When to apply for a mortgage?

Hi I'd appreciate any advice and thank you in advance for any guidance.


Unfortunately 5 years ago I was in too much debt and had to go into a debt management plan with Stepchange which resulted in 5 defaults registered all of which are around 4.5 years old. The main reason for all the debt was due to a work re-location and we couldn't sell our house so had to rent it out - losing money each month in the process - and rent in our new location. Basically we became accidental landlords which I believe happened to quite a few people around this time.


Unfortunately I also took out the odd payday loan with the last one being early 2015. Everything has been paid off as at Nov 15 when we finally managed to sell our house.


We have come out the other side and are stable financially with a joint income of £100k and are saving for a deposit ready to buy again and currently have £25k but this is increasing each month. Unfortunately where we live isn't cheap for housing and our aim is for this move to be our final move and to find a house for our children to grow up in and for stability.


I am much the higher earner out of the two of us and so the mortgage would have to be in both our names. We would be looking for a 10-15% deposit. 10% would be preferable so we can start looking sooner and get out of rented accommodation. House price would likely be somewhere in the region of £400k.


When do you think we would be most likely be successful for a mortgage at this level? Would it be best to wait until all the defaults drop off my record or is it something which would be possible before then? I realise that only time can heal a credit record but just want to plan when it would be realistically possible to proceed.


Many thanks in advance.