Mortage application

Does anyone have any experience of getting a Mortage when one of you has ILR.

My husband (USC) and I (UKC) and I are in the process of getting a Mortage in principal for a house we have had an offer accepted on. We are unsure wether to just out it in my name (we are only using my income anyway) or also out his name on it. It seems that opens a whole can of worms of credit checks from the states (he's only been here 3 years)

We are particularly worried as he has student loans over there that he thought he had deferred when he moved here-actually he hadn't and they were writing to him and calling his American cell for a year before we found out about it. He had revived a court summons and everything so I'm really concerned any American check would not be good! But the check your credit rating websites are no help as they require 6 years of addresses and aren't formatted for foreign addresses.....agh!

Anyone got any wisdom?

I think the key is to get both your UK credit rating reports and correct / repair any issues on those:

Experian
http://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/experian-credit-report.html

Equifax
http://www.equifax.co.uk/

CallCredit
http://www.callcredit.co.uk/consumer-solutions/your-credit-report

Under the Mortgage Market Review, this is what lenders ought to be looking at:
http://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/financial-services-products/mortgages/mortgage-market-review

Money tools:
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/categories/homes-and-mortgages
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/

As far as I understand, foreign finances don't get counted, but don't quote me on it. And you may want to look at sorting and responding to those issues, especially if you would like to return to the US, as it may help with any character issues.

Good luck! 

Have you found a bank that would accept him on the mortgage?! Does he have ILR?

I have been here 11 years and the banks we have been to (HSBC and Halifax) would not accept me on the mortgage as I am 'not a permanent resident.'

Anyone have any luck getting a foreign spouse on the mortgage?? We even have a ~30% deposit!

If you are only using your income for the mortgage, only put the house in your name.  Huge can of worms with US taxes otherwise.

You may want to consider if you can really afford the house with his US student loans.  They don't go away.  They can't even be discharged in bankruptcy court.  They will have to be paid.

Have you found a bank that would accept him on the mortgage?! Does he have ILR?

I have been here 11 years and the banks we have been to (HSBC and Halifax) would not accept me on the mortgage as I am 'not a permanent resident.'

Anyone have any luck getting a foreign spouse on the mortgage?? We even have a ~30% deposit!

We are currently house hunting.  As I just renewed my FLR(M), they WILL consider my income for a mortgage (we are limited in options).  The earlier we do it, the better.  Because I came to the UK on a work visa and have been continuously employed the whole time I've been in the UK is helping our case.  But I need to still have at least a year left on my visa to use my income.  We are using a mortgage broker.  While we could have a large deposit, we are planning to remortgage our current home (my husbands) into a Buy to Let mortgage.  This will tie up about £150k in equity in our current home and greatly reduce the available deposit. 

Now to just find a house...  Inventory is LOW at the moment.  Very frustrating!!

This is all so helpful! Thank you

He does have IlR (we are old rules so he plans to apply for naturalisation as soon as we have the spare £1000!)

We sorted the loan thing as soon as we found out about it and have been paying them back for about a year ago.

I'm a doctor so make a good amount (and I genuinely do work a lot of weekends Mr Hunt)

We hadn't even thought about it affecting his tax returns(!!) but seems a bit unrealistic that he will never own a house here...

I tried using those check your own credit score websites but they don't allow the input of overseas addresses so I had to give up (they want 6 years and he has only been here 3)

Incidentally, does anyone use an accountant to help them file us tax returns? I have been considering getting one anyway for my stuff and if we could pay someone to take that headache away that would be great!

You know when nothing seems simple? Lol.

Thanks all!

KFdancer hope you find a house soon! We live in Newcastke so there is a fair amount around (and it's quite cheap comparatively) but I am quite picky so when we found the house we have offered on (which is perfect!) I am so keen to get it through asap!

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Does anyone have any experience of getting a Mortage when one of you has ILR.

My husband (USC) and I (UKC) and I are in the process of getting a Mortage in principal for a house we have had an offer accepted on. We are unsure wether to just out it in my name (we are only using my income anyway) or also out his name on it. It seems that opens a whole can of worms of credit checks from the states (he's only been here 3 years)

We are particularly worried as he has student loans over there that he thought he had deferred when he moved here-actually he hadn't and they were writing to him and calling his American cell for a year before we found out about it. He had revived a court summons and everything so I'm really concerned any American check would not be good! But the check your credit rating websites are no help as they require 6 years of addresses and aren't formatted for foreign addresses.....agh!

Anyone got any wisdom?

No wisdom on the house front as my husband and I are going to look into this ourselves soon...

But for student loans, if he has federal student loans has he looked into Income Based Repayment or anything like that? I had a $0 payment for a year while I was unemployed for my loans. If they're private loans he won't have many options.

I just posted this in the other mortgage topic above but wanted to say that for anyone looking for a joint mortgage where one of you is a UKC and the other is on a spouse visa, we found London and Country mortgage advisers (brokers) to be VERY helpful in finding us someone who would accept us (on the visa topic- we still had to get through the credit checks on our own) We are due to complete on our house purchase on Friday so once we have the keys I will write a bit of hopefully a helpful post about the process we went through (incase it helps anyone else in the future) 

Thanks for suggestion re: Income based repayment  lyonaria. We have looked into it he's definitely eligible. Plan to to at least do this until OH has finished his PGCE and is actually earning!

Thanks for suggestion re: Income based repayment  lyonaria. We have looked into it he's definitely eligible. Plan to to at least do this until OH has finished his PGCE and is actually earning!

Glad to hear it could help you guys out! I know how difficult student loans can be and how much of a pain it is being so far away and trying to deal with them. Best of luck! Husband and I are getting into what kind of mortgages we're eligible for...