Borrower creditworthiness
A borrower's ability to meet their installments, assessed by the lender from income, charges, contribution, disposable income and banking history. The creditworthiness assessment is a legal duty from the Mortgage Credit Directive: a loan may be granted only if it is deemed satisfactory.
Key points
- Borrower's ability to meet repayments, which the lender is legally required to assess.
- Takes into account income, charges, personal contribution, disposable income and banking history.
- Legal duty from the Mortgage Credit Directive: refusal required if assessment is negative.
- The broker documents this analysis to demonstrate compliance and protect their liability.
Frequently asked questions
What elements concretely enter the creditworthiness assessment?
Regular net income (salaries, rents, pensions), outstanding credit charges, fixed household expenses, the size of the deposit and employment stability are the pillars of the analysis. Banks add their own internal criteria, in particular the disposable income per consumption unit and banking behavior over recent months.
What is the broker's liability if creditworthiness is not properly assessed?
The broker's civil liability may be engaged if they presented a file that they knew or should have known did not meet creditworthiness criteria. Documenting the analysis and retaining supporting documents is essential to demonstrate compliance with the advisory duty. In case of dispute, it is this record that will determine the outcome.
Is creditworthiness assessed differently for a rental investment?
Partially. Some banks include projected rents in income (the differential method), which improves the apparent debt ratio; others neutralize them. The broker must know each partner institution's policy to direct the file toward the bank whose method is most favorable to their client's profile.
In practice
A manager client with €5,000 net/month and €200,000 deposit is nonetheless refused a loan due to three consecutive month-end overdrafts visible on their statements; the broker anticipates this risk by working upstream to clean up the account before submitting the file.
Put it into practice with CourtImmo
See how CourtImmo software helps brokers on this topic:
Official sources
- Obtaining a mortgage loan · Service-Public.gouv.fr
- Mortgage credit (official guide) · Service-Public.gouv.fr