Mortgage broker - ask me anything

K_S

jmeredith123 said:

Hi I'm an unusual and complicated case and finding it hard to get a mortgage, any advice would be appreciated:

- I own a flat that is on a buy to let mortgage. This is the only property I own and I rent the home I live in.
- apart from 60k left on my buy to let mortgage I have no debt
- I have a 65k deposit
- I am a contractor and a company director. I earn £75k as a contractor but prior to that I was earning minimum wage as a director with a salary.
Last year I moved to France to try and buy a home and live there, however this didn't work out and i came back after 6 months before I became a resident.

What are my chances of getting a mortgage? I just found out that my very short move to France has probably messed up my required 3 year UK address history. I'm 53 and want to get a mortgage asap.

Thanks in advance!

@jmeredith123 Quick comments -
1. The background btl should not be a factor with the right lender.
2. The 65k deposit may or may not be sufficient, depending on how much you're looking to borrow
3. As I'm sure you are aware, contractor income can sometimes be difficult to place but it'll depend on the specifics.
4. Break in UK residency - assuming that you're a UK passport holder, this shouldn't be a huge impediment on it's own.

There are a few important parts to your circumstances that are relevant to how much you can borrow. From the limited info in your post, I would expect there to be options. I would recommend getting in touch with an experienced broker who can review your circumstances and give you a realistic idea of your mortgage options (if any).

crispy99

Any broker opinions on Darlington BS, no adverse but went with them as they use earned income upto 75 years old and interest only 40% ltv. Current SLA is 22 days and I’m really really running out of time. Valuation done, questions answered. 

What are there underwriters like? Strict? I see a lot of bad reviews about their times but I think this year they’ve introduced new systems to speed this up, broker portals ect. Are Darlington know to refuse after DIP a lot?

Mulder00

Apologies, I'm sure this must've been answered, but there's too much in the forum to find the right answer, so I'll ask again.

I spoke to a mortgage advisor an estate agent recommended to me and they spoke me through my rough affordability and gave me some indication of rates I could expect.  When they sent me an email with their conditions, I noticed that they charge £500 for their service.

Through my company, we get access to "free" mortgage advice and brokerage.  I applied through this service to get a decision in principle.  I've used this company previously and I was disappointed with the service, but got a mortgage at the end, so the outcome was alright.  The service this time is also not great (wrong name & address on initial AIP) - I was also told that I would receive indicate interest rates, but had to ask for this separately.

Turns out, the free mortgage advisor's rates are a bit more than the paid for one.  Is this only because of different lenders or does it depend on which advisor I use what rate I would get?

K_S

Mulder00 said:

Apologies, I'm sure this must've been answered, but there's too much in the forum to find the right answer, so I'll ask again.

I spoke to a mortgage advisor an estate agent recommended to me and they spoke me through my rough affordability and gave me some indication of rates I could expect.  When they sent me an email with their conditions, I noticed that they charge £500 for their service.

Through my company, we get access to "free" mortgage advice and brokerage.  I applied through this service to get a decision in principle.  I've used this company previously and I was disappointed with the service, but got a mortgage at the end, so the outcome was alright.  The service this time is also not great (wrong name & address on initial AIP) - I was also told that I would receive indicate interest rates, but had to ask for this separately.

Turns out, the free mortgage advisor's rates are a bit more than the paid for one.  Is this only because of different lenders or does it depend on which advisor I use what rate I would get?

@mulder00 Whether or not the broker charges a fee will make no difference to the product/rate that the client gets.

In theory, two whole of market brokers advising the same client on the same straightforward case should end up recommending the same product, as they'll normally have access to pretty much the same set of mainstream lenders and products and should be assessing the options in very similar ways.

You could just ask broker 2 why they haven't considered the cheaper product that you referred to, there might be a simple explanation.

K_S

crispy99 said:

Any broker opinions on Darlington BS, no adverse but went with them as they use earned income upto 75 years old and interest only 40% ltv. Current SLA is 22 days and I’m really really running out of time. Valuation done, questions answered. 

What are there underwriters like? Strict? I see a lot of bad reviews about their times but I think this year they’ve introduced new systems to speed this up, broker portals ect. Are Darlington know to refuse after DIP a lot?

@crispy99 Small BS underwriting is typically more thorough and considered than large mainstream lenders and the same is true for Darlington.

I've personally never had a small BS case declined after a positive DIP as typically they do a proper mini assessment at DIP stage so as long no new facts come up after that, it should be fine.

Dribiddi

My 3 year fix expires April 2023.
I am petrified of a massive increase in my monthly payment afterwards with projected increases in the base rate between now and then.
Can I fix earlier?

K_S

Dribiddi said:

My 3 year fix expires April 2023.
I am petrified of a massive increase in my monthly payment afterwards with projected increases in the base rate between now and then.
Can I fix earlier?

@dribiddi If you're willing to pay the ERC (if any), then there's nothing stopping you from fixing earlier.

Whether or not it turns out to make sense financially will depend on the numbers, future interest rates, etc. so impossible to predict.

allthe7s

I'm one year free of Bankruptcy in June, with a 40% deposit.

will 1 year discharged get me considered or am I better off waiting even longer? partner has no adverse credit but low income. 

thank you 

K_S

allthe7s said:

I'm one year free of Bankruptcy in June, with a 40% deposit.

will 1 year discharged get me considered or am I better off waiting even longer? partner has no adverse credit but low income. 

thank you 

@allthe7s Based simply on the time since discharge, there are lenders who will consider on day 1, those that will look at 12m+, those that will look at 2+ years, etc etc. Very crudely speaking, as the BR is further in the past, the better the rates you're looking at.

viccarol

K_S said:

viccarol said:

Hi I’m hoping somebody can advise. Our mortgage has come to an end, it’s an interest only mortgage with Barclays. Unfortunately at some point in the past the mortgage end date and the endowment have ended up with different dates so what is supposed to be a relief is turning into a nightmare. I spoke to Barclays many months ago about it and they said not to worry and it would get sorted after maturity. Roll forward to today and I had an extremely stressful conversation with somebody a Barclays on a really bad line (it actually sounded like he was making a brew in his kitchen) and he informed me that we now have to put a full record of both mine and my husbands income and expenses and they’ll decide what is going to happen. We have the money it’s just not released until the end of July and are happy to continue paying our normal monthly repayments. We’ve never missed a payment and have actually overpaid by quite a bit to mitigate the endowment not covering the original amount (it now will and we may actually be in a position where we could possibly come away with a little extra). 

Please can anybody advise what will happen if we just leave it until the endowment matures - how much leeway are you given - it’s so frustrating as every thing is in place just the dates are messed up. I have spoken to Barclays on a number of occasions who told me not to worry but the phone call today has really worried me are they likely to try and repossess our house even though we have documentation that the amount will be paid! 

Sorry for the long message but I am really worried.  

@viccarol If the repayment vehicle is accessible in a few months time and can be evidenced to the lender, there is no in hell they are going to try and repo as it would be quite pointless.

@K_S Thank you that has eased my mind I thought that would be the case I think I’ll try and speak to them again hopefully with somebody that isn’t as difficult to understand. All he kept saying is that we need to do a repayment plan with all our income and expenditure (the form he pointed me to on Google looks like it is for people in financial difficulty which is definitely not the case). It is a very frustrating situation as if we’d taken a mortgage holiday in Covid which we could have done as I’m self-employed and was badly affected the dates would be ok.