Major Help Needed - 3 months since offer accepted but still awaiting to exchange!

Afufi

Hi

I previously rented my property and when the tenants moved out in June, I was looking to sell. A neighbour approached me (who is keen to buy the property as her elderly parents live across the road so its ideal for them) and made an offer which we accepted.

We did have the property valued and the offer was at the higher end of the valuation. However, as we agreed this privately neither saw the need to go via an estate agency. I instructed my solicitor at the beginning of July to get the ball rolling.

The couple buying the property did have their mortgage agreed in principal but when they made the actual application it took Santander 8 weeks to instruct the survey to be carried out, apparently there was a large backlog. The survey was completed and they have formally offered the full amount of the mortgage to the buyers.

We were hoping to exchange within the next week or so and after another 2 weeks had passed without any further developments we are now being told that the mortgage offer is under review and have to wait and cannot proceed until its been given the go ahead.

Another 5 weeks have passed and we are still waiting and not getting anywhere with exchanging contracts, the buyers are frustrated aswell as we they have been in regular contact and have shown me all the paperwork and correspondence from the bank and their mortgage advisor. I'm forking out £1050 each month on the mortgage on an empty property and just want to get to exchange and complete!

I don't know if the mortgage advisor is dragging his feet or there are any other issues as whenevr they contact him and I have also spoken to him aswell he keeps saying 'it should be completed this week' and before you know it 5 weeks have passed.

Please can someone advise what can we do to complete the sale.

clutton_2

go and sit in the Santander office and dont move till they pick up the phone and do what ever is required...

they are notorious for appalling customer service...

wessexw

My lender (not Santander) are also being appallingly slow at the moment, they had the valuation report sat in their in tray for 3 weeks before they bothered to look at it. My solicitor commented that he's finding that many of his clients are suffering painfully slow mortgages at the moment from various different lenders, it seems to be all the rage at the moment. Though Santander are notorious, but I don't think that there's much that can be done aside from keeping the pressure up with daily phone calls and trying to speak to senior staff members etc.

Jenniefour

I wonder if your buyers mortgage is being audited. This would mean that the mortgage is being checked with a fine tooth comb. Some lenders are doing these internal audits on some of their already approved mortgages to make sure everythings in order. If this is the case, and providing everything is as it should be, then it's just a matter of time.

shimano

Santander are not that bad as everyone seems to say. I went through them with for a mortgage recently and to be fair they were rapid. The sent a surveyor 48 hours after mortgage acceptance and went to offer the same day the result came in. It was all fast tracked as I had a good deposit as a FTB (26%) and a clean credit rating.

Their call centre was very helpful, bar at the initial application as I had a small flag from the computer due to a discrepancy between credit file and appication (which I had to wait for the underwriter's comments as the agent couldn't see the file) which turned out to be something stupid (the data on Experian being 1 month old!)

Dare I suggest your buyer has something complicated in their application (not good credit rating etc)?

mlz1413

Afufi wrote: »

Hi

.
I don't know if the mortgage advisor is dragging his feet or there are any other issues as whenevr they contact him and I have also spoken to him aswell he keeps saying 'it should be completed this week' and before you know it 5 weeks have passed.

Please can someone advise what can we do to complete the sale.

Ask the advisor who their boss is and ask to talk to them.

Your buyers need to hound Santander and keep the pressure on - those who ring everyday will tend to get to the top of the pile! Always be polite but be firm.

The other thing to do is tell buyers you need to market place as your sorry but £1k per month is a lot to find and you need to sell.

Afufi

Jenniefour wrote: »

I wonder if your buyers mortgage is being audited. This would mean that the mortgage is being checked with a fine tooth comb. Some lenders are doing these internal audits on some of their already approved mortgages to make sure everythings in order. If this is the case, and providing everything is as it should be, then it's just a matter of time.

Many thanks for all your replies.

The mortgage has been approved and is being audited but I would have thought that 5 weeks is more than enough, no matter how much of a fine tooth comb they use!

On a seperate note the buyers went to see their mortgage advisor and after a very heated conversation the mortgage advisor, instead of chasing Santander, suggested they apply for another mortgage with another lender as Santander are taking too long?! They told him under no circumstances were they willing to pay for another survey and after waiting 3 months is this the best he can come up with.

To be honest I have no faith in the mortgage advisor and think he doesn't know what he's doing. why would he suggest they leave an approved mortgage and start the whole process again!:mad::mad::mad:

mlz1413

Get buyers to chase Santander direct.

The advisors qualifications shoud be on his letter head, complain to his governing body (fsa?) if he has no boss that you can go to instead.

Jackinbox99

As anoying as it is, all you can do is to chase everyone every day. Im chasing my bank to get the mortgage processed, solicitors to read their post, surveyers to get the surveyer sent through, estate agents to chase the seller & surveyers, my estate agents to sell my house and its a big loop. The biggest delays i always find are the local searches - councils are very slow. And solicitors... they never pick up the phone to ask a query, they prefer to send letters which automatically mean any small query takes 4 days to resolve. Fortunately the lenders ive used have been fairly quick in processing the mortgage applications.