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Remortgage When Self-Employed

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Remortgage When Self-Employed image

Remortgage When Self-Employed

Anthony McQuilliam explains how the remortgage process works if you are self-employed.

Podcast approved by The Openwork Partnership on 17/10/2025.

Is it harder to remortgage if you’re self-employed?

If you’re self-employed and looking at remortgaging, it’s definitely not as hard as people make out. The only caveat is that you need to have 12 months or 24 months’ self-employment history.

How long do you have to be self-employed to remortgage? Can you remortgage if you’re newly self-employed?

It depends what you define as newly self-employed. If you’ve been self-employed for 12 months, there are plenty of options available. Even some high street lenders will still allow you to remortgage.

If you’ve got 24 months’ proof of trading and you’ve submitted two years’ accounts, it will open up the lion’s share of lenders. You’ll then have access to the same lenders as you if you were employed.

How does the self-employed remortgage process work?

Speak to your broker about six months prior to your current mortgage expiring. That gives you plenty of time to have a conversation about your plans.

The research can then start early, to prevent you going on the standard variable rate. We find out what you want to achieve, collect your documents and do the research for you – then we get you the Agreement in Principle.

We then invite you in for another appointment, to go through the ins and outs of the mortgage you’ve been agreed for. If you’re happy, the application goes in, the lender carries out a valuation, assesses your documents and if all is okay, they issue a mortgage offer.

Then it sits in the background, dormant, until your current mortgage expires. On the day of expiry, the new mortgage takes over and you start making payments to the new lender.

Can you remortgage with no proof of income?

You couldn’t remortgage, but there is something called a product transfer. All lenders do the same thing.

Let’s say you had your mortgage with Halifax and you went to remortgage, but you’ve just recently gone self-employed. A product transfer could be a good option – where you just take a new rate with Halifax.

You can’t scour the entire market to see all the options and you won’t be able to borrow any more, but you can choose the option for you with that lender at the time.

Can I remortgage if I have bad credit as someone who is self-employed?

This depends on a few factors. You can remortgage with bad credit, subject to a few things. Having enough equity in the property makes it a lot easier. If you have 5% equity with bad credit, it will be harder than with 15% equity.

Also, it depends how long ago the bad credit was. Something from four years ago will have much less impact than something from last month. There are nearly always lenders to accept you – subject to how bad the credit is and how much equity you’ve got tied up in your property.

Speak to an expert

Our highly experienced Advisers are ready to help you with either buying or remortgaging a home, protecting your property and lifestyle along with saving you time and effort, ensuring you have a competitive deal right for you.

Can a self-employed person be declined a remortgage?

Yes, you could be declined due to bad credit, or not having historic proof of your accounts. You could be declined through having too much debt.

You could also potentially be declined based on the property itself. Lenders may not lend on every property. If you’ve had a mortgage agreed with Lender A on a property, Lender B may not lend on that particular kind of construction, or where the property is.

There are various reasons why it may be declined, but there will always be options for you other than going on the standard variable rate.

How can I better my chances of a good remortgage if I’m self-employed?

There are a couple of things to look at. The first is making sure you’re up-to-date on all your payments and any credit arrears have been brought up-to-date. That massively helps.

Another is making sure you’ve spoken to your accountant and had your accounts done. One of the biggest holdups we see is having to chase accountants while we’re working on the mortgage application. Get your accounts processed first, so we can submit the application knowing exactly what the numbers look like.

Having your credit sorted out and your proof of income massively increases the chances and speed of getting your mortgage agreed.

What are the benefits of remortgaging?

There are a few benefits. If you don’t remortgage and leave your mortgage alone, you end up on the standard variable rate, which jumps up massively – and your payments go up in turn. Remortgaging usually gets you a cheaper option than the standard variable rate.

If you have equity in the property, you could remortgage and release it to invest in Buy to Let or carry out home improvements. You can ask for funds to be released from the property to do the work.

Also, the lender for your first mortgage isn’t necessarily going to be the lender for you throughout the entirety of your term. Remortgaging gives you the chance to see what other lenders offer you.

How can a mortgage broker help? Is there anything else we need to know?

It’s always a case of speaking to a broker early on in the process. If you have a mortgage with a particular lender and you want to remortgage to borrow additional funds, they may not say yes – even if you’ve been making your mortgage payments perfectly each month.

A broker can access a lot more lenders rather than just one set of products. We’ll explore your situation and your plans. If you need to borrow any additional funds or change the term of the mortgage, you’ve got a lot more options and flexibility to look at.

THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE SECURING OTHER DEBTS AGAINST YOUR PROPERTY.

YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE.

Podcast approved by The Openwork Partnership on 17/10/2025.

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