Purchase falling through- what can we do about mortgage?

noo66

Our house purchase seems to be about to collapse, and so we are faced with the prospect of looking for a different property.

We have the mortgage approved for the house we were intending to buy. Will we now have to re-apply for a new mortgage?

Any information greatly appreciated.

Mrs_Bumble

You will have to see if the lender will be happy to just change the property details and hold the product for a new property to be found, you will of course unfortunately have to pay a new valuation free for any new property.

noo66

Thanks for the advice Mrs bumble.

Has anyone else had this experience? Will we lose our reservation fee if we have to start the house hunt again?

hostman

noo66 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice Mrs bumble.

Has anyone else had this experience? Will we lose our reservation fee if we have to start the house hunt again?

You shouldn't have to pay the full whack again.

Has the house already been valued by the lender?

If so, you'll need to pay another valuation / Home Buyers report charge.

Also, if your mortgage offer naturally expires (generally 3-6 months) the lender should refund the mortgage application fee (valuation will never be refunded if the valuation has already taken place), unless there is specifically a non-refundable element (I know Nationwide charge £80 or so on all of their products which is non refundable, the remaining £800 is refundable if you don't use the offer).

But double check with your lender, as they all have different rules.

We switched from buying one house to another earlier this year and luckily the valuation hadn't yet been completed on the first house so didn't need to pay it again and they were happy to change the property details without needing fee's to be repaid. In our case we were looking to borrow slightly less with the second house. This is with Nationwide. In fact, we even changed to a lower interest rate, as the lower priced property allowed us to have a 20% deposit instead of 15% and didn't have to pay the mortgage application fee again.

lyndasharp

I was in a similar situation with HSBC when the house I was originally buying fell through. The mortgage offer will stay valid (as other people have said) for 3-6 months. I rang head office and checked when I found a new place to buy, and they said as long as the amount I wanted to borrow was the same or lower I did not have to reapply. Just a note of caution - the mortgage advisor in the bank branch told me I did need to reapply, until I convinced her to ring the head office to check their policy.... and then she changed her mind.

I was on a no fees product so there was nothing to pay for valuation / arrangement fees, so I can't comment on that one!