Self Employed Mortgage..BOI 3 mts a/c's

We've been trying for a while to get a mortgage. We were going to go with START as my b/f was self employed with no a/c's and I had a bad credit history.

However we decided that my b/f would go above board with his earnings and he has opened a business a/c with Bank Of Ireland. This is his first month trading. (legally anyway). He had an appointment with a girl to discuss getting a mortgage and she told him that they would accept 3 months a/c's from him to see if he will qualify for a mortgage. He now has an appointment to go back to them in January when he has a/c's for 3 mths.

Has anyone had any experience of this? We thought we would have to wait a year....

Sounds like a nice way to say no...

I was under the impression it was 3 years accounts for self employed people, at least that is what the EBS informed me when I was applying for one.

anniem said:

We've been trying for a while to get a mortgage. We were going to go with START as my b/f was self employed with no a/c's and I had a bad credit history.

However we decided that my b/f would go above board with his earnings and he has opened a business a/c with Bank Of Ireland. This is his first month trading. (legally anyway). He had an appointment with a girl to discuss getting a mortgage and she told him that they would accept 3 months a/c's from him to see if he will qualify for a mortgage. He now has an appointment to go back to them in January when he has a/c's for 3 mths.

Has anyone had any experience of this? We thought we would have to wait a year....

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Sounds strange to me. I've been self employed for 12 years now with full accounts for each year and all taxes paid up to date with all earnings (every cent) declared. I've never found it straight-forward to get mortgage appoval. Last time I checked they wanted:
3 years accounts
A letter from my accountant stating that all taxes were up to date
A letter from my accountant stating that in all likelihood I would remain in business for the foreseeable future
A Tax Clearance Certificate from Revenue
12 months Business bank statements

All of the above were, of course, on top of all the usual paper work required.

It was never stated outright but I always got a vibe of suspiction and mistrust from a financial institution as soon as they hear the words "self employed" despite the fact that every penny I've ever earned has been declared. Sorry I don't mean to sound annoyed. It's not you. I guess I'm a bit fed up of the Irish negativity towards self employment - especially the attitude that all self employed people are evading tax.

Oh by the way I wouldn't touch a sub-prime lender with a barge pole. I'd rather live in a tent for the rest of my life than take a mortgage from them.

They normally want 3 years accounts, unless you have a good relationship with the bank where your business account is, if your partner has his personal account at the same bank for a number of years that will help. That swung it for me recently with BOI, I only had 1 years accounts.
Try Bank of Scotland, if your partners credit rating is ok they cater for self employed. It would help if your partner can show that his career up to becoming self emplyed was in the same kind of area.

Deb___ said:

3 years accounts
A letter from my accountant stating that all taxes were up to date
A letter from my accountant stating that in all likelihood I would remain in business for the foreseeable future
A Tax Clearance Certificate from Revenue
12 months Business bank statements

All of the above were, of course, on top of all the usual paper work required.

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Usually all that is needed are 2 years audited accounts and confirmation from accountant that tax affairs are in order.
Of course this varies from case to case, depending on the industry, previous experience of the applicant and how long trading.

As for BOI offering a mortgage after 3 months trading...please let us know how you get on but it sounds like the bank official was either trying to let you down gently (and also keep the business) or else doesn't really know the lending policy of the bank.

What if you do your own accounts and don't have an accountant, but everything is above board?

Not sure what procedure is these days but where I worked previously we took revenue balancing statment confirming details you had submitted to them. Cant remember what it was called, self employed equivalent of p21?

wbbs said:

Not sure what procedure is these days but where I worked previously we took revenue balancing statment confirming details you had submitted to them. Cant remember what it was called, self employed equivalent of p21?

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Yes, I would have thought a doc from Revenue saying you had declared profit of, say, 60k for a year (and paid tax on it) would be even more trustworthy than accounts prepared by your accountant (which could conceivably be "cooked") which showed profits of 60k.

You can get a tax clearance cert online so long as your up to date. We are applying at the moment and banks are looking for everything. 2/3 years accounts. min 3 month statements. Tax cert et al.
There is a form for your accountant to fill out I think.

invest-or said:

Yes, I would have thought a doc from Revenue saying you had declared profit of, say, 60k for a year (and paid tax on it) would be even more trustworthy than accounts prepared by your accountant (which could conceivably be "cooked") which showed profits of 60k.

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The lenders get a much clearer picture of the long term sustainability of your business from reading the accounts than they do from just knowing you made a profit last year.

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