We have done similar posts to this in the past but I thought it was due an update. The last 12 months have been rocky to say the least. Interest rates have yo-yoed and I thought it would be worthwhile to do a post on what it is like to try and get a mortgage with defaults in 2024.
Can I get a Mortgage with defaults?
The simple answer is yes.
The more complex answer however is that it really does depend on your circumstances. If you have 10 defaults registered last month and a 5% deposit, then no you wont be able to get a mortgage.
If you have 2 defaults from 5 years ago and a 50% deposit, then yes its very likely you will be able to get a mortgage.
Realistically though most people will fall in the middle of those two extremes. Where in the middle of the 2 you fall will determine the likelihood of you being accepted and the cost of that mortgage.
How much will a mortgage with Defaults cost?
Mortgage rates are still all over the place at the moment, there is a lot of inconsistencies between lenders. Interest rates do appear to be on a downward trend however, but to answer this question I thought it might be best to put it in a table.
Interest rates on Mortgages for Defaults
Lets assume we have a customer with 4 Defaults and they were registered 18 months ago we are looking at rates of around 7-8% although as mentioned earlier they do seem to be coming down. There are not too many options in that situation, but there is still a 1% difference between the best and worst rates.
But there are other examples where the devil is in the detail and that detail can make a big difference. It is these cases where getting the right broker can make a huge difference.
If we have a look at another example, where the applicant has 2 small defaults both satisfied from 5 years ago and a 20% deposit, you can see a difference in the options.
| Lender | High Street | Building Society | Adverse Lender |
| Mobile phone default £50 | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Overdraft default £150 | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Rate | 4.99% | 6.29% | 7.2% |
| Fees | £999 | £499 | £995 |
| Repayments of £180k over 25 years | £1,051 | £1,192 | £1,295 |
| Lender Type | Credit scoring | Manual Review | Manual review |
| Likely Acceptance | 50/50 depending on score | 80% with some explanation | 99%, this would be a good case for an adverse lender so very likely. |
Some brokers may see 2 defaults and go straight to an adverse lender. The upside here is that you are very likely to get the mortgage which you may well be happy with.
How Mortgage Success looks for the most suitable mortgage
Some might try the high street first but then if declined go to the adverse lender. But what about the middle ground? This is where I think we at mortgage success differ to a lot of Generalist or Adverse only mortgage brokers. We specialise in the adverse world, but that means we know the flexible high street lenders, it also means we sit down with a lot of the small building societies which many brokers ignore. We also know the specialist adverse lenders. However we try to avoid them as much as possible as they are more expensive. In an ideal world we would get every one on the high street as it is cheaper for you and easier for us but that is not always possible.
Summary
Getting a mortgage with defaults in 2024 is certainly possible. Lenders are still wanting to lend and able to.
There are still a good selection of lenders available and they are to some extent competing with one another. That should help the market and hopefully keep rates coming down.
How much it will cost really does depend on the details. You can see from the above you could be looking at normal rates (currently around 4.5% through to 9%).
I think if you have a number of defaults or recent adverse, it is always worth a conversation. The route we take is to tell you what we can do, if that works great. But sometimes the interest rates are too high for you. That’s understandable and there are certainly no hard feelings if you choose not to proceed. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your options.