Problems with Abbey/Santander??

milliebear00001

Hi there

My mortgage application is with Abbey and I originally applied for the mortgage several weeks back, via a broker, to buy a different house to the one I now want to purchase. That application went though at lightning speed and the valuation was instructed and carried out within a week of the initial application going in.

I obviously now want to buy a different property and have completed Abbey's 'Property Substitution' form. I sent this in, by scanned return, nearly two weeks ago, and my mortgage manager has chased Abbey every working day since to see if anyone has looked at it - but nothing so far. He is being given the run-around by various admin people at Abbey who keep telling him it will be looked at 'in the morning' or 'later today' and to ring back. Apparently it was given to a manager to look at yesterday, but still nothing has been done.

Is this normal? I know Abbey used to have terrible customer services, but my Broker has had no issues now for several months and was happy to recommend them. I am beginning to regret not pushing for a different lender. Am I just being unreasonable?

GMS

Your broker should be chasing after it not you. Give the broker a nudge along

milliebear00001

GMS wrote: »

Your broker should be chasing after it not you. Give the broker a nudge along

He is - well, the mortgage manager who took over after the broker is. He's calling twice a day and being fobbed off. The brokerage business relations manager is also now involved and still nada! I am chasing the mortgage manager but haven't spoken with Abbey yet (although am tempted!)

benjaminM

Abbey are a little... challenging, shall we say. They have been scrutinizing cases more than usual recently and conducting spot check audits.

milliebear00001

Well apparently the application is now with the underwriters. Mortgage Manager still seems confident we will be given a valuation date by Tuesday next week - grrr.

shimano

My Abbey case was scrutinised heavily on application a couple of weeks ago, it went from the application going through well, then something being flagged up on my credit record (despite it being squeaky clean), waiting a weekend sweating it out on what it could be, then they called me back saying it was nothing to worry about. Probably computers. It went between the call centre and underwriters a few times then they were happy. Docs sent out stating funds pre booked, now valuation taking place, which they sorted out rapidly

Gotta say apart from the little glitch at the start, the speed in which they are processing is pretty impressive.

GMS

milliebear00001 wrote: »

He is - well, the mortgage manager who took over after the broker is. He's calling twice a day and being fobbed off. The brokerage business relations manager is also now involved and still nada! I am chasing the mortgage manager but haven't spoken with Abbey yet (although am tempted!)

You should not speak to Abbey. I would not have been fobbed off for this long.

milliebear00001

GMS wrote: »

You should not speak to Abbey. I would not have been fobbed off for this long.

OK - will let brokerage deal with it and not speak to Abbey. Maybe I should go back to the original broker who organised the deal in the first place? He seemed to have more sway than this new 'admin' type person who is dealing with everything now (same company).

milliebear00001

shimano wrote: »

My Abbey case was scrutinised heavily on application a couple of weeks ago, it went from the application going through well, then something being flagged up on my credit record (despite it being squeaky clean), waiting a weekend sweating it out on what it could be, then they called me back saying it was nothing to worry about. Probably computers. It went between the call centre and underwriters a few times then they were happy. Docs sent out stating funds pre booked, now valuation taking place, which they sorted out rapidly

Gotta say apart from the little glitch at the start, the speed in which they are processing is pretty impressive.

See that's what I can't understand. They were SOOO fast with the initial application. I had a full offer in the post within a week! This change to a different property seems to have completely foxed them! Surely, as I've already passed the credit check and they must have done a 'maximum amount lendable' calculation the first time around, this should be just a matter of a few quick amendments!?

GMS

A change of property should be pretty straightforward. Inform the broker as to what is happening. I recently had a case with Abbey where they draggd their heels for no apparent reason and got senior managers involved. Bit of toing and froing via email and it was sorted.
Pressure needed from the brokerage whether the broker or admin staff. Brokers are allocated account managers, some good, some awful so at the very least they should have been contacted to resolve the issue.