Is a mortgage a possibility for partner/us or not?

LSMB

Hello everyone,

Just looking for advice or a point in the right direction before we give up.
Partner got a DIP with Natwest for £100,000 we started house viewings, after months found a 3 bed for £90,000, got our £90k offer accepted. Got appointed a mortgage broker from the estate agents, after chats everything has gone south, broker said he can't get us a mortgage.

Partner makes £23k - £25k before tax
First time ever after 3 years, he finally got pay slips off boss, pay slips don't show overtime, bonuses or tips. So now it looks like he only makes £18k before tax. He's asked his boss for proof of his overtime/bonuses/tips, his boss is refusing to send any proof before tax, so pay slips don't add up to partners bank statements. Moving on from this the broker said without proof we have to go off £18,000 per year. Which now Natwest will only lend £72k, we were hoping to do FTB 95% LTV as we only have £5k for the deposit. Partner has an excellent credit history, only has one credit card with £2k limit but pays in full monthly but we use it solely for food shop which we don't spend over £300 per month.

Moving on broker told us we should do a joint mortgage, I told him I had bad credit and my last two self employed tax returns are my worst ever out of the past 8 years. He still said we should do a joint mortgage, he kept telling us he had specialist lenders, so after telling him about my bad credit I'll list dates below, he still said he could find us a lender.

CCJ Feb 2021 - £480 - Satisfied 
CCJ Jan 2021 - £440 - Satisfied 
Default - Overdraft - August - 2021- £178 - Paid 
Default - Overdraft - £266 - 6th August 2018 - Paid
Default - Credit Card - £240 - 11th April 2021- Paid
19/20 Tax Year Income - £5k
20/21 Tax Year Income - £12.5k

I explained the mixture of being severely unwell when pregnant which had me bedridden for 9 months then recovering from emergency c-section I only worked for 2 months in 19/20 tax year, and 20/21 being homeless and our items being in a storage unit, I haven't been able to work properly. He worked out a median of my income over the past two years as £6k. Even though I'm slowly picking my self back up after everything, my bank statements for the past 6-7 months can prove that I'm bringing in around £1300-£1600 per month. 

We have a dependant (1 year old child) but I'm also a SAHM and look after him so no childcare costs, we have no financial association/not married. Mortgage broker said no one will give us or just my partner a mortgage. I've started looking myself, I'm just curious if anyone has any advice with a situation like this or should I just give up?

TLDR:
Partner has pristine credit history, amazing credit score, makes £23k before tax, but only has proof of his actual hours of £18k before tax, only proof is bank statements but no pay slips showing proof of overtime/bonuses, 5% deposit for £90k house, we're 24 so we thought a 35 year mortgage would be best and to make overpayments.

I have terrible credit history 2 CCJ's, 3 defaults all paid off but which I knew would be a massive problem and no one would ever approve me with them hence us not going for a joint mortgage, but broker tells us joint mortgage is the only way but joint we will only get £35k he told us.

Our currently monthly outgoings are... £140 - storage unit with our belongings in / £200 to my parents for living with them / £200-£300 on food. 

All advice is appreciated, thank you!

MWT

LSMB said:

Partner makes £23k - £25k before tax
First time ever after 3 years, he finally got pay slips off boss, pay slips don't show overtime, bonuses or tips. So now it looks like he only makes £18k before tax.

This is going to be a problem as it sounds like there are some potential irregularities in your partners employment income.

Is he employed and receiving payments net of tax (PAYE) to his bank, or is he being paid gross in cash perhaps and declaring his earnings to HMRC for tax purposes?

Tips might not show up on a payslip, but overtime certainly should and tax should obviously have been deducted at source if this is a PAYE situation?

Similarly payslips should have been provided from day 1 if this is a legitimate employed position, not self-employed.

Solving this problem is going to be essential if there is to be any chance of a mortgage. 

SusieT

It may be worth your partner registering on the HMRC website and looking at the tax in previous years, that will show what the employer has reported as the gross earnings, and how much tax is reported as having been paid. If it does not tally with the amounts that have actually been paid you may need to have a big think.