending on criteria and a handful of other lenders even offer 6-7x for people in certain professions.

Billxx

Many thanks for your response and the clear explanation.

Kirsten_R

@K_S I had messaged you before about the mortgage with HSBC. It's now almost a week later from them enquiring about the P60. They came back 5 days later and said the earnings weren't as expected and once we clarified that they took another 3 days to come back today and ask about previous employment history.

We are now almost 3 weeks from first applying and losing all hope. Sounds like they are purposely delaying the process now. What would your opinion on the timelines be ?

K_S

Kirsten_R said:

@K_S I had messaged you before about the mortgage with HSBC. It's now almost a week later from them enquiring about the P60. They came back 5 days later and said the earnings weren't as expected and once we clarified that they took another 3 days to come back today and ask about previous employment history.

We are now almost 3 weeks from first applying and losing all hope. Sounds like they are purposely delaying the process now. What would your opinion on the timelines be ?

@kirsten_R 3 weeks isn't that long to be honest given that you have had a few queries go to and fro and each time that happens, it spends a few days sitting in a queue. The only concerning thing in your post is that the P60 didn't satisfy whatever income-related issue (I'm assuming you have some form of variable income in addition to your basic?) it is that they raised the query for.

There's no reason for the underwriter to delay the process on purpose, if your case doesn't meet criteria, they'll just decline it. If it doesn't meet affordability, they might say that the max lending is x, how would you like to proceed.

If you are using one, your broker would be the person best placed to explain what the sticking point is.

Kirsten_R

@K_S yeah the problem was they requested last year's P60 when I was in a different job and earning quite a bit less. It seems the underwriter got themselves confused about the situation. It has all been cleared up now and this is now the latest question they've asked about my previous employment when all this information was given to them at the point of application.

Just seems like when we get somewhere it's knocked back by another simple question that could have been asked at the time. But understand they're also busy at the moment. 

Thanks for responding! I appreciate it!

JellyphantCastle

Me again  NatWest application was approved on Tuesday, received offer by email and tracker moved to step 3. I realised the solicitor details were wrong, I called NatWest and they said it would go to the post-offer team to amend the letter and re-issue to all parties. They advised it would be Monday due to them being very busy. 

I’ve just checked the tracker (bad habits!) and it’s gone back to step 1 - “assessment and valuation”. The actions under steps 2 and 3 are still there, but under step 3, the action about waiting for the client’s (my) solicitor to provide certificate of title is marked as complete… with Monday’s date (04/04) and a time stamp of 2pm. As of Friday PM I know they hadn’t issued the letter to my solicitor so I don’t get how it’s future-dated on the tracker as being complete. 

Has it automatically gone back to step 1 because they need to re-issue the offer? I am bricking it now in case they’ve decided to withdraw it. I did ask the guy I spoke to earlier in the week if the application would need to be reassessed and he said the only thing they would need to assess was whether the new solicitor is on their panel, which he confirmed over the phone as being fine. 

Anyone had experience of this? I should add I’m wiped out with Covid so not exactly at my most rational. I wish I hadn’t looked at the tracker again! 

K_S

@JellyphantCastle The NatWest tracker works ok if everything goes exactly as planned, there's nothing non-standard in the case or documentation, there are no queries and finally the person updating the tracker cares enough to click the right/appropriate buttons (where they exist).

In most other cases, it can be utter sh*te, so I wouldn't worry too much about what it shows. I had a PAYE case recently where the tracker was showing that they're waiting for proof of self-employed income (for a P60 related query) and the client was (understandably) upset and worried unnecessarily.

Changing sol details post-offer is super straightforward and you should have the reissued offer in a couple of days.