Trying to get mortgage & covid letter

I am currently (just before crisis) sale agreed on a property having sold our property in January this yr, had AIP with AIB for a larger sum than needed based generally on incomes, with equity from sale of house we only need about 100k for new purchase of 385k have the rest ourselves problem is bank want a covid employment letter (stating employment or earnings wont change because of covid) from employers, my employer couldn't be bothered and gave me one immediately, however my spouse is employed by a multinational and HR have confirmed that they would never give such a letter to any employee, legally it would be against company policy etc. Anyway now mortgage offer has disappeared, without his letter its not going to happen. Im just wondering if anyone has managed to get a letter of offer from any bank in the past 3wks without this letter? I have a broker now dealing with it but not too hopeful....

Hi - if you get a salary cert filled in from the employer, that should satisfy the banks. No one can give a prediction of what will happen tomorrow, next week or next month. I can't understand why the bank are putting such a requirement on your application. As part of the mortgage application, any future changes in your circumstances will affect your application anyway. Have you talked to your solicitor ?

Jazz01 said:

Hi - if you get a salary cert filled in from the employer, that should satisfy the banks.

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They have AIP, banks don't supply that without having the salary certs.

I have AIP at the moment, and our broker reached out to us a couple of weeks back to let us know we were good to proceed based on our occupations being regarded as safe. Perhaps some other banks are more cautious, or perhaps wary about the prospects for people in certain roles or industries.

OP, the options as I see it are try other banks, or propose a wording that your spouse's employers can sign up to, that will still satisfy the bank. Something like there are no immediate plans to review salaries due to COVID-19. Something that doesn't tie their hands forever.

Thanks, we have everything in place and are considered a 'low risk' borrower, it just the covid has everyone running scared.
Leo, can I ask which bank you are going with? Good idea re the wording, ill see if they could do up a letter like that, its an American multi so they're always afraid of being sued. Im with my employer 20yrs and spouse with his 13yrs both in good positions career wise, its very frustrating, im about to take out my cash and close account ☹

Versandvoort said:

Leo, can I ask which bank you are going with? Good idea re the wording, ill see if they could do up a letter like that, its an American multi so they're always afraid of being sued.

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We had AIP with a couple, but it was BOI who reached out to us.

I also work with a large American multi-national so I'm used to dealing with the conservative default to questions like this. In my experience though if you get talking to the right people, you can get what you need, many of the multi-nationals are struggling to hire staff, so some flexibility with issues like this is becoming more common.

Jazz01 said:

Have you talked to your solicitor ?

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Yes Jazz Solicitor said everything was a mess and public service workers seem to be the only ones getting mortgages right now, hes trying to buy us time with seller who is being very quiet re the whole thing, thankfully they are also not in a chain

Thanks Leo, did you get approval without 'covid letter '?

My brother-in-law had a similar issue. You need to find the happy medium between the bank’s box ticking and the employer’s reluctance not to overcommit.

If the wording is such that it’s along the lines that “we do not envisage...”, it provides the employer the necessary wriggle-room it needs and, although in reality it should be worthless to the bank, it allows them to tick their box and close their file.

Thanks Gordon

Versandvoort said:

Thanks Leo, did you get approval without 'covid letter '?

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I had AIP in place from early in the year. The contact I mentioned above was the bank reaching out to us to let us know we were good to proceed if we found a property we liked.

Leo said:

I had AIP in place from early in the year. The contact I mentioned above was the bank reaching out to us to let us know we were good to proceed if we found a property we liked.

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Okay Leo, yeah we have AIP since September 2019 when we went sale agreed on the house we sold, so different situation now that we've found a house unfortunately

We are currently apply for a switcher mortage and havent been asked for any letters yet. Will have all documents submitted for assessment Monday and hoping to get AIP soon after. However we are looking for small amount. 99k on a 400k house. I'm a public sector worker though so I dont see any problems with it. Hopefully.