15-Minute Clarity Call | Active Mortgages
★★★★★  Rated Excellent on Trustpilot. 302 Reviews | FCA Regulated | Specialist Mortgage Broker for Business Owners

Active Mortgages is an FCA regulated specialist mortgage broker based in Chelmsford, Essex. We work exclusively with limited company directors, self-employed professionals, and contractors across the UK who have been declined by high street banks or told their income is too complicated to assess.

You Run a Successful Business. Why Won't Anyone Give You a Mortgage?

In 15 minutes, we will show you where you stand, which lenders suit your structure, and whether now is the right time to move. No documents needed. No obligation. Just straight answers from a broker who only works with business owners.

Book Your Free 15-Minute Clarity Call

Or call us directly: 01245 850165

Sound Familiar?

You earn well. You still got declined.

You run a profitable business. You pay yourself, your staff, your taxes. And yet the bank looked at your application and said no. Not because you cannot afford it. Because their system cannot understand how you earn.

Every wrong application leaves a mark.

Each time a lender runs a credit search and declines you, it chips away at your credit file. Apply to the wrong lender twice, three times, and the damage compounds. The next lender sees those footprints and assumes you are a risk before they even look at your numbers.

Another year of rent. Another year of waiting.

You told yourself last year would be the year. The year before that too. Meanwhile, rent keeps leaving your account every month, building someone else's equity, not yours. The longer you wait, the more it costs you.

Explaining your accounts to people who do not get it.

You have sat across from advisers who do not understand dividends vs. retained profits vs. director's loans. You have gathered paperwork, chased your accountant, filled in forms, only to be told your income "does not qualify." The effort is exhausting. The result is always the same.

It Is Not You. It Is How Banks Work.

High street banks use affordability models built for people with a salary, a P60, and a simple payslip. They were not designed for you.

  • They ignore retained profits. Your company has six figures sitting in it. Banks pretend that money does not exist.
  • Complex structures get flagged as risk. Multiple directorships, LTD companies, mixed income, dividends plus salary. To a bank's algorithm, complexity means danger.
  • Generalist brokers do not know how to present it. A broker who usually handles salaried PAYE applications does not know how to package your accounts so the right underwriter sees the real picture.
  • The wrong lender sees the wrong application. There are lenders who specialise in business owner income. But if nobody points you to them, you keep applying to ones who will never say yes.

How We Get Business Owners Approved

We do not guess. We follow a five step process built specifically for self employed and director level income.

A

Affordability Mapping

We calculate your true borrowing power, including retained profits, dividends, and director's salary combined. Not just what HMRC sees. What lenders who understand business owners will accept.

C

Criteria Matching

Every lender has different rules. We match your income structure, company type, and credit profile against our panel to find the lenders whose criteria you already meet. No guesswork. No wasted applications.

T

Terms Comparison

We compare rates, fees, and flexibility across matched lenders so you see the real cost, not just the headline rate. Fixed vs. tracker. Early repayment charges. Portability. All of it, laid out simply.

I

Identify the Right Lender

We present your application to the lender whose underwriting team is most likely to approve your specific structure. One targeted application. One credit search. Maximum chance of a yes.

V

Victory: Keys in Hand

We manage the process from application to completion. Liaising with solicitors, valuers, and the lender so you can focus on running your business.

It Is Not Just About You. It Is About Everyone Around You.

Example. Replace with real
My wife had stopped bringing up the house conversation because she could see how frustrated I was getting. After Gary sorted the mortgage, she was the one picking paint colours the next day. The kids have their own rooms now. She keeps saying it does not feel real.
James T. Electrical Contractor, Brentwood
Example. Replace with real
I referred my client to Active because every other broker kept asking him for documents that made no sense for a director. Gary actually understood the SA302s, the CT600, the retained profits. He spoke my language.
Sarah M. Chartered Accountant, Chelmsford
Example. Replace with real
Every other contractor on site owns their place. I was the one still renting. Six weeks after calling Gary, I had the keys. Now when the lads talk about their extensions and their gardens, I am actually part of the conversation.
Darren K. Plumbing Contractor, Basildon

What Happens in Your 15-Minute Clarity Call

This is not a sales pitch. It is a straightforward conversation where you find out exactly where you stand.

  • ✓
    Your real borrowing position. Including retained profits, dividends, and any income a high street bank would overlook.
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    Which lender types match your structure. Not every lender. The right lenders. The ones whose criteria align with how you earn.
  • ✓
    Whether now is the right time to move. Sometimes the answer is "wait three months and do X first." We will tell you that honestly.
  • ✓
    No documents needed. We do not need your accounts, your tax returns, or your bank statements for this call. Just a conversation.
  • ✓
    No credit check. No footprint. Nothing touches your credit file. Zero risk.
  • ✓
    No obligation. If we cannot help, we will tell you. If someone else can do it better, we will say that too.
Book Your Free 15-Minute Clarity Call

Prefer to talk now? Call 01245 850165 or WhatsApp us

Questions You Probably Have

Yes. Most business owners we work with have been declined at least once. The issue is almost never your ability to afford the mortgage. It is that the previous lender or broker did not know how to present your income correctly. A decline does not mean no. It means the wrong lender saw the wrong application. We find the right one.
Your bank uses a standard affordability calculator designed for salaried employees. Most brokers do the same. We only work with business owners, directors, and self-employed professionals. That means we know exactly which lenders accept retained profits, how to present complex income, and which underwriters to speak to. Your accountant will notice the difference immediately.
The Clarity Call is completely free. If you decide to proceed with a full mortgage application, our broker fee ranges from £250 to £2,000 depending on complexity. We confirm the exact fee before any work begins. No surprises.
Not for the Clarity Call. We just need a conversation. When it comes time for a full application, we will tell you exactly what we need, and we work directly with your accountant so you are not chasing paperwork yourself.
Yes. We are based in Chelmsford and Brentwood, but we work with business owners across the UK. Everything can be done by phone, video call, and email.
Most high street lenders average your salary and dividends over the last two years and use that figure as your income. If your dividends have varied year to year, this can reduce your assessed income significantly. Specialist lenders take a different approach. Some will use your most recent year only if income has grown. Others will include retained profits in your company when calculating what you can afford. We know which lenders use which method and match you to the one that gives you the strongest position.
Not with most lenders. High street banks and the majority of brokers only count the income you have actually drawn out as salary and dividends. Retained profits sitting inside your company are treated as if they do not exist. However, a small number of specialist lenders will consider your company net profit rather than just your withdrawn income. This can dramatically increase your borrowing capacity if you have been building retained profit rather than drawing a high salary. This is one of the most common reasons a director thinks they cannot borrow enough, when in fact the right lender would offer significantly more.
This is the most common problem we see. Your accountant has done exactly what they should do, which is reduce your taxable income as much as possible. But the same figures that reduce your tax bill also reduce what most lenders think you earn. The solution is not to change your accounting strategy. The solution is to use a lender whose underwriting team understands how director income works. Some specialist lenders will look at your gross profit, your company accounts, and your retained earnings rather than just your SA302. We know who they are and how to present your application to them correctly.
An SA302 is a tax calculation document from HMRC that shows your total income and the tax you owe for a given tax year. Lenders ask for it because it is HMRC's official record of what you declared as earnings. Most lenders require two to three years of SA302 forms. You can download them directly from your HMRC online account, or your accountant can provide them. The problem is that for directors who pay themselves primarily in dividends and retain profit in the company, the SA302 can significantly understate your true financial position. This is where specialist lenders and a broker who understands your structure make the difference.
The standard lending multiple is 4.5 times your assessed income. Higher earners can sometimes access 5 to 5.5 times income with certain lenders. The key word is assessed income. If a high street lender only counts your salary and ignores your dividends and retained profits, your assessed income will be much lower than your actual financial position. We calculate your true borrowing power first, then find the lender whose assessment methodology gives you the highest figure. The difference between the right lender and the wrong one can be hundreds of thousands of pounds in borrowing capacity.
Most lenders require a minimum of two years of trading history. Some will ask for three. However, there are specialist lenders who will consider applications with one year of accounts, particularly if your income is strong and your business is in a stable sector. This is not widely advertised and most generalist brokers are unaware of these lenders. If you have been trading for less than two years, book a call and we will tell you honestly whether there is a lender who will consider your application right now, or whether you are better to wait and what to do in the meantime.
A full mortgage application involves a hard credit search, which does leave a footprint on your credit file. If multiple lenders run hard searches and decline you in a short period, subsequent lenders can see this and it can affect your application. This is why applying to the right lender first matters so much. Our Clarity Call does not involve a credit search of any kind. We assess your position first and only recommend you proceed with a formal application when we are confident the lender's criteria match your situation. One targeted application beats three speculative ones every time.
A self-employed mortgage application typically takes four to eight weeks from offer to completion, though this varies by lender and complexity. What is in your control is how quickly you gather documents and how accurately your application is packaged in the first place. Applications that are poorly presented or go to the wrong lender get delayed, queried, or declined. We manage the process end to end and liaise directly with your accountant, the lender, and the solicitors so that delays happen as rarely as possible.
There is no special product called a self-employed mortgage. The same mortgage products are available to everyone. The difference is in how lenders assess your income and how they decide whether you can afford the loan. Employed applicants hand over a payslip and a P60. Self-employed applicants and directors must provide two or three years of tax returns, SA302 forms, and company accounts. The challenge is not the product. It is proving affordability in a way the lender accepts. That is what we do.
Yes, you will need a deposit. Most lenders require a minimum of 5 to 10 percent of the property value for residential mortgages, though a larger deposit improves your rates and increases the number of lenders available to you. For self-employed applicants and directors, having a larger deposit, typically 15 to 25 percent, can open access to specialist lenders with more flexible income assessment criteria. If your deposit is smaller, we will identify which lenders at higher loan-to-value ratios will still consider your income structure and give you the best available rate from that pool.

You Run a Successful Business. Let Your Mortgage Reflect It.

One call. Real answers. No documents.

Book Your Free 15-Minute Clarity Call

Or reach us directly: 01245 850165  |  WhatsApp

Book Your Free Clarity Call