I tried a couple of the major lenders a few months ago and they said, we do lend to contractors but only once they’ve been in a contract for 2-3 years…
My response was to ask them if they understood what a contract was and how it was different from a perm role 😯

So I’m wondering if there are any lenders who will lend to contractors, without setting unreasonable criteria…

I think you misunderstood what they said (or they said it badly) – they dont need you to be in a single contract for 2-3 years, but they do need you to have 2-3 years worth of steady accounts (and therefore contracts) that they can use to be confident that you can repay the loan.

There are specialist mortgage providers who will loan you money with less than 3 years accounts, but you’ll pay more for the privilege.

I’m a contractor (have been for 18 years), and all my mortgages have been with the regular mortgage providers, no specialists needed.

This is probably too late for you, but If you’re going to go contracting and you know you’ll want to remortgage/mortgage in the next 3 years, then get the mortgage lined up before you jack in your permie job. This is one of the downsides of contracting.

Nationwide here. They wanted to see a couple of years’ worth of company accounts IIRC.

I didn’t have a mortgage when I was contracting, but they are often pimped by companies that specialise in them, eg:

http://www.contractoruk.com/money/contractor_mortgages.html

Do you have a PCG membership? Might be worth looking on their site. Or speak to your accountant/umbrella company, they might know someone.

How do you pay yourself? An accountant should be able to draw up earning documentation to prove earnings. How long have you been contracting?

3yrs proof of income no matter what the source is typical. bear in mind though a reluctance to lend to anyone at the moment.

not unusual for lenders to want evidence of saving ( building societies/ banks) as per the 80’s before considering a loan..

Contractor Financials have been pretty useful to me.

what is your loan to value? under 75% will get lenders being a bit more flexible. If you’re asking for 90% with less than 3 years accounts you can pretty much forget it.

3yrs proof of income no matter what the source is typical. bear in mind though a reluctance to lend to anyone at the moment.

But most lenders now calculate borrowing power based on the last two years in most cases (some on just the last year). At least that is what I am finding (self-employed, just about to apply for a mortgage this evening but have it ‘in principal’ already). And I am not sure there is as much ‘reluctance’ these days either – I couldn’t get close to being able to borrow two years ago but now most of the big lenders seem happy to deal with someone in my position.

as above – 3 years of accounts, think this is fairly standard unless you want to pay through the nose….

I used Freelancer Financials when I moved last year. Linky

I’d been a contractor for just over a year at the time. They were good to deal with and I got the mortgage and house I wanted. Email in profile if you want info of who I spoke to.

I’m not a Contractor but my g/f is and we saw an independent mortgage advisor- he took one look at my g/f’s payslips and said it wouldn’t be an issue.

We got a mortgage with Nationwide and the issue didn’t even arise. I think he probably just forwarded all the payslips on and didn’t even mention that my g/f was a Contractor. This was only about 6 months ago and we didn’t have any problems.

I used Contractor Financials a few years ago who got me the Woolwich mortgage I wanted. This was odd to me as I was already with Woolwich and when I contacted them they said they wouldn’t give me a new one when I moved as I was now a contractor. So seems to me they paid commission that they didn’t need to.

Kensington Building Society do them. see here

PS: Just seen that i am replying to a post from 8 months ago!! Durrr!!

Woolwich here. I think they just wanted to see 3 years of business accounts. All pretty normal I think.