The best way to work out whom to apply to for a mortgage with defaults is to work with your broker.

Our assessments help to establish your exact circumstances and steer your application towards the most appropriate lenders.

Otherwise, there are a few tips you can work through to improve your chances of mortgage approval:

Check Your Credit Reports

If you have defaults on your credit file, it is essential to access your reports and assess them for any inaccuracies or errors, which you can dispute.

Most mortgage lenders use one of, or all of, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, so it is wise to access your credit file from each of these leading credit referencing agencies.

Some lenders have stringent criteria when it comes to lending to applicants with defaults. Still, because each credit referencing agency is different and uses their own scoring criteria, it is worth looking into all three to ensure each is up to date and accurate.

Assess Your Credit File and Mortgage Criteria

When you have your credit reports, you should share them with your broker to save time. Our team can work with you to assess the most severe issues, resolve errors, and dispute inaccuracies.

This is a vital part of the process as it enables our bad credit team to assess whether there is one default or many, how recently these occurred, and whether there are other adverse credit issues to take into consideration.

Applying for a Mortgage After Defaults

The best way to start the application process is to work with an experienced bad credit broker who can help you choose which lenders to apply to and compile your application documentation.

When a default shows as satisfied, it means it has been paid off, and your debts brought up to date. If you can repay this quicker, you should do so as it will instantly improve your credit history.

A satisfied debt demonstrates that your finances are now in a better position than when the default was registered.

Having a satisfied default on your credit file is less severe than one that is unsatisfied. It shows that the debt has since been repaid, so it usually falls into a less serious risk category.

In most cases, getting a mortgage with satisfied defaults isn't significantly more complex than any other standard residential mortgage application.

However, some lenders are less interested in whether a default has been satisfied as they are in assessing your eligibility and affordability. The factors are around how old the default is, rather than whether it has since been satisfied.

It can, yes. Defaults will always be assessed to determine how serious it is.

For example, a default on a mobile phone account isn't likely to be considered very serious. However, a default on a secured loan or mortgage will have more impact than any other type of default.

Flexibility all depends on the lenders. Some will refuse any application with any default, regardless of why or when it happened. Others will offer more flexibility and be willing to consider a wide range of defaults.

Applying for a mortgage with credit issues depends on what sort of problems you have had. The less severe your debts, the easier it is to find competitive lending.

Bad credit lenders can support applications in almost any scenario, but the adverse credit issues that will come into play include, in descending order of the most severe:

• Existing IVA
• Discharged bankruptcy
• Property repossession
• Satisfied IVA
• Debt Management Plans
• Mortgage arrears
• CCJs
• Defaults
• Late payments on unsecured accounts
• Credit card debt
• Low credit score