Residential Status on a Mortgage Application

Debbie3605

We are about to complete the sale of our home and live aboard our narrowboat for a few years.  However, we are concerned about how this might affect our ability to get a mortgage in the future.  We have been advised to be registered on the electoral and council tax registers at our adult sons address along with all our bank cards etc but will have no financial connections to him when credit scoring.   When it comes to a new application, how would we define our residential status?   We had considered renting for 6 months prior to rejoining the housing market but typically they will ask for 3 years of residential addresses which of course we will not be able to provide living on a boat that is constantly moving.

K_S

@debbie3605 I've done a few of these when I used to work down in London for clients who lived on narrowboats in east London. It's nothing to overly worry about but you are right to make sure you're doing it correctly. 

- Does your boat have a permanent residential mooring, a postal address

- What's the address currently shown on your credit reports, bank statement, etc?

Debbie3605

Hi... We do not have a permanent mooring as Continuous Cruisers and we are using a Boatmail Service for any paper mail, having gone over to electronic for as much as we can.  We changed all our banking/card/driving licence etc to the Boatmail address.  The car insurance has our details as the Boatmail address but with the car parked at our sons which is where we leave it when not using.  

K_S

@debbie3605 Generally speaking, if your credit reports show you as being on the boatmail address and you've never had issues opening new accounts/cards (which also ask for 3 years address history) with the same address, it should be possible to apply for a mortgage from the same.

I'm not familiar with boatmail but I vaguely remember a similar client with a canalpost address, quite a few years ago though. I can't remember it being a huge problem at the time.

I would definitely recommend using a broker (who can run this past the lender in advance) or at least clarifying it properly with the lender direct prior to applying.