Declined Home Loan on Maternity Leave

Over the past few months MAP has had a number of clients on unpaid maternity leave who have been declined home loan finance from their broker or bank. Their bank or broker has advised them that they need to return to work first before they will consider lending to them.

This is indeed the case with most lenders however MAP has access to a number that are far more flexible and common sense when it comes to maternity leave. 

If you need both incomes to afford the home loan, then all we need to do is;

1) Obtain a letter from wife/partners employer confirming exact start date they will return to work and what income they will return on,

2) Be able to provide evidence of how you will afford repayments on the home loan during this time. 

Ie, there will be a time where you are still only on one income and the bank has lent you the money. So we need to be able to show the banks that between the time you are approved and the time you return to work, you have enough funds to support yourselves and pay the mortgage during this time. This could include;

1) Government benefits such as 18 weeks paid maternity leave – banks will not use this as income but we can use it to show that you can afford repayments,

2) Savings – any additional savings that can be used to assist with repayments,

3) Perhaps the husband is taking a second job for that period of time to assist.

The above is accurate whether you have a 5% deposit or a 50% deposit – as long as we can present a good case as to how you will afford the repayments prior to returning to work then we can generally get a good common sense decision.