Joint mortgage with bad credit

Rainandclouds

I’m looking for some advice on our current situation...

I will be looking to buy my first house next year with my partner - we will have around a 10-15% deposit.
The trouble is, I have a near perfect credit history but my partners is terrible. I do have some debt, in the form of a loan, but this will be cleared in 3 years time. My partner also has a loan and a couple of (very high interest) credit cards. He is ploughing all available money on to them and hopefully he will be clear within 3-4 years. 

So that’s a little background on where we are at. 

Frustratingly his credit score had just reached the ‘excellent’ category, so he managed to take out an interest free credit card in order to bump one of the high interests off... but in doing so, his score has plummeted back down to the poor category (on the basis of a card with a credit limit of only £300 for 5months interest free!!). It’s taken about 3 years to get to this point, so it feels like we are back to square one again. 

My question is how do we go about securing a mortgage? I would not be able to secure one on the basis of my salary alone, but I’m not sure if his credit rating will make it impossible for him to be accepted?
The money we will have available for deposit cannot be used towards clearing debt. 

Any advice or experience that could be shared would be very much appreciated!

I hope this is the best topic/board for this.

AdrianC

The "score" is a marketing gimmick, and irrelevant to lenders. They do see his history, though.

Currently 90% LtV is the maximum many lenders are giving, so you're going to have to be clean for that. 85% LtV should be a much better choice, though.

As for not using the deposit money to clear debt... well, it's all the same pot in the grand scheme of things, isn't it? If you have £10 in your hand but owe somebody £5, you really only have £5 available to spend.

Rainandclouds

Thanks for your response.
I hoped the score might not be the ‘be all and end all’, so that’s a relief. Hopefully they will be able to see his history that he has never missed a payment or been refused credit and that the repayments are manageable. Maybe that will go towards him.

Totally take your point re: money pots, but the money for the deposit has conditions attached and his debt predates our relationship.

trex227

Outstanding debts usually have at least some effect on how much you can borrow. I’d recommend getting into the debt free wannabe board and post a statement of affairs (SOA)- someone on there will be able to give you the link to do it.

Some of the posters on that board give excellent advice, maybe they can give some pointers to get the debt cleared quicker

MaryNB

There is a Mortgages and Endowment section that may be useful.

Have a chat with a broker if you have any concerns about your finances. They'll be the best to advise you on what lenders will look for and advise the best lender for you circumstances. Your combined loan and CC monthly repayments will be taken into account when the lender does affordability checks. Score doesn't matter. CRAs scores seem to hate change. CRAs don't give mortgages and lenders don't see the score. 

When you say the deposit has conditions attached, what do you mean by this? If the deposit is a gift, the bank will expect it to be given without any conditions. If it's a case of "here's money for a house, please don't spend it on credit cards, I don't want anything in return" that should be ok. If it's "here's money for a house, I consider this an investment and want money back if it's sold", well that's a big issue.