Whats the exact process of mortgage approval for RBS ?

Ranjanx

Hi All

After spending about 2 weeks , my mortgage advisor tells me that RBS has given positive signals on my application and would now like to go ahead with the survey for my chosen property. For the last two weeks, he says, the case was with the underwriters and they had my salary slips and what not to see through my facts. I am willing to believe him.

However, when I had called RBS customer support earlier, they said they were still waiting for a few documents form the advisor. He said that they are expected to be behind as he deals with the underwriters. Also, others tell me that the underwriting stuff happens only after the survey has happened.

I do not have any written approval from RBS or my advisor yet. Can anyone please shed some light on what happens when ?


Thanks in advance

princessamy86

From my experience, underwriting does tend to happen after survey but I really don't know with RBS specifically. Is there a chance your mortgage advisor has mucked up and is trying to cover himself? I would just find it a bit strange that your advisor thinks you are up to the survey stage when RBS thinks they are still waiting for documents. It shouldn't really matter which department you deal with, I'm assuming your file would look the same whoever opened it up. Any way you can get proof the documents have gone? I know that anything can happen, particularly in large organisations.

Ranjanx

Thanks for your inputs princessmy86. Thats almost what I am afraid might be happening.
I'm hoping someone might have a more indepth experience with RBS and advisors to tell me that he might still be right.

princessamy86

Well, I'm an EA so quite familiar with the process! Our mortgage advisor has gone for the day so I can't ask him but if you're still no closer to an answer on Friday pm me and I'll ask him for you. Really, I would expect RBS to be the people who had the most up to date information on your case, your advisor may well have sent the documents and they might have got "lost". This happens all the time, the places they get sent to are huge and post ends up in all sorts of weird and wonderful places. Maybe you could ask him to send them again (recorded delivery) so you at least know they've got there? You could just say that in the interests of getting things done speedily it might make it easier to just send it.

princessamy86

Just another thought; surefire way to tell if they are ready for survey is that they will need money off you.

Ranjanx

For your last thought , he did ask me for my payment details today. Since I'm paying through my credit card, cant see the transaction as of now.

For the other parts, since he says that the entire process has happened and approved, I cant really ask him to send the documents again without saying "you are lying about the whole thing"

I am afraid about a rejection because I am on a visa with less than the ideal number of months remianing on it and I'm asking for 90%

Thanks again for your inputs.

princessamy86

If they took payment details then I would say they probably are up to survey stage. Good luck anyway!

sw_jay

I've just obtained a mortgage through RBS. I have to say they were quite slow in arranging things. It took around 3 weeks for the valuation to be completed. Then they forgot to arrange the homebuyers survey that we had requested.

It took another week or so for them to send out the final written mortgage offer once the valuation was completed. We duly signed that and sent it to our solicitor and are now awaiting an exchange date.

From initial meeting with advisor to where we are now has taken around 6 or 7 weeks. Our advisor did tell us RBS were notoriously slow.

Oh and just a word of warning, RBS are valuing very low at the moment so don't necessarily think that what you've offered will be what the property is valued at. Although we initially had a mortgage offer of 120k in place (with a 25% deposit), the house was valued at 15k under the agreed offer price and RBS would only lend us 109k. A bit of haggling had to be done.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Ranjanx

Hi sw_jay

Thanks for your post. Would you be able to say what happened first , the underwriting stuff or the valuation survey ? Also, did you have any experience with the customer support guys at RBS ?

sw_jay

In my case the underwriting was done first then the valuation survey was completed.

I spoke to RBS customer services on a couple of occasions. Once to find out what impact the low valuation would have on their mortgage offer and once to establish why they had not instructed the homebuyers survey.

On both occasions they were very helpful. They admitted it was their mistake not instructing the homebuyers survey even though we had requested it and offered to get it done for £200, which was what it would cost if they had completed it with the basic valuation instead of doing it seperately, which they now have to do.

I'm just waiting patiently for the solicitos to do their stuff now so we can exchange contracts... feels like it takes for ever!

vickyp_2

We're just going through the process now with Natwest (who I think are part of RBS if that helps) and they are doing all the underwriting before the valuation takes place.

It's taken a week so far from applying over the phone, then they asked for my bank statements for proof of income and for proof of account conduct yesterday (I don't bank with Nat west, but husband does) They've said the valuation should take place next week if all is ok with my statements.