Which Mortgage To Go For - Advice Please

chickmeistergeneral

Hi everyone

I wonder if you could offer any advice on my situation.

I have had on offer accepted on a property (few days ago). I applied for a mortgage to natwest, mainly because they offer a 100% mortgage which i am after, and because i bank with them. They are offering a rate of 5.99. They have sent me the paper work, and i was ready to sign away, but thought id have a look around to see if there was any other 100% mortgages without the HLC, as natwest are charging £2790.

London and Country have recommended Portman Building Society as they can offer a 100% mortgage with no HLC at a rate of 5.45. I have recieved the paper work from L&C this morning and listed in the key facts illustration is the fees they will charge. They mention a £100 non refundable legal fee, which they go on to mention can change as the £100 is only an estimate. They also state that i may have to pay other taxes or costs in addition to any fees shown here.

This is whats bothering me. Has anyone any experience of having a mortgage with this Building Society, and how was the experience.

My partner really wants to go for the Portman mortgage, as its around £50 a month cheaper, and no HLC, but i feel Natwest may be better.

We have the natwest one set up, we just have to sign and send a few pay slips then that will be arranged, i dont want to keep our vendor waiting.

Another thing that effects our appliacation(s) is my partner is in the forces, and has had various addresses over the past 3 years, his current address he can prove but has only been there 6 months (natwest only need 3 months worth of documents)

Sorry to go on, but id really like anyone's views on what they think we should do next, as we cant find much out about Portman, and i would hate to go through the process for them to ask for 3 years worth of payslips, and address, etc which we couldnt produce.

Cheers and thanks for reading!

payless

The legal fees mentioned in the illustration are just how one lender shows possible fees, whereas another may not...
In reality so long as your solicitor is acceptable to all the lenders ( most non sole traders are) then the fees will be the same regardless to lender chosen.

Portman are a large BS, IMHO service can vary but generally OK ... but high % loans is not really my main area, so they possibly are stricter on getting all the right documents for these

TangentMan

As far as i am aware the line "pay other taxes or costs in addition to any fees shown here" is an FSA stipulation so all KFIs should show that or something similar. Generally its saying that to get the mortgage you might have to pay a fee that the Bank / BS does not know about.

However, ask L&C (that's what they are for) what the Portman will require from you. My guess would be that if you are not an existing customer they will want proof of income, proof of ID etc.

chickmeistergeneral

Hi

thanks for the replies. I spoke to portman, they said they where unsure of any other fees, but reminded me that there is a £299 fee with the application, that fee is taken if they give you the mortgage or not.

We are not customers of portman, so i asked them about ID. They said they would need 3 years worth of proof of address, as well as some other documents. My partner in the past 3 years has had 2 years living in barracks in Winchester, 6 months living in barracks in cyprus, and now for the past 6 months living in barracks in Scotland. Its hard for him to prove his past addresses, as he has no utility bills, or council tax forms as the army look after all that (he just pays them each month).

We didnt want to pay the £299 fee to portman if we couldnt produce the relevant ID, which would more than likely result in us getting declined by, so it looks like Natwest will be the safest and best option for us to get on the ladder.

Once we get the house, we can then have utility bills, and council tax documentation in both our names, but its getting to that stage which is the tricky part :mad:

Thanks again for replying!

MortgageMamma

Did L & C actually spend time advising you on this mortgage or did they just send you a quote and say thats the one we recommend? It sound slike your advisor would do well to spend a little more time with you on this.

Have a look at co-op banks website they have a good 100% mortgage and so do royal bank of scotland. In fact there are loads of lenders, Iknow you have been to L & C but make sure you explore your options a mortgage is a massive commitment and its important you get it right first time.

MM

payless

TangentMan wrote:

As far as i am aware the line "pay other taxes or costs in addition to any fees shown here" is an FSA stipulation so all KFIs should show that or something similar. .

seen big differences in whats quoted in these boxes from lenders to 3rd party systems ( seen one lenders own KFI say legal fees were £1,500,000 !!!!)
whats iimportant is whether the charge is just part of what the solicitor quotes OR an extra fee

MortgageMamma

I personally think lenders should not put estimates of solicitors fee's on mortgage KFI's as its completely irrelevant to the lending itself and taking things one step too far. all it does in my opinion is confuse the general public, and some even think they have to pay the estimated fee on top of what they have already been quote dby their solicitors

stanmoresaver

MortgageMamma wrote:

I personally think lenders should not put estimates of solicitors fee's on mortgage KFI's as its completely irrelevant to the lending itself and taking things one step too far. all it does in my opinion is confuse the general public, and some even think they have to pay the estimated fee on top of what they have already been quote dby their solicitors

For what it's worth - i totally agree- so many of my clients have asked me about this!

Too much irrelevant information! (instead of relevant!)

SS

AndrewSmith

A general point on Mortgage Application or Booking fees.

For a number of years now I have been advising clients to, at the point of application, ask the lender to add these fees to the loan which is an option available in most cases.

This means that the only upfront fee generally paid to the lender is the valuation fee. I say generally but yes I accept there are exceptions where the lender will ask for an arrangement fee and a booking fee. One can be added, the other is payable up front.

Once the lender has approved your mortgage and is about to issue the mortgage offer you can then choose to pay the fee prior to drawing the funds (thus not having it on the mortgage for 25 years).

Doing this means that if your application is declined you will not lose any application or booking fee as you will not have paid it until the point of the mortgage being offered.

Also most lenders do not instruct valuation (unless pressured by the applicant to do so, or if you apply via the likes of some estate agency chains who charge extra valuation fees and instruct immediately) until they are satisfied that your application is within criteria and you have passed the initial checks and credit score. After this, as long as the information provided is accurate then you will have nothing to worry about.

Andy

Arch-Angel

chickmeistergeneral wrote:

Hi

thanks for the replies. I spoke to portman, they said they where unsure of any other fees, but reminded me that there is a £299 fee with the application, that fee is taken if they give you the mortgage or not.

We are not customers of portman, so i asked them about ID. They said they would need 3 years worth of proof of address, as well as some other documents. My partner in the past 3 years has had 2 years living in barracks in Winchester, 6 months living in barracks in cyprus, and now for the past 6 months living in barracks in Scotland. Its hard for him to prove his past addresses, as he has no utility bills, or council tax forms as the army look after all that (he just pays them each month).

We didnt want to pay the £299 fee to portman if we couldnt produce the relevant ID, which would more than likely result in us getting declined by, so it looks like Natwest will be the safest and best option for us to get on the ladder.

Once we get the house, we can then have utility bills, and council tax documentation in both our names, but its getting to that stage which is the tricky part :mad:

Thanks again for replying!

Get your other half to approach his admin office with the issue - can't remember the Army specific name of it. They should be able to create an official letter detailing the units (i.e. his addresses that he's been to over the last 3 years - or longer if necessary that he's worked at.

Can't say if this will be sufficient proof - more clever broker type folk on here to answer that one! - but proving his addresses should be fairly straightforward, if he explains his problem to the staff there.

AndrewSmith

Does your other half vote by proxy? This is quite standard for service personel.

The address at which he is registered on the electoral role is the one where they will be able to locate him by normal means.

Details of this address along with a reference from his Paymaster General confirming his overseas and barrack postings is usually sufficient for forces personel.

When completing the application form it will ask for a person to contact for employment reference. Enter the Paymaster Details in there. Then explain in the notes section of the form exactly the situation with the various postings etc.

My advice would be to submit an agreement in principle for your case before committing to a full application. That way you will be somewhat re-assured that the 3 year history will not necessarily cause a problem.

Having dealt with countless forces purchases in the past it is usually acceptable to lenders that they may be difficult to trace via electoral role and may have some periods of being overseas.

Hope this helps

Andy