This week's case study highlights how we were able to help a client with challenging financial circumstances buy their dream home.
Our clients' challenge
Our client was moving home, selling her ‘shared-ownership’ property and upsizing to a larger dream home. There were several challenging elements to the case: the client had some arrears on their utility bills from some years previous, and a more recent CCJ; they were self-employed and only had one year’s recent income which could be used for lender assessment; the applicant also needed to maximise their borrowing in order to secure the home (over 5x income) and needed a lender that would consider offering a mortgage term that would go beyond the applicant’s 70th birthday.
There was further difficulty with the case when mid-way through their sale, as our client’s current home was found to have non-compliant cladding. Due to the remedial work being undertaken, it would be impossible to complete the sale before completion of the new home.
Alexander Hall's solution
We sourced a lender who would take a view on the credit arrears. It could be demonstrated that the client was not at fault with the utility arrears, and the CCJ was for a relatively small sum and had been very quickly satisfied. The client’s accountant was then able to evidence that future income was expected to remain consistent with previous years, giving the lender the required comfort to offer the necessary loan amount. Also, based on our client’s line of work, the lender was satisfied with the plausibility that they would be able to continue working past their 70th birthday, allowing for the the required mortgage term.
Finally, as it could be demonstrated that works were underway to make the current property fire-safe and the client had consent from her Housing Association to rent the property out, our selected lender would offer the mortgage without a completed sale as it was evident that the background mortgage could either be sustained with rental income, or imminently repaid.
Given the myriad of challenges, our client was delighted to have completed on her new home – which she managed to do before the 30th June stamp duty deadline!
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