[Davew]

As a window cleaner where payment is a lot of cash in hand, it's quite likely that some of us might try to.... ahem be less than one hundred percent with the taxman. This would obviously lead to a lower annual income. So my question is how do you get on with finding a mortgage being self employed etc. ?

[NWH]

Declare what you earn.

[Chris Cottrell]

Are you saying you dont declare all 

[Davew]

If your employed the mortgage lender normally contacts the employer to verify your earnings. What happens if your self employed where earnings are less obvious is there a problem?

[Davew]

Are you saying you dont declare all 

You would be a fool to admit it, but with all cash in hand trades it's likely to happen.

[Chris Cottrell]

I'd rather sleep sound at night safe in the knowledge

[NWH]

If you want a morgage you have to show good earnings,if you rent and have less outgoings you might prefer cash in hand,i wouldn`t.

[Art]

If your employed the mortgage lender normally contacts the employer to verify your earnings. What happens if your self employed where earnings are less obvious is there a problem?

Your accountant can sort out verifiying your earnings

[matt]

self certificate Mortgage

they rely on your to be honest its how many today are getting such great whopping Mortgages

[nat]

self cert mortgage is what i had to do. 19k it cost me. i probably could of got one through normal methods but it seemed a minefiled so self cert was the one for me

[chrismroberts]

Well, we could self cert for more than we earn... but if we cant pay the mortgage, its gonna come back on us in the end! So its in our interests to be honest, surely?

[nat]

obviously we don't wanna live above our means...but what if our means were more than the mortgage company thought they were? 

[chrismroberts]

obviously we don't wanna live above our means...but what if our means were more than the mortgage company thought they were? 

LOL, they wouldnt lend very much

[[GQC] Tim]

Having no clue about this all, but moving out parents home next year, comes the following question :

Where can you read up on self cert. mortgages? And where can you get one?

[Art]

type self certificated mortgages into google. There's loads of info

[nat]

obviously we don't wanna live above our means...but what if our means were more than the mortgage company thought they were? 

LOL, they wouldnt lend very much

thats why you go self cert.  they do 5% self cert now as well just a higher interest rate

[mark dew]

i bought a house in february and in the process of trying to get a 'normal' mortgage i had to show 3 years worth of certified accounts.
Your best bet is to speak to an independant financial advisor and if you haven't got 3 years worth of accounts showing you have earnt enough then you will have to get a self cert mortgage.
The drawback if any is that you have to put a deposit down, a minimum of 5%. I managed to borrow 3 1/2 X my declared earnings but put down a 27% deposit to get a self cert mortgage.
You will struggle to get a high street mortgage without certified accounts and seeing an IFA will be the best thing you could do.
I think i paid £250 for his services.

[pingu]

I am in the same position DaveW....I am declaring every single penny as the banks want 3 to 4 years of certified earnings (accounts prepared by an accountant)..

So at present I use george to prepare and print an income forcast and round valuation each week in addition to this I also run a spreadsheet with things like customers gained, dropped, suspended, moved, leaflets out in each area, customer gained in each area, percentages of customers gained/lost per week both yearly and total...

In essence I want to go to the banks armed with enough information to show that my business grows steadily each monthly, 3 monthly, 6monthly and annually..hopefully the banks can see that as a self employed one man band, I am a  safe bet to lend money to with regard to a mortgage.

Being a foriegner in a new country I do not have any history with the banks so in order to gain a mortgage whilst being in a (percieved) cash in hand style business
we are trying to show the banks regular and steady growth, healthy use of bank accounts both money in and money out and not showing any form of debt....

Then of course it is always in the banks decision....

[Paul Coleman]

self certificate Mortgage

they rely on your to be honest its how many today are getting such great whopping Mortgages

It's also what's been fuelling the house price boom.  Now that lenders are getting more nervous about lending to anyone who needs self cert, the prices have started to drop.

[bumper]

No problem, get your mortgage first ,then drop your wages down ,long as you keep your mortgage payments up your alright,best thing about it the tax man will be helping to pay your mortgage ;)he helped me to feed my gambling habbit if i lost a poopload of money id say to myself oh i would of paid it in tax anyway