Sadly this is a very common problem these days and a very large number of people in Britain have found that they don't qualify for a mortgage from their local high street bank or building society because of problems with credit in the past. As if the credit crunch was not cause enough by itself for financial problems, the main reasons why many people have slipped into arrears on mortgage repayments or loans in the past, or have had county court judgements against them as well is possibly even bankruptcies, have been business failures, unemployment, illness or marital break-ups. These are usually once only events in the average person's life and if the problems are now rectified and belong very firmly in the past there is no reason why this should prevent them from making mortgage applications. Credit ratings can be damaged, but they can also be repaired.

In order to protect people who are making extremely large financial commitments mortgage lending comes under the umbrella of the Financial Services Authority and only lenders, brokers and other introduces who are authorised and regulated by the authority can legally provide you with, or give you advice on a mortgage. This is to make sure that the advisers who are helping you are qualified to do so, and that they are fully aware of the ethical manner in which they must transact their dealings with you. If you were to feel that an FSA authorised broker or lender had not acted in a correct manner towards you you would be entitled to appeal to an ombudsman who would have sweeping powers to rectify your complaint if it was found to be justified. As a result, you can reasonably expect any advice that you are given by a duly authorised person to be in your best interests, and provided by someone who is fully competent to give it; it is always therefore essential that you ensure that anyone you deal with over mortgage matters is FSA approved.

There are many sources of mortgages for clients who have had a poor credit record in the past, including a number of mainstream lenders who do not specifically advertise this fact. Many of them will only deal with this type of business through a broker however, because one of the duties of a broker is to ensure that any application that is put forward to a potential lender has been properly prepared and scrutinised and complies with the lender's particular requirements. One of the main duties of the broker will be to find the best mortgage to suit your own particular requirements for you, and this will depend to a large degree not only upon your credit record but also the amount of deposit that you have saved up and the proportion of loan to value of the property, that you wish to buy, that this represents. Whilst people with an excellent credit record who are in provable regular employment with an adequate salary can often be offered very high loans to value, sometimes as high as 90% or even in exceptional cases 95%, a person with a poor credit rating will often be expected to raise a much higher deposit before a mortgage would be granted, although this would depend upon the perceived risk that the lender expected the loan to represent. Since there is always a greater risk element in lending to someone who has had problems in the past it is pretty well inevitable that a higher than average interest rate will be charged as well. The broker usually has to to put in a much more considerable amount of work to find a mortgage for someone with adverse credit than would be the case for someone who was completely 'clean' so a fee is often charged although this would be explained fully right from the outset.