Getting a Joint Mortgage with Bad Credit

Yes definitely. Aside from anything else you need to make sure that all the information held on it is accurate. Imagine how devastating it would be being turned down for a mortgage based on a mistake.

Everyone who is part of the joint mortgage application should get copies of their credit reports in advance. This can either be done directly with each of the main credit reference agencies in the UK - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion - or you can use a combined service like checkmyfile.com, which pulls in information from all three into one place.

This is the time to lay all your cards on the table. Don’t imagine that you can hide any credit issues from your partner or friends - lenders will find them and it will only make it more difficult to get a mortgage if you have a first application declined. Go through your reports in detail together, so that each party knows where you stand. Information really is power here - having the facts laid out, even if they aren’t perfect, puts you in the strongest possible position for getting the mortgage you want.

Note: Checking your own credit file has no impact on your credit score so you can do this as often as you like. It’s a good idea to do it regularly to keep an eye for inaccuracies or evidence of fraudulent activity.

This is a tricky one. On the one hand it might make sense to go it alone on a mortgage if your partner has bad credit, especially if it’s a very recent or significant issue. If you apply for a mortgage by yourself then your partner’s credit won’t need to be checked and you could get a better deal.

However, there are a few things to consider before deciding to get a mortgage on your own simply because your partner has a less than spotless credit history. The first is that with only one person’s income to consider, you may me a lot more limited in terms of how much you can borrow. Most lenders will cap borrowing on a mortgage at between 4 and 4.5 times your annual salary, and so if this is based on one salary rather than two, you may struggle to get the loan you need.

Further issues might arise because of the complications in getting a single mortgage if you actually have a partner you live with, especially if you are married. Lenders prefer married couples to both be on the deeds of a property, and may see a single applicant marriage as a red flag. There can be potential issues around rights to live in the property if both partners aren’t included, and this will definitely be raised as a problem if your deposit is coming from joint savings. Unless you can show very clearly that your deposit comes from individual savings, with no contribution whatsoever from your husband or wife, then it will make it difficult to say for sure that your partner won’t have some legal claim to the house.

Yes, absolutely. The good news is that unless the bad credit is something really very serious that has happened in the last 12 months, such as a repossession or bankruptcy, that there probably will be a joint mortgage option out there for you, it’s just a case of finding it. That’s exactly where a bad credit mortgage broker comes in.

All good brokers should be independent and have whole market access, but when you’re looking for a joint mortgage with poor credit it’s important to find a broker who specialises in securing loans for people who’ve experienced issues with debt in the past. They will have an understanding of exactly what lenders are looking for, and may have existing relationships with the specialist bad credit lenders that you might need to approach. These lenders can be much harder to research on your own, and many will only accept applications at all via a broker.