Post Office Mortgage - fixed period runs from approval or completion?

beefturnmail

Hi I'm a ftb, just had my mortgage approved with the PO. It's a 2 year fix, but on the illustration it says based on completion date 1 Oct, fixed until 30/9.

Thing is we are not looking likely to exchange before early Nov and then may not complete until early December due to having to give a month's notice on the current place. So if the fix only runs until 30/9 it will only be a fix for 1.75 years rather than 2!

When I go onto PO website now, the 2 year fixes are running until 31/12/12, given that we may not be completing until early Dec, it seems a little unfair if our fix only lasts until 30/9/12. Has anyone else been in this sort of situation?

Senior_Paper_Monitor

By 'approved' do you mean an offer letter ?

beefturnmail

Yes I have an offer letter. It's not an AIP - it's final approval.

Senior_Paper_Monitor

Your will have to ask them, they may well change it and they may charge an admin fee or new application fee (my guess is the latter - but only the PO can answer your question)

Thrugelmir

beefturnmail wrote: »

Thing is we are not looking likely to exchange before early Nov and then may not complete until early December due to having to give a month's notice on the current place. So if the fix only runs until 30/9 it will only be a fix for 1.75 years rather than 2!

The delay in completion is down to your personal preference. The Post Office is losing money all the time it is not drawn down. As it is committed to lending the money to you. Hence the restricted time frame.

betmunch

If it says its fixed until 30 sept 2012, then its fixed until the 30 sept 2012.

I am surprised you had to even ask!

If you dont like it then ring them up and ask to be changed to one of the products they are offering now as opposed to the one you have applied for and been underwritten for.

josievg

beefturnmail - I'm glad you spotted this. Just had a look at our offer paperwork and ours is fixed until July 2015.

I had assumed the 5 year fix would be from the date we actually started the mortgage but - on reflection, after reading comments in this thread - it makes sense that it's from the offer. I just didn't pay too much attention to the dates when reading the offer.

By the time we eventually complete our fix will be closer to 4 1/2 years so that's useful to know. I will have to bear in mind that our last few payments could be much higher than I was expecting.

beefturnmail

thanks all for comments. Betmunch - yes, i did have to ask whether it really means 30 sept 2010, as it also says based on completion of 1 october 2010, which has not happened! Actually looking again the rates are slightly higher on the new product range the PO has, so I'll stick with it. I think it's slightly misleading to say 2 year fix when most house purchases have some delay built in - Also don't really see how the delay in completion is costing the post office money... they've not lent me the money yet...

Thrugelmir

beefturnmail wrote: »

Also don't really see how the delay in completion is costing the post office money... they've not lent me the money yet...

They could have lent it to someone else and be making a profit. Once committed to you, the money is reserved.