Which banks accept child maintenance as income for mortgage application?

C

Christine1985

Registered User
Messages
6
I'm very new to this forum and would really appreciate advice on the following issue.

I'm a single mother of 2 kids, work full time and would like to apply for a mortgage on my own. My boys' dad pays child maintenance of €1,000 per month, my take home pay per month is €2,500. I understand after speaking to a few Irish Banks (AIB, KBC) that they do not consider the child maintenance I receive from the kids' dad as my income and would therefore not consider me a suitable candidate for a mortgage (as my wage is quite modest and I have 2 dependents).

My question is - are there any other banks in Ireland (apart from Ulster Bank) that accept child maintenance payments and child benefit as 'income' for the purposes of a mortgage application.

Any advice/info on this topic would be very much appreciated.
 
In my experience none of the lenders will accept child maintenance as income.

They might consider as valid income from the rent a room scheme; its worth asking at any rate.
 
Thanks for your response Thirsty. I do believe that Ulster Bank do allow 'child maintenance' and 'child benefit' to be included as your 'additional income' based on my research and my conversation with them. Other banks appear to disregard it altogether.

My question is - is Ulster Bank the only bank in Ireland that does allow 'child maintenance' to be included?
 
I know that previously UB certainly did not allow child benefit. Maintenance was a different story and depended on how much of the overall income it was and what was the occupation of the payer and system of payment. It would also depend too on ages of children as maintenance might only be lasting a portion of the loan term. Where the maintenance is solely for the children it further complicates it, I would imagine if UB look at it, it will be on a case by case basis.
 
Problem is that payment child maintenance is not enforced by any state agency. If the non-resident parent decides to stop payments the resident parent must resort to court & even then getting arrears paid is very difficult.
 
Thanks Thirsty. Both of us are Irish residents. We also have a voluntary maintenance agreement in place (signed and witnessed at a solicitor's office), so I don't think non-payment of maintenance will be an issue here.
If there's someone on this forum who's in receipt of child maintenance and who has dealt with Ulster Bank re mortgage, it would be great to hear their views.
 
Hiya Christine,
We were with UB last week and they told us that they were the only bank that include child benefit as an additional income, we have 2 dependants too, so advisor added that to our overall income.
I'd look into the "rent a room" scheme as an alternative to maintenance payments.... just something that may help... we are starting to enquire with all banks so I'll be asking the Cb question with them all so will keep you posted if anyone else is doing it. good luck.
 
Thanks Allison1707!
It look like Pepper Ireland also allows 'child maintenance' to be included as your income for the purposes of mortgage application. So Ulster Bank and Pepper are the two that I know of so far to do so.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top