Please Help - Morgage Offer Withdrawn

opinions4u

Charliebros wrote: »

Also I have just looked at previous posts by Opinions4u and it has become clear that you have links with the Halifax!! Maybe OpinonofHalifax would me more apt hahahah!

Never hidden the link. Understand their systems quite well, although as time progresses and systems change that knowledge becomes more strained and certainly isn't up to date (as has been confirmed by others on here on the odd occasion). My signature line tries to explain the context from which I'm posting - it isn't meant to be partisan, but it will be based on what knowledge a lot of years in the industry have given me.

Your post has troubled me because it doesn't sit comfortably with my knowledge of how the Halifax works. I have NEVER heard of this happening, although these are strange times so I'm not in a position to say it couldn't happen. I have spoken to friends in the company who are on the mortgage side and equally gobsmacked. Hence the conclusion that there is more to this than meets the eye.

HBOS and its exposure to sub-prime, buy-to-let, duff Treasury deals and shockingly awful Corporate lending doesn't sit comfortably either. Somewhere in the last 4 years or so they have chased expansion at the cost of profitable prudence and are now paying one hell of a price for it. It still seems to me that the Halifax part of the brand remains a relatively successful business despite the difficulties of HBOS as a whole.

You say "if you think that then fair enough but just keep it to yourself" - well, I was seeking a response from you and others but this isn't quite what I had in mind. I was trying to tease out further information from you (you're basically saying there isn't more detail, but Halifax backing out of an offer issued recently and valid for a year is, it would seem, unheard of) and others (those professionals still on the mortgage side who post on here who may have had similar experiences on behalf of there clients). Those professionals aren't falling over themselves suggesting that this is common practice.

My recent postings on the savings side have been favourable to Halifax because their rates have been high - this is not now the case. On the mortgage side I've been more than happy to use phrases like "if you don't like the price take your mortgage elsewhere" and in private correspondence have recently helped one poster take them to the Ombudsman. So bedfellows we are not.

Perhaps I should have posted more sympathy for your plight. In fact I am sorry I didn't. I certainly wouldn't swap with you. That said, when I am unable to explain something like this quickly I can draw no other conclusion that full information is not forthcoming. You're saying that this is as a result of Halifax refusing to explain their decision. This may be the case and would be verified by other advisers telling us the same has happened to their clients too.

I hope your mortgage elsewhere sails through and, assuming you have been genuinely hard done to, I fully encourage you to take a step back at a suitable point in time to reassess what has happened here. Assuming you haven't had satisfactory answers and explanations you should pursue the matter to the Ombudsman to achieve this. If there is information that you haven't been up front about such a course of action would be a waste of time and energy though.

I may have missed a post telling us your solicitor's legal viewpoint on the matter.

LittleTinker

It would seem that there is more than this that meets the eye to me too.

What i know of housebuying processes (and No, I am not an expert) this situation is very rare indeed.

Can you imagine if mortgage lenders did this willy nilly? There would be chaos!!

There does come a point where an offer cannot be retracted unless certain conditions have come about. Its these certain conditions that seem to have occurred.

Whether the OP agrees with them or not, I very much doubt that you will have any come back at all from the Halifax no matter who you complain to. Its a very tightly controlled industry and mistakes dont happen often. Buyers and sellers getting stressed about things (usually because people have acted in haste) does happen quite frequently though, and cannot be blamed on banks/solicitors or others.

This is why noone should order furniture, carpets, pay for work etc etc etc until contracted have been exchanged.