who will lend to a person on annual contracts?

hi all
myself and husband have been refused approval in principle with our bank AIB, and ulster bank/BofI/PTSB all said they wouldnt consider an application as my husband is not permanent. Is there any lender willing to lend to first time buyers one of whom is on annual contract? other details below

Is this a single or joint application. joint
Type of Property. 3 bedroom house
Value of Property 120,000
Amount of Mortgage 70,000
Term of Mortgage. 25 years
Amount of savings and over how many years 35,000 over 10 years
Is there a lump sum from any other source? If so give full details. 30,000 gifted
Age of Applicants. 38/38
Employment situation. Public sector/Private sector/Self employed/Contract. me in permanent part-time public sector 10 years 20k per annum
husband in private sector (new job) 1 year one month 2nd annual contract 35k per annum

Have you any children.2
Have you any court orders or Judgements. no
Have you any other loans and if so full details of amount/period/% rate and repayment amounts. no

Have any of your existing loan or credit card monthly repayments been paid late over the past twelve months, even if you made the repayment in full a few days later? If so, how many times in the past twelve months?
Any previous negative Cr. history by either applicant. no
Are your savings and rent clearly visible and identified as such in your bank accounts each month yes
Have you gone over your overdraft limit in the past six months, even if only for a day or two? If so, how many times in the past six months? No
If you have been refused a mortgage please give exact reason of why and address why you think you should not have been. Refused due to insufficent ability to repay - they wouldnt consider my husbands income
Did you use a Mortgage broker or are you applying directly?. approached broker but they said there was no-one lending to people on contract

we dont want to borrow much, we have a good lump sum and we have proven ability to pay rent 550 per month for the last 6 years even in difficult financial circumstances. its driving me nuts now that we cant buy when we can afford it. Any suggestions gratefully received!
Thanks

Hi,

I totally understand your fustration having spent months trying to get approval in principle from the banks while on contract employment. I am working on contract with the past 5 and half years.

When I first started applying I applied to EBS as eariler this year they introduced criteria to assess people on contract. Unfortunately in my own situation they still refused me but they do have criteria in place. So if you haven't already applied to them it might be worth considering.

Also, I spoke with some of the differnet recruitment agencies I had worked with down through the years and got them to give me a letter indicating that would be continued future demand for the type of work which I was doing and that the industry would be continuing to grow. Also, I submitted every single email I had received from recruiters about jobs similar to my own which were available out there. This allowed the banks see that althought I was on contract there was plenty of work available.

You have said your husband is on an annual contract, could he get a letter from his company indicating that they foresee his contract being renewed into the future. My only advice is get as much information, past contracts, emails on jobs out there similar to what he is doing, copies of CV etc and submit everything with the application.

Subsequently I got approval from both AIB and permanent TSB while still on contract.

Hope some of this info helps and good luck with getting approval

thanks, thats really helpful Dee, ill work on that side of things.
Im delighted to hear the good news that you got your mortgage, it has to be hard fought for these days doesnt it!

Dee, is it better to apply individually to each lender or did you use a broker?

It was a battle to say the least but you know that youself.

I decided that I would apply individually myself first to each bank as I wanted to deal directly with them and see what they looking for from me and if that all failed I was going to go down the road of using a broker. Thankfully I didn't one in the end.

I just know from my own experience that I was armed with pages and pages and pages of supporting documentation with everything from a copy of CV, to bank statements to letter of references and copies of college degrees etc. My adivce is no matter how irrlevant you might think a piece of information is put in with your application, you can't have enough supporting documents. I think then when I went and spoke with the individual lenders they saw that I was very well prepared and very serious about wanting the loan.

Another thing I did as well before applying was that I started using cash for most transactions rather than laser or visa. This eliminated any big purchases showing up on bank statements or even any small ad hoc transactions that the banks could have come to query.

thanks Dee, we have a glimmer of hope restored!!