Many people think that you are unable to get a mortgage whilst in a Debt Management plan (DMP), the truth is the complete opposite and it is entirely possible.
However, the devil is in the detail. This post is aimed to going into more detail to explain what factors are important and the likely options.
The DMP itself
This is one of the key parts. High Street lenders will not be interested, so we need to rule those lenders out straight away. Specialist lenders are the ones we need to be looking at. We did a post on our experience using these lenders recently, you can read those here. The specialist lenders are not as easy to deal with as high street lenders, but they do things the high street will not.
The specialist lenders stance on active DMPs fall into 1 of 3 categories:
- Will not accept,
- Will accept but needs to have been paid on time for at least 12 months,
- Will accept but needs to have been paid on time (you may have only been in the DMP for 1 month).
Nice and simple I think? So the good news is that there are lenders who will accept active debt management plans as part of a mortgage application.
Wider adverse criteria
With DMPs it is not uncommon to see other adverse. This is where it can start to get a little more complex. Defaults, CCJs, arrears etc, lenders have criteria on these. However, most (with some discussion) will ignore adverse that falls outside of criteria if it is part of the DMP.
A little more complex, but still quite positive.
Sounds too good to be true
We always say to people to pick up the phone and have the conversation with us. There are 2 key points which I think sets us apart. The first is that we deal in adverse, we know about products and criteria other brokers may not even have access to, let alone know about. The other is that whilst we do charge a fee, we only charge when you get your full mortgage offer. It is not in our interest to waste your time or ours unless we know we can get there for you.
Here are a couple of examples of people we have been able to help who were in a DMP:
What should you do?
Get in touch, give us a call. It will be a quick 10 minute chat to get some basics. We will then give you an indication of whether you can get a mortgage, what the likely rates will be and next steps if you want to move forward.
Worst case scenario we will say we are unable to help, best case scenario you get your mortgage – there is nothing to lose.