Plenty of the files accountants and past clients send me are ones where something has changed and the usual process has stopped working: a separation partway through, an estate that isn’t finalised, a business sold with the proceeds still sitting in the company.
They’re not harder because you’re riskier. They’re harder because somebody has to sequence them, so the right document comes from the right person in the right order and it’s all there when the application goes in, rather than turning up after a query.
I’ll tell you honestly whether now is the moment, or whether waiting eight weeks makes the whole thing simple. Sometimes the useful answer is “not yet”.
What usually brings someone to this page
- You’re separating and one of you wants to keep the house.
- You’ve inherited property, or a share of it, and the estate isn’t finalised.
- You’ve sold a business and your last two years of returns no longer describe your income.
- You’re moving interstate, or coming back to Australia, and your employment or residency status has changed.
- A partner has moved to one income, or to no income, and the existing loan no longer fits.
- Someone has died, and there’s a loan to be dealt with alongside everything else.
What a lender is actually looking at
None of this is secret. It’s just rarely written down for the person it’s being applied to.
- Whether the change is documented yet
- A lender can’t assess an intention. Consent orders, a binding financial agreement, a grant of probate, a signed contract of sale, a new employment contract: the document usually matters more than the substance. Knowing which one you need before you start saves weeks.
- Whether the new position is stable
- One strong year after a change reads differently from a settled pattern. Some lenders will work with a short history where the reason is documented. Others won’t. It’s a policy question with a knowable answer, and I check it before your file goes anywhere.
- Who is on the existing loan
- Taking a borrower off a loan is a new application, not an admin change. It’s assessed on the remaining person’s capacity alone. That’s usually the real constraint in a separation, and it’s far better understood in month one than in month six.
- Where the deposit came from
- A gift, an inheritance, a settlement payment, business proceeds. All of it needs a paper trail and lenders will ask. Putting that together early is easy. Reconstructing it under a deadline is not.
- What the timing actually requires
- Sometimes a file is a fortnight of paperwork away from being ordinary. I’d rather tell you that than lodge something that gets declined and leaves a mark on your credit file.
What I’ll ask you for
- A plain description of what changed and roughly when. A paragraph is enough to start
- Any orders, agreements, grants or contracts that already exist, even in draft
- Your two most recent tax returns, and anything that shows the position since the change
- Details of every existing loan, including whose name is on it
- Who else is involved: solicitor, accountant, executor, so you’re not stuck relaying messages
What you get back from me
- An honest read on whether to apply now or wait, with the reason and the date it changes.
- A sequenced list of documents: what’s needed, who has to produce it, and in what order.
- The lenders whose policy accommodates your situation, and the ones whose policy doesn’t.
- Direct contact with the other professionals on your file where you want it, so you’re not the one carrying messages between them.
- What I’m paid on this file, and by whom.
Questions worth asking any broker
Including me. If you’re comparing brokers, these five separate a file somebody has read from a file somebody has forwarded.
- Given what’s changed, is now the right time to apply? If not, what changes it?
- What document does the lender need that I don’t have yet, and who produces it?
- If a borrower is coming off the loan, has anyone assessed the remaining person on their own?
- What happens to my credit file if we lodge this and it’s declined?
- Will you talk to my solicitor and accountant directly, or am I relaying it?
I’m not your lawyer and I’m not your accountant, and I’ll say so the moment a question belongs to one of them. What I can do is arrange the lending around a situation that has stopped fitting the form, and keep you in the loop while I do it.
A 30-minute call, no fee and no obligation. Commercial and specialist files may attract a fee, and I’ll tell you before any work starts.