Joint Mortgage Bad Credit

Can you get a joint mortgage if both or one applicant has bad credit?

Yes, you can. Sometimes we speak to a client who doesn’t want to put their partner on the mortgage because they have bad credit. But that doesn’t necessarily stop anyone getting a mortgage. It may just impact the lender choice or the interest rates.

Whether you both have bad credit or just one of you has, you can still get a mortgage.

What types of bad credit affect a joint mortgage application? Let’s start with a county court judgment or CCJ.

A county court judgment happens when you’ve owed somebody some money and haven’t paid it back. It’s gone to court and a judge has ruled in the provider’s favour. That CCJ now sits on your credit report for six years.

CCJs don’t stop people from getting mortgages. What’s really important is the date of registration – the date the court heard the case. If you’ve repaid the debt, the date it was satisfied is also important, and so is the amount.

As you can imagine, if somebody has a CCJ worth £200 from five years ago, that would have much less impact on a mortgage compared with one for £100,000 registered last month.

What impact does an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) have on getting a mortgage?

IVAs are more tricky. An active IVA is where somebody’s making payments on the arrangement. A satisfied IVA is where the money has been repaid and there’s no debt outstanding.

There’s a misconception in the market that an IVA will stop you getting a mortgage – but actually you can. Only a couple of lenders will accept an active IVA, so to improve your chances the best thing is to settle it and come out of the IVA.

The longer you have been out of the IVA, the higher your chances of acceptance. A key thing is the deposit, although if you had an IVA three years ago, the deposit size needed would be a lot less than somebody who’s just about to come out of an IVA.

The first step, though, is to sit down with a broker and look at affordability and your credit report – we would check how it looks now and how it might look in the future.

Will a default stop me getting a joint mortgage?

Defaults are similar to a CCJ, although not quite as severe in impact on a credit report. You would have a default date, a satisfied date if it’s been paid and obviously an amount.

Some lenders will ignore certain defaults, depending on the value, registration date or the type of company that listed the default. Common ones are water companies and mobile phone providers – some lenders will completely ignore those.

Lenders recognise that people with no previous bad credit can get defaults from these companies due to discrepancies in billing. So defaults are a little easier than a CCJ, and definitely not something people should panic about.

Can I get a joint mortgage with a debt management plan (DMP)?

People quite frequently go into a DMP incorrectly, because they’re advised that it’s a good idea. It can impact your mortgage chances.

With a debt management plan, we look at account conduct. If you’ve been in a DMP for 12 months or more, a lender might ask for a letter from the debt management company to confirm that you haven’t missed any payments and everything is satisfactory. That’s a big tick in the box for a lender. Without that, your chances of a mortgage will be slim.

Are there any other bad credit types to mention?

What’s most common are smaller things like missed or late payments, both of which could have an impact depending on what they are, how recent they are and the size.

It’s quite common to miss a minimum payment on a credit card one month, but have five years of green ticks on the credit report and no other issues. That’s not usually a problem.

A big thing we haven’t touched on yet is mortgage arrears. Obviously, that’s an issue when going for a new mortgage. That’s the one thing you need to be up to date with and good at paying. Anything above a status two in a mortgage gets quite complicated and you would need a specialist lender. Below a status two could be relatively straightforward.

The best thing to do across that entire list of different types of bad credit is to sit down with a mortgage broker and work through your credit report.

Are there specific lenders who deal with joint mortgages with bad credit?

Yes, there are. The joint mortgage side isn’t really relevant – it doesn’t really matter whether there’s two of you with bad credit or just one of you.

Lenders look at the worst case scenario. If a couple wants a mortgage and they’ve got two CCJs each, it’s no different from a single application with the same four CCJs. There are lenders out there that want bad credit applicants – it’s their bread and butter, and they charge accordingly.

Does being married make a difference when applying for a joint mortgage with bad credit?
Not necessarily, but if you’re married, some lenders would expect both applicants to be on the application. We often see couples who are married, where one of them has bad credit or hasn’t contributed to the deposit, and they want to leave that person off the application.

That’s definitely something to make your broker aware of, as it will impact which lender you’ll go to. It won’t necessarily cost you more money. When we do our research into lenders, it’s just something we need to know. Being married won’t stop you from getting a mortgage.

Can I still get a joint mortgage if I’ve had previous bankruptcy or repossession?

Yes. For either a purchase or remortgage, bankruptcy and repossession don’t need to stop you. There’s a 12-month cooling-off period after you come out of a bankruptcy, where we can’t really do a great deal for you. But once you’ve come through that period, we can start looking at mortgages straight away.

At the time of recording this in September 2025, somebody just coming out of a bankruptcy will probably need a 30% deposit. If the bankruptcy ended three or four years ago, you’re likely to need much less – possibly 10% or even 5%, depending on affordability.

Bankruptcy usually means that your case will be a lot more complex – more checks will be done.