I think getting a mortgage is going to be even more fun than I thought. From talking to a few people at work, a mortgage advisor suggested by my estate agent and the mortgage department of Natwest, it seems that nobody is really sure what the criteria are for me to apply… Getting a 100% mortgage is difficult, getting a mortgage when you're a foreigner is difficult. Getting a 100% mortgage when you're a foreigner who doesn't pay UK income tax and whose partner is a UK resident is… possibly impossible.
Seriously, I don't fit the nice pigeonholes, so people don't know what to do with me. Natwest tells me they can give me an 80% mortgage (if I pony up 20% of 165K!!!) but I also need to have more than a 3 year work permit. But since Katy will also be on the load, that muddles the issue. They want to know what my gross annual salary is, but that's also meaningless as I don't pay UK tax!!!
Urgh. It should come down to the fact that we can afford the loan we want. You'd think it would be simple. NOT!
I thought the EBI had some sort of procedure for dealing with mortages, like a table showing your equivalent salary if you paid tax, or similar, which you could show to your bank, or something. This is from vague memories of friends my girlfriend buying houses. It may be worth asking your HR or accounting people.
(http://livejournal.com/users/pw201)
email in the post, but HR person off sick today :(
(http://livejournal.com/users/talisker)