Mortgage firms shun drivers
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by Juliet Parish • A union official is calling on truck drivers to contact her if mortgage lenders are slamming the door on their hopes of buying a home.
Transport and General Workers Union official Jennie Sandie believes that truck drivers are near bottom of the list when it comes to qualifying for mortgages. Their relatively low basic wages and dependence on overtime and bonus pay to boost their earnings make them likely to be turned down by many lenders, says the TGWU's Southampton district officer.
She has heard of at least three members being refused reasonable requests for mortgages in the past month, because building societies and banks are worried about their reliance on overtime.
She is now calling on drivers to contact her if they are having difficulty getting a mortgage: "I need to find out whether the situation is bad enough to do something about it."
The Council of Mortgage Lenders, which represents 98% of Britain's mortgag lenders, does not issue guidance on whether overtime and bonuses should be counted as income: "It is at the discretion of each lender." But it says drivers can better their chances of non-guaranteed payments being included as income,0 "if they can show what their earnings have been over, say, a two or threeyear period, then lenders will feel much more secure and will be more likely to take the extra income into account." The most recent P60 and as many wage slips as you can find should be adequate.