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Having an extremely hard time applying for Shared Ownership as a disabled couple?

HomegrownJ

I've contacted MySafeHome but their criteria is absurd, asking for "good or excellent" credit scores from experian, despite me having flawless credit history, and only one new account, and my partner never having had credit before (she's disabled and cannot have free access to money due to her condition). I'm her carer, and we're in receipt of all the right benefits, but our application was halted because they wanted absurdly good credit scores. How is this even possible, or fair? They wouldn't even consider our application even when I explained that my credit report is flawless. They only look at the score, for which experian is notorious for giving far lower than average scores. So that's £14.99 wasted. Are there any other schemes that aren't asking for an arm and a leg?

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Ross_Alumni

Hello @HomegrownJ

Welcome to the community, it's nice to see you join us

Sorry to hear about this, it sounds very inconvenient. It isn't an area I have any experience of, but I wondered if you'd considered getting some professional advice for it? You could consider entering your postcode into Advice Local to see what support is available near you, or maybe you could contact CAB.

This is a very supportive and welcoming site to be a part of so I’m hopeful that you’ll find it to be a positive outlet. Feel free to have a look around and get involved wherever you’d like 😊 I have included below a few of the pages I’d recommend having a look through to get used to things:

The virtual coffee lounge which is one of our categories, in which we play games and talk about general subjects such as hobbies and interests
The recent discussions page, which shows an overview of everything happening across the community
The categories page, which shows a full list of discussion groups on the community

If you have any questions at all then don’t hesitate to ask.

poppy123456

The lender doesn’t look at your credit scores that you see. These are just made up numbers.

They look at how you manage your money and your credit history. They also look at affordability. I know it’s not easy getting a mortgage even for shared ownership homes. Relying on benefits isn’t going to help either.

My daughter moved into her first home with her partner and their son a few months ago. Between them the earnings are about £40,000 per annum. They have a 50% share in their home but it wasn’t a walk in the park to get there.

HomegrownJ said:

(she's disabled and cannot have free access to money due to her condition).

Can you explain what you mean by this?

HomegrownJ

poppy123456 said:

The lender doesn’t look at your credit scores that you see. These are just made up numbers.
They look at how you manage your money and your credit history. They also look at affordability. I know it’s not easy getting a mortgage even for shared ownership homes. Relying on benefits isn’t going to help either.
My daughter moved into her first home with her partner and their son a few months ago. Between them the earnings are about £40,000 per annum. They have a 50% share in their home but it wasn’t a walk in the park to get there.

HomegrownJ said:

(she's disabled and cannot have free access to money due to her condition).

Can you explain what you mean by this?

I don't think you quite understand, because that's the only thing that they're looking at. We have a larger deposit to cover the fact our earnings aren't as much as they could be. I'm not talking about any old lender, as we've already had several AIP's, but none of them cover what we would need to live close to family as we require.
I'm talking about the Shared ownership scheme "MySafeHome" home owndership for disabled people. We fully qualify for the scheme, but they looked at the score, and not the actual report itself. They said that their specialist lenders want people with a good/excellent experian score, and that they wouldn't be able to help any further. I was just wondering if anyone else had any problems with their high criteria for credit score.

Also, my partner has a mental health condition that can cause carelessness with money, so it's advised that she doesn't have access to a bank account, or any reasonable amount of money. I have high rate carer's allowance as I am a full time carer, and we live in a situation where working just wouldn't be good enough, and we would actually earn less than we do now, which is not helpful as we are stuck renting privately at the moment.

poppy123456

Then I’m afraid I have no advice for you on this one. Perhaps contact a local advice agency near you.

HomegrownJ said:

poppy123456 said:

The lender doesn’t look at your credit scores that you see. These are just made up numbers.
They look at how you manage your money and your credit history. They also look at affordability. I know it’s not easy getting a mortgage even for shared ownership homes. Relying on benefits isn’t going to help either.
My daughter moved into her first home with her partner and their son a few months ago. Between them the earnings are about £40,000 per annum. They have a 50% share in their home but it wasn’t a walk in the park to get there.

HomegrownJ said:

(she's disabled and cannot have free access to money due to her condition).

Can you explain what you mean by this?

I have high rate carer's allowance as I am a full time carer

For the avoidance of doubt for other members reading this, there is no such thing as high rate carers allowance. There’s only one rate and that’s £****.70 per week.

HomegrownJ

poppy123456 said:

Then I’m afraid I have no advice for you on this one. Perhaps contact a local advice agency near you.

HomegrownJ said:

poppy123456 said:

The lender doesn’t look at your credit scores that you see. These are just made up numbers.
They look at how you manage your money and your credit history. They also look at affordability. I know it’s not easy getting a mortgage even for shared ownership homes. Relying on benefits isn’t going to help either.
My daughter moved into her first home with her partner and their son a few months ago. Between them the earnings are about £40,000 per annum. They have a 50% share in their home but it wasn’t a walk in the park to get there.

HomegrownJ said:

(she's disabled and cannot have free access to money due to her condition).

Can you explain what you mean by this?

I have high rate carer's allowance as I am a full time carer

For the avoidance of doubt for other members reading this, there is no such thing as high rate carers allowance. There’s only one rate and that’s £****.70 per week.

Apologies, it wasn't the CA that I was referring to. I'm not great with terminology. I have a call with the Local Housing Association who will hopefully be able to help.

L_Volunteer

It has been a little while since you posted now @HomegrownJ. I am just wondering if you have had your call with the Local Housing Association yet and if so, how did it go for you?

We are here for you if you would like to share more with us or need anything, even if that is just a listening ear