Natwest turned down BTL mortgage

robp

My wife recently won the bid on a house at auction. We were buying with a view to renovate and then let it out.

She paid the deposit and started the mortgage appliction with Natwest, who were very enthusiatic about lending her the money (we already have our residential mortgage with them).

The valuation report has been completed and says it needs refurb but is suitable security for mortgage purposes.

Natwest then said it was not in a 'letable state' and would not be prepared to lend the money. :mad:

We've tried appealing through her 'Private Banking Relationship Manager' but they will not reconsider.

This now means we either loose our deposit or use our savings to purchase the house and refurb.

Natwest also said that they cannot mortgage for 6 months once we've done this as it breaks anti money laundering rules.

I've no idea how anyone is meant to get a BTL mortgage on places like this.....we don't have time to go through the mortgage loop again with a broker or another bank, so bang go our savings!

Needless to say we shall be moving as many products as possible away from Natwest, who have changed from being helpful to terrible for us.

bingibongi

Perhaps you should have had the place surveyed and had the mortage in place before you bid at auction - that would have been the safest course.

Oh and under contract law you may not just lose your deposit - if you pull out and it sells at a lower price you may also have to make up the difference.

robp

That would have been nice....

We spoke with Natwest to try and arrange this but they said they could not offer a mortgage in principle before the auction, plus there was not much time as we only found the house and viewed it a couple of days before the auction.

Thanks for the info regarding contract law, luckily this won't be applicable to our situation!

We're just gobsmacked that they were positive right up until today, which has left us no time to find an alternative (getting surverys done, etc.)