Waiting for Mortgage Offer

kingstreet

kford224 wrote: »

Oh no, that really sucks

I've just got off the phone to Santander for the third time. All I want to do is confirm that they received the paperwork I sent over a week ago....they promised for a third time that someone will ring me back, but until this has been sorted it can't go to underwriting! :mad:

We applied directly as we could get a better deal than through our MA. However, our MA did recommmend we do it that way, so has been a massive help It may be worth looking around to see if you can get a better deal? Your current MA doesn't sound especially reliable

When you send something to a lender, Halifax and Abbey being the best cases I can think of, the stuff sits in a pile while correspondence in front of it gets dealt with first. Once your stuff gets to the top of the pile, it's scanned onto the system and added to your file. It then queues to your business assessor's or case manager's caseload until they get a chance to look at it. If it's ok, the case then moves on to the next stage or it may be referred to an underwriter for reconsideration, then back to New Business for something else to be asked of you.

In between times, Halifax will ask you not to chase something up until it's been five working days, then another two working days before you can expect it to be actioned.

Too few staff trying to implement the newer more stringent lending policies. Result - every piece of correspondence takes two weeks to be processed.

tristinh

An update.

We got rid of her. She promised to get back to us today with new illustrations but nothing - and now avoiding our calls and not returning them (colleagues said she would be back in 5 mins etc - we told them it was urgent).

We are now applying direct with lender. Can't be any worse than starting again with the MA.

I KNOW not all MAs are as inefficient, in particular, kingstreet who has offered us some valuable words of wisdom (not advice, per his disclaimer!) and helped us make our decision.

Thanks.

Explained to lender our hope of a quick process. Didn't promise anything they couldn't guarantee, but said he would at least try and gave tips for speeding it up our end.

Still hoping for completion on 8th April - not sure how realistic that is!

How is everyone elses coming along?

kingstreet

tristinh wrote: »

An update.

We got rid of her. She promised to get back to us today with new illustrations but nothing - and now avoiding our calls and not returning them (colleagues said she would be back in 5 mins etc - we told them it was urgent).

We are now applying direct with lender. Can't be any worse than starting again with the MA.

I KNOW not all MAs are as inefficient, in particular, kingstreet who has offered us some valuable words of wisdom (not advice, per his disclaimer!) and helped us make our decision.

Thanks.

Explained to lender our hope of a quick process. Didn't promise anything they couldn't guarantee, but said he would at least try and gave tips for speeding it up our end.

Still hoping for completion on 8th April - not sure how realistic that is!

How is everyone elses coming along?

What/who did you go for in the end?

sonastin

kingstreet wrote: »

When you send something to a lender, Halifax and Abbey being the best cases I can think of, the stuff sits in a pile while correspondence in front of it gets dealt with first. Once your stuff gets to the top of the pile, it's scanned onto the system and added to your file. It then queues to your business assessor's or case manager's caseload until they get a chance to look at it. If it's ok, the case then moves on to the next stage or it may be referred to an underwriter for reconsideration, then back to New Business for something else to be asked of you.

In between times, Halifax will ask you not to chase something up until it's been five working days, then another two working days before you can expect it to be actioned.

Too few staff trying to implement the newer more stringent lending policies. Result - every piece of correspondence takes two weeks to be processed.

Short of taping his eyes to the screen, I wish I could find a way to make my boyfriend understand this!

Sol should have received fax of mortgage offer late Tuesday afternoon. I think he was going to write using snail mail to inform santander that their conditions are impossible to fulfil as they were informed before & with the application. Boyfriend is firmly of the opinion that my sol should have an answer by now and the fact that we haven't heard anything is purely down to my sol being too lazy to act on it! On the one hand, I don't really want to talk to my solicitor on a daily basis and I know he won't take to being mithered when there's nothing he can do. And on the other hand I'm being mithered by a boyfriend who thinks I'm being too lax with the solicitor. Oh for a bit of peace!

I'm hoping that it won't take 2 weeks to get a response out of Santander but on the history of this transaction so far, anything is possible. Still, the initial offer came out quicker than expected so they could surprise me :rotfl:

kingstreet

Things go in waves for lenders. Imagine a situation where you suddenly find you have one of the best deals in the market and you're inundated with applications? Some are straightforward round pegs in round holes and they sail through in a few days.

Others are square pegs, and one way or another the edges have to be filed off and that means requests for extra information bouncing around, faxes, emails, phone calls and the inevitable delays that doing something outside the norm usually brings.

Factor in the reduced numbers of staff due to the recession and the crunch and you can imagine what some of these lenders are like to work for!

Then you stop being the flavour of the month and the business slows to a trickle and you then take a breath and get rid of the backlogs of work as you're no longer processing new apps...

I'd venture to suggest you go for the fourth or fifth best deal on your shortlist and by doing that you're likely to get better service while the world and his brother is clamouring to get top service from the top lender which is sinking under the weight of apps I mentioned above.

Hm. Picking a lender for its service, rather than the best deal? That would be novel...

kford224

tristinh wrote: »

How is everyone elses coming along?

We are still waiting, although I have a feeling we shall hear something today....not sure why.....perhaps it's because it has been 7 days since the application

Good luck with your new lender! Hopefully they'll be able to arrange something quickly for you

ruggedtoast

Completely anecdotal, but my friend completed a few months back with Santander / Abbey and didnt have a great experience with them. They were wiggling and weaving right up to the date of exchange, apparently a lot of other Abbey mortgagees were having a similar problem.

We are using ING, who so far, couldnt be more efficient, quick or switched on. They've been the only part of this horrible vague process that hasnt been in any way stressful, ambiguous or slow.

danielley

Im still waiting to hear. I believe the survey was done yesterday, so hopefully this will mean an offer today or early next week!

Will let you know!

Good luck everyone.

tristinh

kingstreet wrote: »

What/who did you go for in the end?

Hiya!

We did a search on the web and went with nationwide in the end. 4.89% fixed for 5 years. Just a company we have been with before and were impressed at their efficiency. Plus not the best deal out there so could work in our favour time wise (per your earlier post).

Funnily enough our MA emailed this morning promising an offer from Abbey on Monday if we returned to her - the deal makes us £3250 worse off so politely declined. Empty promises!

Thanks every one & hope you all get your offers soon!

kingstreet

Excellent. Hope it works out for you.

Post back with a progress report!