Mortgages with Poor Credit Rating, Adverse Credit, Bad Debt or Bankruptcy
Published / Last Updated on 14/11/2025
Many people get themselves into trouble with debt, for a variety of reasons, some from redundancy, disability, lack of work or relationship breakdown, others due to addiction such as gambling, drug addiction or alcohol, others because they don’t understand credit, debt or are ‘wastrels’, others through ‘stubbornness’ due to dispute with someone or a firm. Others, simply through stupidity or a ‘gone off the rails’ period.
Some Lenders Will Consider You
There are many reasons and whilst many mortgage lenders many are not keen to lend money to someone with adverse credit history; all is not lost. Some lenders will offer mortgages and will take account of periods of genuine difficulty, in particular if you have cleared the debt or you were a victim of circumstances.
Do expect it to be harder, do expect thorough investigations, do expect higher rates and higher fees. Lenders expect honesty, integrity and general the debt to be cleared.
Improve Credit Score
Make no mistake, get yourself debt free and pay off ‘bad’ debts as soon as possible. Then take time to build up your credit rating. Simple ways to improve your credit rating could be:
- Check your credit rating regularly with leading credit ratings agencies such as: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.
- Make sure you are registered on the Electoral Roll where you live.
- Get a credit card, use it and clear debt every month.
- Always pay on time.
- Keep card balances much lower than your credit limit.
- Avoid applying for new credit and creating credit history search footprints regularly.
- Keep your old accounts open (assuming you have not abused that account). Long relationships show stability.
- Take time, over months of clean/on time payments and debt management will boost your credit score.
Sample Survey of 80 Lenders for Adverse Credit Mortgages
We searched a database of 80 lenders posing different adverse credit scenarios to establish whether a mortgage lender would offer a mortgage with Yes, Refer and No responses:
|
Special Arrangements to Pay Off Debts |
Yes |
Refer |
No |
|
Debt still outstanding |
16 |
11 |
53 |
|
Debt cleared over 1 year ago |
27 |
17 |
36 |
|
Debt cleared over 5 years ago |
42 |
16 |
22 |
|
County Court Judgement (CCJ) £500 Against You, Now Satisfied |
Yes |
Refer |
No |
|
CCJ satisfied over 6 months ago |
19 |
9 |
52 |
|
CCJ satisfied over 2 years ago |
24 |
9 |
47 |
|
CCJ satisfied over 5 years ago |
33 |
5 |
42 |
|
Bankruptcy |
Yes |
Refer |
No |
|
1 Year After Bankruptcy |
6 |
3 |
71 |
|
2 Years After Bankruptcy |
6 |
4 |
70 |
|
3 Years After Bankruptcy |
33 |
6 |
41 |
As you can see, on a basic search, there are lenders that will consider adverse credit mortgages, so there is hope, but the application process will not be a simple “apply online”, each lender has their own criteria, so the searches above are indicative only as we would need to ‘deep dive’ into each mortgage lender’s terms and the deals available to people that have had some form of adverse credit over the last few years.
That said, there is hope if you have had/do have poor credit history but do expect higher rates and higher fees.
