CIS Joint Remortgage
YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE.
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Table of Contents
CIS Joint Remortgage
David Sharpstone explains how a joint remortgage works if you are a CIS worker.
Podcast approved by The Openwork Partnership on 04/02/2025
Is it harder to get a joint remortgage if I am a CIS worker?
If you’re going to do a joint remortgage as a CIS worker, let’s assume the other person on the mortgage – a relative or partner – is not paid through the CIS scheme. It’s not a problem. We just have to consider what their income is.
Sometimes we don’t always need to use the income for the second person. Traders can earn a lot of money, and sometimes their income is sufficient to carry the mortgage without the income from the second person.
But if we do need that income, are they employed? If so, we’re going to need the latest three months payslips. If they’re self-employed, we normally need a two-year track record and self-employed tax calculations. It’s not more difficult, it’s just going to depend on their circumstances.
How long do I need to be CIS registered before applying for a joint remortgage?
If you’re paid through the CIS scheme and you’re looking to get a joint remortgage with someone, you will want to use your gross CIS income before the tax is deducted. That’s going to be a higher income figure for affordability than using the profits from your self-assessment.
To use your CIS income, you need to have at least a three-month track record of being paid through the CIS scheme. If you weren’t paid through the CIS scheme before the three months, that’s fine, as long as you’ve been working in the construction industry for at least one year.How does a CIS worker’s employment history impact the chances of approval for a joint remortgage?
If you’re looking to get a joint remortgage and you or your partner is a CIS worker, employment history is actually quite important. You can’t necessarily go from being, say, a librarian and then suddenly decide to become a plasterer being paid through the CIS scheme.
You just don’t have the history there. Most mortgage lenders require evidence that you have worked in the construction industry and in that same line of work for at least 12 months. It might be that you were previously employed or just regular self-employed – being paid directly without any tax being deducted.
So there are different ways you may have worked within the construction industry. You just need that 12-month history in construction, more than likely in that same role, before you can use your CIS income
What do lenders take into account when assessing affordability of a joint remortgage?
This really sets apart why CIS workers are the best type of self-employed people to be when it comes to getting a mortgage.
Let me explain. With CIS work, if you’re looking to get a joint remortgage and one or even both of you are paid through the CIS scheme, a mortgage lender will only want to see your CIS payslips and bank statements. They’re happy to use the income before your tax and expenses are deducted. We all know that subbies love to give all their receipts to their accountant at the end of the year to try and lower the tax bill.
Subby-friendly mortgage lenders calculate mortgage affordability using the gross CIS income from the payslips – they’re not interested in your tax calculation.
Any other type of self-employed job, or a plumber or an electrician that’s not paid through the CIS scheme, will just have the self-assessment at the end of the year. They will want to keep profit as low as legally possible, by giving accountants all their expenses, work materials, travel, food etc to lower that profit.
Your self-assessment therefore always yields a much lower figure from a mortgage affordability point of view, compared to being paid through the CIS scheme.What documents will a CIS worker need to provide when applying for a joint remortgage?
If you’re a CIS worker applying for a joint remortgage, it’s really important to make sure you have all of your CIS payslips for the last 12 months. As a mortgage advisor that specialises with CIS subcontractors, I always ask for those.
We might not necessarily need to use them, but if there’s a fantastic deal from a mortgage lender that accepts CIS income, and they want to see the last 12 months, at least I’ve got them on file. We don’t want to miss out on a really good deal just because you haven’t got those pay slips, but we might only need three months.
Likewise, depending on the amount that we need to borrow for your remortgage, it might be that your last three months’ payslips reflect a much higher average income than perhaps the last 12 months. But that will be down to the mortgage broker to work out.
On top of that, you’ll need at least three months’ bank statements showing your pay coming in. That’s not the entire list of documents, but they’re just the specific ones to do with income.
Speak To An Expert
Are there any CIS friendly lenders or mortgage brokers for joint remortgages?
CIS friendly mortgage lenders are those that in my opinion deal better with CIS pay, or have it within their criteria that they’ll accept CIS pay. Not every mortgage lender will. At my last count, as of January 2025, I had 15 lenders on my list that calculate affordability using CIS income.
That includes lenders on the high street and lenders for less than perfect credit scores. There are also options for people that don’t have bad credit but just have a low credit score and have CIS income.
So we’ve got a good range of lenders.
As for mortgage brokers, I am a specialist mortgage broker dealing with CIS workers. I’ve been doing this now for 19 years. I’m not the only mortgage broker out there that can possibly do this – there are some gifted colleagues out there that understand the CIS scheme and would do an equally good job for you.
Certain mortgage brokers, including myself, do specialise in this particular field.
How does being a member of the CIS scheme affect your eligibility for a joint remortgage?
Let’s compare that to an employed person. If you’re paid through the CIS scheme and you’re looking to get a joint remortgage, I always ask various questions when we first meet, starting with how much you’re paid. What’s your day rate or your hourly rate? How long have you been self-employed for? Have you been paid through the CIS scheme for the entire duration? Or have you just recently started being paid this way?
Other considerations might be whether you are paid as an individual or if you’ve set up your own limited company as a tax efficient payment route. That’s becoming more and more common. It’s usually for CIS workers on higher incomes. We can get a mortgage for somebody who is paid as a limited company.
We should also consider how long you’ve been with the same construction firm for and whether you’re working for anybody else at the same time. Mortgage lenders generally don’t like it if you’ve got two incomes coming in or two contracts under the CIS.
These are the things I would ask my clients if you’re paid through the CIS scheme, to make sure you’re placed with the right mortgage lender first time.
What potential obstacles might CIS workers come across when applying for a joint remortgage?
The first one is not having all of your CIS payslips. If a construction firm is paying you through the CIS scheme, as part of their agreement with the government, they’re meant to provide CIS payment and deduction statements.
You might find that you don’t get them. That’s very typical. I’d say 20% to 30% of the people I speak to do not get a regular CIS payment and deduction statement. However, you’ll always get them if you ask. You just might not get them regularly and monthly.
There aren’t many other obstacles – I actually find that CIS workers are easier to place for a mortgage than the self-employed. There’s always a lot more questions asked to the self-employed, such as why the income went up, or why it came down year on year. These questions aren’t normally asked on CIS.
Mortgage lenders just accept that income can go up week to week and month to month for CIS workers because there’s no contract. Often CIS workers will go where the money is to improve their own circumstances by earning the best income that they can.
Occasionally we get a mortgage lender that has CIS criteria, but the underwriter doesn’t always understand everything, or maybe they’re new. That’s where having an expert working with you really helps, because sometimes I need to intervene and explain things or write up some notes to explain the pay structure.
If you’re paid through a limited company we may need to talk through with a lender that it’s a tax efficient payment route vehicle and if you own 100% of the company, you are the company.
Once we get through those obstacles and they understand it, it always ends up okay. The banks may not always fully understand and appreciate how somebody’s being paid – because there are a lot of nuances with CIS that we come across.
How does household bad credit affect CIS workers’ chances of getting a joint remortgage?
If you’re paid through the CIS scheme, you’re looking to get a joint remortgage and you’ve racked up some bad credit, that can affect your options. It could be anything from one or two missed payments on a fixed-term credit agreement or credit card, through to mortgage arrears. Perhaps you got a parking ticket, didn’t pay it and you got a county court judgment.
These things can affect your ability to get a remortgage. How severe it was, how long ago it was registered and whether it has been satisfied will impact what sort of mortgage lender we can go to. Generally, if you’ve got bad credit from the last three years, you’re not going to get a mortgage or a remortgage from a high street lender.
You’re going to end up paying higher interest rates as a result. So it’s really important to be a responsible borrower and pay your debts on time.
How can a mortgage broker help with a CIS joint remortgage? Have you got anything to add?
There are so many nuances with CIS in terms of how you’re paid, how often, how long you’ve been with the same company and working in the same job. Have you had a really good last three months that we need to use, or do we need to use the last 12 months?
I can go on and on about all the different variables with CIS income. Trying to navigate this yourself is a minefield, so speak to a mortgage broker that specialises in working with CIS paid construction workers, such as myself.
THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE SECURING OTHER DEBTS AGAINST YOUR HOME
YOUR PROPERTY MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOU MORTGAGE
Approved by The Openwork Partnership on 04/02/2025
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Think carefully before securing other debts against your home. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage