compensation from banks

flowergirl77

hi, i have an existing mortgage with SANTANDER, and we were looking to sell our house and get a new one, we asked SANTANDER if we could have a new mortgage and they said yes, so we sold our house and found one for us to buy, put in an offer, was accepted so we paid out for searches, cut the story short, 6 weeks down the line SANTANDER have now refused to give us the top up on our existing mortgage so we cannot go forward with the move. we are just wondering if there is anyway we can get any of the money that we paid out for searches back. thanks in advance

Thrugelmir

Have you received a formal mortgage offer?

flowergirl77

no we had the mortgage agreement in principle, and a formal mortgage illustration and signed all paper work required, they even took the mortgage arrangement fee from our bank, but then refunded it back to us. we never actually got anything in writing, our mortgage advisor dealt with it all.

Thrugelmir

Without a mortgage offer its not advisable to instruct your solicitor to commence work on the transaction.

dunstonh

Unfortunately, Thrugelmir is spot on. There is no commitment to offer a mortgage until it has gone through underwriting and come out the other end with the mortgage offer. Even then they can technically withdraw although it is unusual (but was seen during the credit crunch when criteria was changing almost daily). It is normally advised that you dont start the legal side until you have the mortgage agreement.

If you sought advice and were advised to do what you did then your adviser may have some liability there. However, if you bypassed an adviser then you take on that responsibility.

flowergirl77

Thanks. We were advised by mortgage advisor and estate agent to get solicitors to do legal work and searches etc to rush the sale of ours and purchase of next through. didn't even occur to us that we'd not got formal mortgage offer. Thought that was one of the last things to be done, as we've been existing customers of Santander for 4 years and never defaulted on a payment even our mortgage advisor was shocked (and still is!) that they wouldn't give us the top up (only 17k)
I remember specifically asking him when we signed for the mortgage that at this stage they couldn't possibly say no could they? and he replied that it was highly unlikely because we're existing customers.
Seems to me that Santander are only now interested in new business.
Oh well you live and learn.:mad: