Several AIP whilst hunting now the amount is found to be wrong

neilied

Instructed a high street estate agents mortgage advisor to sort my mortgage out as a first time buyer. Not the easiest as I have a salary, my wife a zero hours contract and we have some benefits between us. Provided everything as asked and was given a figure on an AIP with one lender, that expired and was given a second by another lender. Successfully bid on a house and that’s when things started to go wrong. That advisor then noted some issue with calculations and the amount dropped by £5k the day we were going through the application. Spat my dummy and approached another broker. They immediately noticed calculation errors and this dropped again by another £2500. 

We had to provide additional and up to date payslips. 52 weeks for my wife and even gave a few P60. This then went to lender who came back with even less, on appeal at underwriter it dropped further due to a miscalculation by the current broker on benefit income.

One issue was with my wife’s zero hours. She has worked the same job for 13 years but it’s in education. NatWest now say the application process takes the latest weekly payslip and guesses the annual amount using the ytd earning/financial wk x 52. But as she works in a school and only paid term time (39 wks + 4 hols) this financial year to date she has already had 7 of the 9 fully unpaid weeks which skews the calculation as it is week 26. They won’t consider that for the remaining 26 financial week she will only have 2 further weeks unpaid.

we appealed but the answer made no sense. They mention that due to carers allowance which is for my daughter my wife can only earn £160 per week and that previous years she had some weekly income of £250 so they are reducing the mortgage offer due to the reduction in earnings. Yet for two days a week she earns £160 x 39 weeks plus 4 weeks hols and they still calculate her income £2.5k less. 

This now means we will have to inform the seller we no longer can proceed and now are unable to purchase in the area. 

Absolute nightmare and very stressful. 

Richard1212

Not all people earn enough to be able to obtain a mortgage easily. A harsh fact but true. Only you ( and professional advisers) know whether you think you are in that category or not. With so much trouble in getting a first-time mortgage, what do you think about your ability to repay every month at the sort of rates floating around at present ? 

You are right about the stress of a nightmare that so many people are struggling with due to the state of our economy. And you must be particularly gutted because you came so close to a purchase from a willing seller. I really hope it works out for you sooner rather than later. House prices will continue to go down IMO throughout 2024, so keep an eye out for a bargain. 

neilied

Richard1212 said:

Not all people earn enough to be able to obtain a mortgage easily. A harsh fact but true. Only you ( and professional advisers) know whether you think you are in that category or not. With so much trouble in getting a first-time mortgage, what do you think about your ability to repay every month at the sort of rates floating around at present ? 

You are right about the stress of a nightmare that so many people are struggling with due to the state of our economy. And you must be particularly gutted because you came so close to a purchase from a willing seller. I really hope it works out for you sooner rather than later. House prices will continue to go down IMO throughout 2024, so keep an eye out for a bargain. 

With the rates slowly declining I am confident about repayments. The mortgage I mention above is still cheaper than the £1400 per month rent I am paying. Your right gone are the days that everyone working could happily and easily afford a home of their own. I blame the business of private letting that I have both supported by paying silly rents and also been held captive by with no room to save and The boom in housing stock value driven by super low rates and lenders rubbing their hands allowing massive borrowing knowing that eventually the rate increases will leave them quids in. We cry about these % rates but they were still lower than 1999 but averages house prices are now far higher vs average income and that has caused the issues.