mortgages - what happens when...

[zumm]

... I have given up my full-time job to look after a baby. Husband is self-employed. And we'd like to swap our mortgage.

Our mortgage scheme was set at an excellent rate for the first two years but, now the two years is almost up, will jump to 5% or so in 4 months time. When we went with this lender, it was my intention to swap to a different mortgage (is this known as re-mortgaging btw or does it have a different name?) once our two years were up.

However, now I'm self-employed, is this even do-able now? We got the mortgage based on both our incomes (roughly 40k for me, roughly 30k for self-employed husband). Husband's income is now closer to 40k and mine is, sadly, pathetic (have earned around £2k so far this year and the rest of my work is paid in royalties which will only kick in next year, and will then only be about 5k).

So: What info do mortgage re-lenders (sorry, again, unsure of terminology!) require if you want to swap mortgages? Do we need to provide clear sets of accounts as before? Is it almost as hard as getting a mortgage in the first place? Or do they look at your track record, see that you've always paid on time, and offer new deals with minimum info (or are those days now long gone?). Any advice on what we might do - or whether mortgage swapping is even possible?
PS mortgage is for just over £270k

Very many thanks for any feedback or information!

[zumm]

PS I sd add that we put down a deposite of c.£150 and have spent around £50k improving the house...
Cheers.

[HarrietJones]

I thought it was classed as remortgaging but I'll hang around to be corrected as we took a huge pay cut and may do this at some point though ok atm

[zumm]

Harriet - thanks. And this probably sums it up - www.self-cert-mortgage-centre.co.uk/re-mortgage-self-employed.html
Damn.

[noddyholder]

A remortgage is effectively a whole new application based on current market conditions and current salaries so it is probably going to be the SVR!

[ruddynorah]

It's just like a brand new mortgage.

[ruddynorah]

Who are you with that has an svr as high as 5%?

[zumm]

Ruddy, Alliance and L. And to be fair, I think they're 4.5%. It's still not great.