Mortgage broker - ask me anything

K_S

Crazycat89 said:

Hi There 👋🏻 

I’ve tried to locate an answer to this and found one comment on a thread so wanted to ask whether this was a ‘thing’.

Me and my partner are looking to move next year. I have been on a DMP managed via step change for the last 6 years and shortly the defaults will fall off my account.. albeit the DMP will still be active.

We’ve been lucky in that our current house value/equity has increased since we moved here a few years ago which will leave us with a significant amount of money for a large deposit (potentially 40%) as well as some additional funds left over.. which brings me to my next question.

Would any lenders offer a better rate if an agreement was made to clear the remaining DMP debt? As mentioned I did see one individual post advising they had received this providing the lender received confirmation within 30 days the debt had been cleared.

Im aware we could still get a mortgage with a DMP through a specialised broker - we’re looking at a mortgage of 2.5x salary, with as I mentioned at least a 30-40% deposit but would just like the weight finally lifted.

Any advice would be appreciated.

@crazycat89 Depends on what exactly is in your credit report at the time of the application, the details, the specific lender's criteria, whether or not they 'credit-score', etc . For example, if all your delinquent accounts were defaulted and all those defaults will have dropped off, that might be better than having AP markers continuing to show against one or more accounts.

With a 20%+ deposit, low LTI and an old satisfactorily conducted DMP, you'll definitely have options. What options exactly will depend on the details.

All the best!

annetheman

Hi there, hope you are well!

Well I somehow miraculously got a second mortgage from the same lender (first one expired due to time it is taking to resolve a Title issue; 8 months post offer acceptance). This was a full application, not an extension. They did another valuation and progressed to offer about 2 weeks ago.

I have asked my broker to kindly apply for a cheaper product with the same lender (Santander), which would take me from 5.34% to 5.14% so keen to make the saving.

They have asked for a lot of paperwork, more than they did for the second application entirely. They wanted August and September payslips and August and September bank statements - provided but they didn't ask for anything at all when I did my recent full application....

I wondered if this is normal for a new rate/product switch post-offer, given I only got the offer a few days ago? Same LTV, although some changes to my credit profile:

• I sold my flat (so mortgage account is showing as settled) when we failed to exchange due to Title issues.
• I'm therefore not living at my previous address (now living at my parents' house where there is no bad debt), but obviously not on electoral roll here yet (I have applied).
• Lower debt (due to having so little outgoings, chunking off debt at £2-3k per month).

I noticed my credit 'score' - I know these mean nothing to Santander - drop by 96 points after the settlement of the mortgage, and I am not sure if having a new address will be an issue. Still 'good' rating with all 3 agencies.

Any advice welcome on if this was a stupid thing to ask my broker (she did ask me twice if I was sure, and she also warned me that she had a previous client who did it and was then refused due to bad debt at their new address).

Thank you so much.

K_S

@annetheman

Caveats by the broker - I would do similar as changing the product post-offer (with any lender) can involve a 're-score' of the application by the lender system and there's always the remote possibility that it fails the rescore due to changes that I (and sometimes the applicant) am unaware of - changes to the client's credit report, other information sources that the lender system reads from, scoring model changes at the lender's end, etc. So it's important that the client knows that I can't guarantee that a new offer will come through smoothly.

What's required for a post offer change of product - depends on the specific lender and the broker's compliance processes. At a previous firm we were required to go the whole hog, confirm that the applicant still meets criteria and affordability in which case I would get the recent payslips and bank statement that I don't have on file.

Besides giving the above caveats, it's impossible for your broker, or the lender to say in advance whether or not the changes in your credit report will cause any issues when changing products post offer. Based on the very limited info in your post, I wouldn't expect there to be an issue (I personally have never had a client go from an accept to decline when changing products post offer) but there's always a small possibility that there might be one when re-scoring an app.

All the best!

annetheman said:

Hi there, hope you are well!

Well I somehow miraculously got a second mortgage from the same lender (first one expired due to time it is taking to resolve a Title issue; 8 months post offer acceptance). This was a full application, not an extension. They did another valuation and progressed to offer about 2 weeks ago.

I have asked my broker to kindly apply for a cheaper product with the same lender (Santander), which would take me from 5.34% to 5.14% so keen to make the saving.

They have asked for a lot of paperwork, more than they did for the second application entirely. They wanted August and September payslips and August and September bank statements - provided but they didn't ask for anything at all when I did my recent full application....

I wondered if this is normal for a new rate/product switch post-offer, given I only got the offer a few days ago? Same LTV, although some changes to my credit profile:

• I sold my flat (so mortgage account is showing as settled) when we failed to exchange due to Title issues.
• I'm therefore not living at my previous address (now living at my parents' house where there is no bad debt), but obviously not on electoral roll here yet (I have applied).
• Lower debt (due to having so little outgoings, chunking off debt at £2-3k per month).

I noticed my credit 'score' - I know these mean nothing to Santander - drop by 96 points after the settlement of the mortgage, and I am not sure if having a new address will be an issue. Still 'good' rating with all 3 agencies.

Any advice welcome on if this was a stupid thing to ask my broker (she did ask me twice if I was sure, and she also warned me that she had a previous client who did it and was then refused due to bad debt at their new address).

Thank you so much.

Jemma01

I tried to google this answer and I'm confused, some sources say the lender others say the borrower.

We're about to exchange. I called my lender, and they said they're missing the COT (cert of title), and that my solicitor needs to produce one, but I've got one solicitor working for me (borrower) and another working for the lender. From the emails flying around, it sounds like the lender's solicitor is responsible for providing this. Does anyone know for sure how these things work?

I want to exchange, but not prepared to do that until I have a confirmation everything is in good order for funds to be released. Our lender's solicitor said everything is fine and she'll ask for funds to be released, but it was a surprise that the COT hasn't been produced yet (it's only been 5 working days since her confirmation, including today)

K_S

Jemma01 said:

I tried to google this answer and I'm confused, some sources say the lender others say the borrower.

We're about to exchange. I called my lender, and they said they're missing the COT (cert of title), and that my solicitor needs to produce one, but I've got one solicitor working for me (borrower) and another working for the lender. From the emails flying around, it sounds like the lender's solicitor is responsible for providing this. Does anyone know for sure how these things work?

I want to exchange, but not prepared to do that until I have a confirmation everything is in good order for funds to be released. Our lender's solicitor said everything is fine and she'll ask for funds to be released, but it was a surprise that the COT hasn't been produced yet (it's only been 5 working days since her confirmation, including today)

@jemma01 I don't know the answer to your question, as I very rarely come across cases where there are different sols acting for the borrower and lender, and where I have, there's never been an issue for me to get involved in. If I had to pick one, I would guess it's the borrower's solicitor (as they would have done all the ground work to ensure that a clean mortgageable title exists) but that's just a guess.

In any case, the solicitor acting for you should/will not proceed to exchange until they are sure that the lender will release funds, whatever that might involve.

This is some of the standard CML blurb around the CoT re solicitor's responsibilities towards the lender.

You should not submit your certificate of title unless it is unqualified or we have authorised you in writing to proceed notwithstanding any issues you have raised with us.

We shall treat the submission by you of the certificate of title as confirmation that the borrower has chosen to proceed with our mortgage offer and as a request for us to release the mortgage advance to you.

All the best, hope it gets sorted soon!

waltonmark

Hi 

Applied for a 75% LTV mortgage via a broker and NatWest. Broker contacted me yday to say NatWest are offering 50k less due to undeclared commitment(s). 

I ran through both mine and my partners credit reports with the broker and can only see the following that may be causing the issue:

- on application I said we had no credit card debt.

My credit report shows 2.7k Barclaycard even though I cleared this in full on 23rd August.

- my lease car - I pay leaseplan uk every month but on my credit report it is named as network vehicles ltd. My credit report also shows the monthly payment Exc VAT. I’ve no idea why the names diff or it shows the value minus VAT - does anyone know if this could pose the issue? I’ve now supplied invoices and the credit report to my broker to evidence this.

- there is absolutely nothing undeclared 

I’m really concerned now we aren’t going to get the mortgage we had hoped for.

Any advice around this is most welcome.

K_S

@waltonmark There are a lot of different things that could be happening here and your broker is best placed to advise you on what it might be and they have all the relevant info to hand.

Affordability is pretty straightforward to ascertain in most cases so if they have your credit report, it should be possible to put your finger on where the 40k gap is.

If you want to do some checking yourself, what I would do is the following -

- if you don't have it already, get the Clear score app. That gives you your latest Equifax report which is what NatWest uses.

- play around with the NatWest affordability calculator https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81028337#Comment_81028337 making sure you put in everything (credit card, loan, lease payments, etc) that you see on the Clear score credit report.

- for the lease, use the higher of what you see as the monthly payment on your report and what actually goes out on your bank statement

- If the 40k difference has happened after manual review post full application, it is possible that the lease provider name is causing the issue (double counting the payment on your bank statement and the credit report commitment), but shouldn't be if your broker has done their job. In any case if this is it then that should be clear when you play around with the calculator.

waltonmark said:

Hi 

Applied for a 75% LTV mortgage via a broker and NatWest. Broker contacted me yday to say NatWest are offering 50k less due to undeclared commitment(s). 

I ran through both mine and my partners credit reports with the broker and can only see the following that may be causing the issue:

- on application I said we had no credit card debt.

My credit report shows 2.7k Barclaycard even though I cleared this in full on 23rd August.

- my lease car - I pay leaseplan uk every month but on my credit report it is named as network vehicles ltd. My credit report also shows the monthly payment Exc VAT. I’ve no idea why the names diff or it shows the value minus VAT - does anyone know if this could pose the issue? I’ve now supplied invoices and the credit report to my broker to evidence this.

- there is absolutely nothing undeclared 

I’m really concerned now we aren’t going to get the mortgage we had hoped for.

Any advice around this is most welcome.

waltonmark

K_S said:

@waltonmark There are a lot of different things that could be happening here and your broker is best placed to advise you on what it might be and they have all the relevant info to hand.

Affordability is pretty straightforward to ascertain in most cases so if they have your credit report, it should be possible to put your finger on where the 40k gap is.

If you want to do some checking yourself, what I would do is the following -

- if you don't have it already, get the Clear score app. That gives you your latest Equifax report which is what NatWest uses.

- play around with the NatWest affordability calculator https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81028337#Comment_81028337 making sure you put in everything (credit card, loan, lease payments, etc) that you see on the Clear score credit report.

- for the lease, use the higher of what you see as the monthly payment on your report and what actually goes out on your bank statement

- If the 40k difference has happened after manual review post full application, it is possible that the lease provider name is causing the issue (double counting the payment on your bank statement and the credit report commitment), but shouldn't be if your broker has done their job. In any case if this is it then that should be clear when you play around with the calculator.

waltonmark said:

Hi 

Applied for a 75% LTV mortgage via a broker and NatWest. Broker contacted me yday to say NatWest are offering 50k less due to undeclared commitment(s). 

I ran through both mine and my partners credit reports with the broker and can only see the following that may be causing the issue:

- on application I said we had no credit card debt.

My credit report shows 2.7k Barclaycard even though I cleared this in full on 23rd August.

- my lease car - I pay leaseplan uk every month but on my credit report it is named as network vehicles ltd. My credit report also shows the monthly payment Exc VAT. I’ve no idea why the names diff or it shows the value minus VAT - does anyone know if this could pose the issue? I’ve now supplied invoices and the credit report to my broker to evidence this.

- there is absolutely nothing undeclared 

I’m really concerned now we aren’t going to get the mortgage we had hoped for.

Any advice around this is most welcome.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I’ve just registered with clear score and this too shows the Barclaycard balance of 2.7k even though was paid on 23rd August.

Interestingly though my lease car doesn’t show on Clear Score at all?

christopherwg

Hi, hoping you can offer some advice. Recently managed to become debt free - apart from my mortgage - and this is now reflecting on my credit score on MSE, Clear Score and Credit Karma. Cancelled the credits cards and just have two now.

my husband and I are keen to move and buy a house and sell the flat which is only under my name. We got a mortgage offer in principal from Nationwide - my current mortgage is with Halifax.

The only thing worrying me is that despite the good credit rating and never having missed a payment or having any negatives on my report and having a strong monthly wage - will they ask for three months bank statements when we properly apply? Will they see all the debt being paid off and baulk? Should we wait until i have three “normal” months of bank statements or am I overthinking it?

thanks
Chris

K_S

christopherwg said:

Hi, hoping you can offer some advice. Recently managed to become debt free - apart from my mortgage - and this is now reflecting on my credit score on MSE, Clear Score and Credit Karma. Cancelled the credits cards and just have two now.

my husband and I are keen to move and buy a house and sell the flat which is only under my name. We got a mortgage offer in principal from Nationwide - my current mortgage is with Halifax.

The only thing worrying me is that despite the good credit rating and never having missed a payment or having any negatives on my report and having a strong monthly wage - will they ask for three months bank statements when we properly apply? Will they see all the debt being paid off and baulk? Should we wait until i have three “normal” months of bank statements or am I overthinking it?

thanks
Chris

@christopherwg You are overthinking it. Based on the limited info in your post, whether they ask for your bank statements or not is pretty immaterial.

All the best!