Remortgage for a couple with past mortgage arrears, CCJs and pressure on affordability

Pepper Homeloans financed a mortgage for a couple who were nearly 60 years of age with an interest only mortgage that had come to an end and past adverse credit.

Scenario

A married couple owned a house valued at £750k with an outstanding mortgage of £110k, on an interest only basis. They had reached the end of the interest only term and their existing lender wanted the capital balance to be repaid, which they didn’t have the means to do. The couple, both aged 59 years, planned on working until the age of 70 years.

In January 2014, the husband was made redundant and spent 9 months out of work whilst retraining. During this time, the couple ran up 2 months of mortgage arrears (September/October 2014, only brought up to date in March 2017), 2 CCJs totaling £8000 (registered in September 2014, which are still unsatisfied) and 2 defaults totaling £300 (registered September 2014, unsatisfied). They were also 1 month late in paying their half-yearly water bill in October 2016.

Due to their past arrears, credit issues and pressure on affordability, their existing lender was unwilling to extend the term of the mortgage, giving them the choice of selling and downsizing (which they were reluctant to do), or to remortgage with another lender. The latter was proving difficult due to the outstanding CCJs and poor credit score.

Solution

With nowhere to turn, the couple approached a Mortgage Broker for advice. Due to the couple’s situation, the Mortgage Broker explored which specialist lenders offer manual underwriting teamed with a flexible approach when considering the customer’s age and past credit issues.

The Mortgage Broker approached Pepper Money because they don’t credit score, don’t have a maximum value for credit events and don’t require these to be satisfied.

As all of the issues affecting the couple’s credit history occurred over 3 years ago, they fitted on the Pepper36 product, where they had a choice of fixed rates, a 2 year fix at 2.37% or a 5 year fix at 2.98%.

The couple opted for the 5 year rate which was actually less than the rate with their existing lender. Plus it gave them certainty and security through a period of economic uncertainty.

Needless to say, they were delighted with the outcome and indebted to their Mortgage Broker for arranging such a fantastic deal.

Here to help

For help placing a specialist case, call our Specialist Team on 01702 538 800 or request a call back.