Job issues around exchange/completion

housemouse24

Hi all, looking for some advice on my current situation.

My partner and I are in the process of buying a house as first time buyers. The solicitor contacted us last week to say the searches, etc. are complete and they want us to go in to sign some paperwork so that it’s ready for exchange, although they are saying there is still stuff outstanding elsewhere in the chain (timescale for this currently unclear, although we haven’t actually asked yet).

I am in a difficult position because I have totally unexpectedly found myself in the middle of a potential disciplinary situation at work. It is still at the investigation stage and I do not know what it relates to, other than I suspect it’s a malicious grievance. I honestly do not know what the outcome of this investigation is likely to be at this stage, although I hope to know more in a few days’ time.

Our worry is that we get to the stage of exchange and then I lose my job before completion and then we lose the house and all of our deposit. I also understand that if I lose my job and don’t tell the lender then this would be fraudulent and this is not a position I want to be in. 

The house price is £240k and we are putting down a 10% deposit. We were given a mortgage in principle originally for just over £400k so this is considerably below that. However, I do not think my partner on his own (earning approximately £32k, I earn slightly more) would be approved for the mortgage if I were to lose my job. The mortgage we have agreed now is with a high street lender, organised through a broker.

If I do lose my job then we aren’t worried about being able to make the payments at this stage. My partner could afford the monthly payments from his salary (it would just be tight for other things and so isn’t what we want long-term), we have some savings, would have support from family if needed and I am in a strong position to get a new job. I am currently just worried about getting safely to completion, but I understand that lenders won’t see it that way and will need evidence that I can fund monthly payments from my income. 

If I take a new job now then I assume I won’t be able to continue with the mortgage or even this property due to not having enough payslips, being in probationary period, etc.

We really want this house purchase to go through. We could potentially increase the deposit but I don’t believe we could increase it to a level where our current lender would be prepared to lend to just my partner on his income - as a ballpark figure I’d say we could increase to a £50k deposit if we absolutely had to. Our families would potentially be in a position to act as a guarantor but I’m not sure if there are options for this to be a short term thing. I don’t know if there is potential to add a parent into the mortgage. I can start applying for other jobs just in case but am worried that starting a new job will make things worse from the mortgage perspective. Obviously if I lose my job then I will have no choice and will be finding myself in a new job situation very soon, we know we would have to disclose that to our lender but don’t know if anyone else would give us a mortgage in such circumstances.

We haven’t discussed this with either our broker or solicitor yet because we don’t want to scare anyone off on a situation that could all be totally fine if the investigation is dropped or doesn’t end in dismissal. I just don’t know what I’m up against at the moment and the uncertainty is what makes it difficult for us. We haven’t yet signed the paperwork that our solicitor has asked us to come in to sign ahead of exchange and want a bit of advice before then but don’t know if raising it with the solicitor as a concern will jeopardise the whole mortgage anyway. I assume we should be delaying this further in some way until we know more from my employer?

Please can anyone offer any advice on whether we should be raising this to anyone at this stage or what options we may have. Just to reiterate, we absolutely don’t want to be committing mortgage fraud or anything like that, but we want to know where we stand. Any advice on how to navigate this or what alternative mortgage options may be available to us would be gratefully received, thank you.

lisyloo

Are you formally suspended?
or is your employer just investigating a claim made against you?

How far away are you from your solicitors?
I mean can you just drop in to sign anytime?
I think what they are asking you to do is sign in advance.
I'd be reluctant to do this unless there was a very strong reason (like being out of the country and unable to sign).

user1977

It would need to be something particularly serious for you to suffer a summary dismissal - is that at all likely?

user1977

lisyloo said:

I think what they are asking you to do is sign in advance.
I'd be reluctant to do this unless there was a very strong reason (like being out of the country and unable to sign).

Why? There's no harm in signing early - solicitors aren't going to exchange without your further instruction.

lisyloo

user1977 said:

lisyloo said:

I think what they are asking you to do is sign in advance.
I'd be reluctant to do this unless there was a very strong reason (like being out of the country and unable to sign).

Why? There's no harm in signing early - solicitors aren't going to exchange without your further instruction.

yeah right nothing like that ever happens does it.

housemouse24

lisyloo said:

Are you formally suspended?
or is your employer just investigating a claim made against you?

How far away are you from your solicitors?
I mean can you just drop in to sign anytime?
I think what they are asking you to do is sign in advance.
I'd be reluctant to do this unless there was a very strong reason (like being out of the country and unable to sign).

I have been suspended but do not yet know why in any detail. We aren’t far from the solicitors so from our perspective can go there any time to sign, no plans to be out of the country or anything like that.

user1977

lisyloo said:

user1977 said:

lisyloo said:

I think what they are asking you to do is sign in advance.
I'd be reluctant to do this unless there was a very strong reason (like being out of the country and unable to sign).

Why? There's no harm in signing early - solicitors aren't going to exchange without your further instruction.

yeah right nothing like that ever happens does it.

If you want to get paranoid about it, they could exchange without your signature at all.

lika_86

If you're likely to know more in a few days I'd definitely hold fire on doing anything for now. At present you don't really know anything. Try and find out what you can about a likely timetable for the misconduct proceedings before doing anything. For now, proceed as normal. It sounds like nothing is imminent on the exchange front at present, more that they want to be sure all the paperwork is ready.

lisyloo

user1977 said:

lisyloo said:

user1977 said:

lisyloo said:

I think what they are asking you to do is sign in advance.
I'd be reluctant to do this unless there was a very strong reason (like being out of the country and unable to sign).

Why? There's no harm in signing early - solicitors aren't going to exchange without your further instruction.

yeah right nothing like that ever happens does it.

If you want to get paranoid about it, they could exchange without your signature at all.

I don't think it's paranoid to say that a mistake could occur.
It could be argued that it's paranoid on the solicitors part to worry about your availability.

But lets agree to disagree and say that this is up to the OP.
Personally I wouldn't sign up to to such a commitment if I was around e.g. not going into hospital or on holiday.

Out of interest how do they exchange without your authorisation? or are you talking about fraud?
If they can then why make a big deal about getting the signature at all?

propertyrental

There is no harm in signing. It commits you to nothing. Your solicitor will hold the signed documents pending Exchange. This is normal practice. Exchange will not happen without your further agreement. You can withdraw at any time up to Exchange and your solicitor will either destroy, return or file the signed documents.

I would move forward with the purchase towards Exchange, whilst waiting for the outcome of the investigation.

Bigphil1474

OP, to me, it depends where you work. In the public sector, it's rare to be suspended unless the allegations are serious or there is a concern about you being in the work place whilst the investigation continues. I've represented quite a few employees who have been suspended, some have had no further action, some have had to go to hearings and survived, and some have been dismissed. If I was you, I'd hang fire on telling anyone at the moment and see what happens at work. 

As an aside, if you are in a union, make sure your union rep knows what is going on. If you are in the private sector, they are supposed to follow the same rules, but not sure whether they do.