Signed contracts, delay opn exchange...

danielle21_2

Hi everyone...

We signed the contracts last Tuesday with hope in exchanging by Friday 21st & completing by Friday 28th. I signed the contracts with the locum. My solicitor phoned me on Thursday at 5pm explaining that he needs my mortgage provider, Halifax to fax him a letter acknowledging that they are aware of the benefits Barratts (seller) are providing, which are:

5% deposit
£1,425 Stamp Duty
£200 towards mortgage fees

I rang Halifax & they said if Solicitor wants something in writing, he has to put it in writing to them first... My solicitor faxed his letter on Friday (so im told!) & Halifax said they aim to dealing with it within 24hrs. Last nite my solicitors secretary phoned to say she had not heard anything from Halifax & its unlikely that we will complete by Friday - which is very disappointing as out rental property runs out this weekend.

Any ideas what I can do?? i've called the mortgage advisor who advised me & he says he has to get authorisation in order to write the letter, ive told him im ready to pull out of it all if contracts arnt exchanged today... lie obviously!!

Thanks, Danielle

danielle21_2

Oh & we're first time buyers, no chain as the house is empty.

lynzpower

Tell soicitor to fax it again and phone them through to check someone is recieving it at the other end.

danielle21_2

Thanks Lynz but ive rang Halifax head office & the lady dealing with it assures me nothing is going to be done today... Im lost with what more to do

danielle21_2

they have received it yesterday but they have a back log of work... apparently

AndrewSmith

This is a common thing for the Halifax to ask for. I had one very recently on a David Wilson purchase for a client.

Get your adviser to do exactly as I did, which resulted in the issue being resolved the same day.

Get your solicitor to verify what the Purchase Price on the contract is. SOme developers change this to allow for the incentives.

Get the adviser to call the Halifax completions team. Advise them of the incentives and confirm that the Purchase Price remains unchanged because of this. He/she must then tell them that you need a fax sent to the solicitor stating that they are happy with the incentives and the mortgage offer is unaffected by this. They should be able to do this straight away.

Your mortgage adviser should have already notified Halifax of the incentives thus it should not be a problem.

There is absolutely no reason why this cannot be done over the phone straight away as long as your adviser stresses to the Halifax that you need to exchange asap, and the adviser has already notified Halifax of the incentives (as per the relevant section on the initial application form).

Andy

danielle21_2

Hi Andy, Thanks for your response.

I have dealt direct through Halifax, my mortgage advisor keeps fobbing me off saying he doesnt have authorisation & its been going on since friday. Im gonna give him another call now.

lilyann1

Insist on speaking to someone higher and not just a mortgage advisor if you don't get an answer today!!!!
Things can be dealt with today if it's urgent just needs someone to sort it.

AndrewSmith

Ask to speak to the completions department.

The local Halifax advisor will not have the authorisation to do this. Tell the advisor that you know of situations where it has been done the same day (as I described above) and want to speak to whoever can do it.