Alliance and Leicester and Santander the wait goes on.... and on.....

Quietstorm

I recently put in an offer of £225k on a house which has been accepted. The property is a repossession and to cut a long story short, another buyer came in and I increased my offer to £231k which has again been accepted. I have gone through a very well known whole of the market fee free broker who does have a presence on this site (not sure if I’m allowed to mention names)

The problem I am having it to get them to look at my mortgage application I have been given a decision in principle. However this was some 2 weeks ago, and as it is a repossession both vendor and the agents are very pushy and they are looking to exchange contracts by the 4th March. I call my broker everyday to find out what’s going on however I am told that because of the merger between Alliance and Leicester and Santander things are taking longer than usual. I have now been promised that it should be dealt with by the end of the week! (Although I have little faith)

Has anyone encountered similar problems? If so how did you resolve this issue?

buttons1987

hey, yeah my OH and i got accepted in principle and then confirmed by abbey/santander. Then waited and waited and waited, and after calling our broker every other day to be told they were still waiting but that it was going threw, well 6 weeks later we were turned down. Still waiting on an explanation 8 months down the line. It also made a big bent on our credit rating.

They did the same thing to someone else on here, but santander waited til the day she was due to exchange contracts to decline her mortgage application.
they are lovely like that.

Some advice- stop wasting your time with santander, they'll mess you arond and take your money then fall back on T's&C's.

Good luck x

grogdog

alliance and leicester are very bad at the minute, when information they request is returned ie paysllps etc it is about 7-10 working days before it gets looked at then this is repeated for any further info they require, so not really alot brokers can do about it other than try and ensure everything is sent over correct in the first place.

mortgagenewbee

View my thread and this will explain all

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=30224145#post30224145

grogdog

sorry but that explains nothing.

Conrad

Quietstorm wrote: »

fee free broker

In general fee free brokers have to deal with more cases per broker to earn the same money a fee charger makes. A fee charger therefore has more time per case. Fare enough to use a fee free broker if saving every penny is the prime concern, but as we all know, 'free' always has hidden costs one way or another - in service for example.

It's beyond me why a broker would use Santander where a quick purchase is required. That smacks of robotic / training mentality. An experienced broker will balance cost and service and not simply recommend cheapest option, espeically when you consider there is little difference between the top few lenders in rate terms.

JA1000

Stop phoning the broker and phone A&L.

jill2002

Conrad wrote: »

An experienced broker will balance cost and service and not simply recommend cheapest option, espeically when you consider there is little difference between the top few lenders in rate terms.

Why not go direct to Santander and cut out two middle men? The broker and the Business Development Unit. Direct at the branch we have direct contact with underwriters (if it is not accepted at point of sale immediately) and get an answer within 24 hours! It's not the brokers fault, they have no contact with the underwriters - they go through a business development unit and therefore get delays.

I agree that the brokers have to balance cost and service - and the service they seem to be receiving from Santander is appaulling - therefore they obviously advise a more expensive product to avoid the bad service.

Quietstorm

The valuation was carried out last week and I have received the report. Broker tells me that it has all been signed off, however im just waiting for my final mortgage letter. How long does this normally take?

Thanks for all youre replies very informative stuff. For the record calling A&L directly is a real pain, average waiting times range from 25mins - 60 mins!

JA1000

I did practice what I preached as I am going through A&L you may see from a previous post. They are a pain, the numbers on the website are wrong and they havne't got a clue. It's good to hear you have an offer, I am more pessimistic and it's a remortgage.

Well done

Quietstorm

Phoned A&L they stated that they were working over-time this wknd and that they posted my final mortgage offer out yesterday.. Sounds fishy I asked if they could fax the letter to my solicitor however they said they posted copies to my broker and solicitor yesterday. She said she would but solicitor has not received anything yet. The waiting is a killer!