Won’t I be better off with my current bank?

You may have a great relationship with your local branch. You may even have taken out a mortgage as a permie with them. It’s understandable to think that they can help you progress in your new professional career, too.

But the vast majority of High Street banks don’t approve specialist mortgages at source. Advisers parcel off these (with other non-standard mortgage applications) to head office. An underwriter with whom you’ll never make contact will appraise your application. They’ll base their decision on how the branch interprets your income.

With the greatest respect, most limited company contractors themselves don’t understand their accounts. To maximise tax relief available, they have contractor accountants maintain their books for them.

So expecting someone unfamiliar with contracting to pick out your affordability? It’s asking too much. Even if they have the best of intentions, you’re gambling your future on the ignorance of your local branch adviser.

A sea change is what’s needed, but we see no ships

We say this from painful experience. Contractors desperate for help after brick and mortar lenders have let them down approach us time and again.

We’ve helped thousands of independent professionals out of a jamb. And we’ll help thousands more until a sea change challenges the status quo. The High Street’s ignorance and its counterintuitive calculations are here for the foreseeable future.

It’s not with relish we state these facts. They’re borne from frustration, as indeed was the C&F Mortgages brand.

The changing face of the way we work

The UK workforce has changed beyond recognition. Yet many financial institutions seem stuck in the time when the vast majority of workers had a boss.

Specialist skills are helping re-grow the economy. We believe those helping that recovery should be rewarded for their contributions. Not punished because they don’t have reams of accounts or years of payslips to back up their application.

We’d love for you to be the next pacesetter. Get ahead of the curve; ride the wave of this mortgage revolution. Nothing will happen at branch level until that sea change comes. And so your ship, your dream of homeownership as a contractor, will sink on the High Seas and the High Street without a trace.