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[karenontheedge]

My husband took out an IVA two years ago. He had it a year then was made redundant so settled with all the creditors. It has been just over a year since the IVA was settled. I do not currently work. But my husband has a new permanent job.
Our mortgage was an interest only fixed rate which has just come to the end of its fixed term period. Although our mortgage was not part of the IVA and we never missed a payment the mortgage company Santander will only offer us a variable rate which has put our payments up by over £300 pcm.
So we are puuting our house on the market hoping to downsize and avoid getting into debt again. But, despite a good deposit probably 50% we have been told by several brokers that we cannot get a mortgage until the IVA has been settled for 6 years. There were also "soft" applications to Nationwide, Haifax who said no and Santander said that they would never lend to us if we moved.
With a good deposit we would not want to consider a sub prime lender because this might tarnish our credit records.
Have we any options for a mortgage 1 year after IVA? Thank you.

[Carla]

Hello karenontheedge and welcome to the forum

As far as I am aware it will be difficult for you to get a new mortgage from a standard high street mortgage lender until 6 years has passed since your husband started his IVA. This is when the record of the IVA will come off his credit file and no further record of it will exist.

In the mean time your only option might be to go with a sub prime lender. If you use a sub prime lender I do not think that this will negatively affect your credit rating. This would only happen if you did not maintain the mortgage payments. However the problem will be that a sub prime mortgage will charge a higher rate of interest and so will be more expensive than a standard mortgage lender. However it would not be forever. You could take this type of mortgage or 4 years and then change to a standard lender once you husband's credit file is clear again.

[Steve Jackson]

Hi karenontheedge

Carla is right, you should be able to apply for a new mortgage with a standard mortgage lender 6 years from the date your husband's IVA started (ie in 4 years time) as this is when the record will come off your credit file. In the mean time using a sub prime lender will not tarnish your credit file in any way. As such this might be an option for you to consider.

For more information about how to improve your husband's credit file after an IVA have a look at this information: https://www.beatmydebt.com/iva/improvin ... er-iva.htm

[karenontheedge]

Thank you both so much for your advice. It is a scary minefied all this.
As we are currently on a variable rate and are looking to reduce our mortgage and the fact that, if we had to rent, the costs would be higher I am not so worried about a lender not offering the best rate. I was mainy worried about how it would look on the credit file.
However, I have no idea who would consider us for a mortgage or how to go about finding a speciaist lender or mortgage broker.
Has anyone got any recommendations.
Thanks.

[Steve Jackson]

No problem at all karenontheedge. That is what we are here for

You can rest assured that using a sub prime lender will not affect your credit file or credit rating in any way so I would certainly recommend that you investigate these. In terms of finding an appropriate one unfortunately we are not able to make any recommendations in this area. However I suggest you search on "sub prime mortgage lenders". Lots of options and comparisons will come up.

[karenontheedge]

Thank you Steve.

[Geraldine]

Good luck with it karenontheedge. I hope you are able to find a suitable mortgage for your needs. As has been mentioned if you do need to take one from a sub prime lender then remember you will only need to stay on this until the record of your IVA has come off your credit file. After that time you should be able to change the mortgage again to a standard lender with a better deal.

[karenontheedge]

Thank you Geraldine. Have googled Sub Prime Mortgages and tons come up. Some companies, I guess should be avoided. But how to know which people to approach.
Can't see a specialist broker in my area so really don't know where to start.

[Hayden]

I am afraid that I cannot add much more to this discussion karenontheedge. I did a quick search on sub prime mortgage lenders myself and there seem to be a couple of comparison sites so you might like to start there. The names that I am aware of are people like Kensington Mortgages, GE Money and Platform loans. It might be worth researching these.... Good luck with it

[karenontheedge]

Thanks so much Hayden. That's a great place to start.