Mortgage certificate

beckstrous

Could anyone tell me how long it takes to get a mortgage certificate, please? I don't mean an actual mortgage, just the agreement in principle. I have searched this forum, but haven't found an answer - and I've printed out and read various guides but I'm still not sure.

I'm hoping to buy a place with my boyfriend and we have an idea of what we can borrow, and also a rough idea of deposit. We did speak to a broker (L&C) at the weekend but it didn't occur to me that we should ask how long it would take to get an actual certificate. Is it the sort of thing you could get fairly quickly, or does it depend on the lender? We have an idea of which deals might be best for us so we have done some research, it's just the timescales I'm rather fuzzy on. The reason we've not applied for a certificate yet is we're still not sure where we want to buy - have quite a long "short" list of areas!

Thanks for any help anyone can give,

Beck

Heth_2

Hi,
It shouldn't take any time at all. We have been trying to buy for a while and have spoken to lots of different advisors. Most of them gave us an agreement in principle then and there, after seeing a pay slip and some id. Apart from telling you that you can borrow x amount 'in principle' then you don't do anything with the certificate.

beckstrous

Thanks - that's all I needed to know :-)

dunstonh

They are pretty useless and mostly a marketing gimmick. It doesnt mean you will get a mortgage. It just means that based on what you have told us, if that is correct and there is no other information which could be held against you, then we would lend you x amount. Just as Heth says.

A decision in principle is there to give you a bit of confidence knowing that a lender would lend you the money if you have nothing to hide and havent told porkies

linda.b_4

Our lender faxed a mortgage certificate to the EA within 10 minutes of my phone call!