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What Happens During The Mortgage Application Process?: The mortgage application process, once underway, does not take very long. Once you have decided to go with a certain lender and signed a purchase contract, the lender will run a full credit check verifying your income, liabilities and your ability to repay the loan.
What Are The Different Ways You Can Pay Off a Mortgage?: Capital & Interest - otherwise known as a repayment loan. The borrower pays an amount each month to cover the amount borrowed and the interest charged on that.
What Is A Remortgage?: ‘Remortgage’ is basically the term for switching your mortgage to another mortgage lender.
What are 100% Mortgages?: Most mortgage lenders will only offer a 90% loan to value, that means that they will only loan you 90% of the properties value. First time buyers find this particularly problematic because they need to save up there 10% of the properties value before they can complete on their mortgage.
What is a Fixed Rate Mortgage?: A loan where the initial payments are based on a certain interest rate for a stated period and the rate payable will not change during that period regardless of changes in the lender's standard variable rate.

How Does A Joint Mortgage Work?

When you decide to get a mortgage with another person – both your incomes can be taken into account. The general rule is that you can borrow three times the first income plus half of the second income, or two-and-a-half times the joint income.

The bigger the deposit you can give, the less interest you will have to pay, and in general, you will be expected to have a deposit of between 3 - 10% of the asking price of the property you want to buy.

It is absolutely vital that you are both very clear before you buy a house together and get a mortgage that you both know where you stand from a legal point of view. It's possible for up to four people to be joint legal owners of a property, and if you are a joint owner it means no one else can force you to leave unless they get a court order, sell the property without getting your agreement or a court order or take out a loan against the property without your agreement. You should discuss the options with your solicitor before you decide, and you will have to sign a written agreement confirming what you have decided before the sale goes ahead.

There are two different ways to joint own a property, the difference being, what will happen to the property if one of you dies.

Joint tenants

This means you have equal rights to the whole of the property - many couples who are married or in long-term relationships choose this option. This agreement means that if you die, the other joint owner automatically inherits your share of the property, regardless of anything that is said in your will.

Tenants in common

This is the option that couples in new relationships and friends and/or relatives who are buying together often choose. This means that you each own a specific share of the property, not necessarily an equal share. If you die, your share of the property doesn't automatically pass to the other legal owner(s), but to whoever is named in your will or, if you haven't got a will, to your next of kin. If you want to leave your share of the property to the other legal owner(s), you will have to state this in your will. This type of agreement can be transferred into a joint tenancy, but only if the other owner(s) agree to it.