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Our mortgage lending decisions and how much mortgage you can get (the amount) is based upon an assessment of your income & expenditure (or outgoings), your circumstances and the size of mortgage loan that you apply for. This is called affordability and ensures that we are not lending an irresponsible amount and and are lending on the basis that we can be reasonably sure that our customers are able to repay their mortgage.
When you apply for a mortgage, all lenders in the UK are required to:
This is called an affordability assessment and impacts how much you can borrow for a mortgage. The purpose of the information below is to help you understand how we calculate affordability when looking at how much we can lend to you.
As well as your income and expenditure, there are a number of factors you should consider when starting a mortgage application. These are known as ‘lending criteria’ and you can find out more about our specific criteria by viewing our lending criteria page. Find out about:
Find out more about how these can affect your application by viewing our Lending Criteria help page.
We consider a number of factors which contribute to affordability and ultimately what mortgage you can afford. This informs us whether we can offer you a mortgage and if, so how much we are prepared to lend to you.
When you make your application, we’ll need to see documentary evidence of the following:
Income |
Expenditure |
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Please note, we don’t include foreign income or assets when calculating how much we can lend to you.
A credit check is conducted on all Full mortgage applications.
The credit check looks at your credit history and provides a view of your active credit accounts and any previously held in your name. It also includes information on how reliably you have kept up repayments on any of your credit accounts.
Failed, late or missed repayments on phone, utilities and credit agreements like credit cards or loans should be avoided. Over time, credit scores improve with fewer instances of late or missed payments. Certain items, such as County Court Judgements (CCJ’s) or a filed bankruptcy will have a severe impact on your credit score. You can find out more about credit checks by visiting Equifax.
We use include standardised UK household expenditure figures when assessing your mortgage affordability.
We also factor in your age and the proposed term of the mortgage. We offer mortgages up to the age of 75, although if you are applying online (a non-advised application) we work around an assumed retirement age of 65. If your mortgage term is likely to extend past your retirement age you will need to speak to us about your application. Please contact us on 0345 166 9510.
Further checks are made against data supplied by other agencies and lenders. Information is shared between these parties both as a safeguard and to ensure we lend responsibly.
We make allowances for a range of scenarios to ensure that your mortgage can be repaid in the event of unanticipated changes in the market or any change in personal circumstances.
There are certain actions that you can take to improve what mortgage you can afford:
We will look at your bank statements and proof of income for up to 6 months prior to application. If you are in full-time employment we normally require you to have been in your post for at least 3 months.
Self employed
If you are self-employed, we may require up to 3 years of business accounts records as well as bank statements and income tax paid in order to assess affordability. Please read our guidance for self-employed applicants on the lending criteria page.
The information you supply in your application form must be accurate and we ask you to sign an Initial Disclosure Form to verify that this is the case.
You also must be prepared to provide documentary evidence to support your application where necessary. Ensuring information that you provide in your application is accurate is also important, as it affects your chances of a mortgage offer both from YBS and other lenders.
If you believe that some of the information we hold about you is incorrect, we urge you to contact us .
In addition to avoiding failed, late and missed payments, there are certain actions that you can take which will help ensure that your credit score is as accurate as possible. You can obtain a copy of your credit score/report with Equifax. Some general bits of advice:
If the property that you intend to purchase has a ground rent or service charge, we will need to know what this is on your application form.
Changing circumstances can affect your affordability in either direction. For example, an expected maternity leave might reduce affordability, whereas a child becoming eligible to receive childcare grants will improve affordability.
If your new property is a new build this will also affect the amount that the Society and other providers may be willing to lend. See our lending criteria page for more information on our minimum and maximum borrowing amounts for new build properties.
Ultimately, if we cannot lend to you, or you are struggling to get a mortgage agreement due to adverse credit history, some specialist providers offer sub-prime or adverse credit mortgages. Other mortgage providers offer guarantor mortgages, which allow for higher LTV’s but require family member or other parties to act as a guarantor in the event that payment cannot be met. We do not currently offer any mortgage deals of this type, and any such mortgages offered by other providers should be considered carefully.
Speak to one of our friendly mortgage advisers about your options