Woolwich withdrew mortgage offer due to their mistake - claim/compensation?

WellKnownSid

kingstreet wrote: »

In your last post you say this happened two hours before moving, but I cannot imagine ANY circumstances in which a solicitor would arrange an exchange and simultaneous completion without having a mortgage offer to hand for a few days. In most cases, lenders request, if not demand, at least three days notice to release funds.

Not entirely true. Our Woolwich mortgage took five attempts - they made mistakes with every offer they sent - house name, LTV, product, %age, amount, etc. On three occassions they were trying to give us 15k too much money... try telling that to a call centre, it's not on the script and no sir you cannot speak to my supervisor!

In our case the final (correct) offer came through about six weeks after the first, by fax at around 2pm on the day before completion. Bizarrely, completion went through without a hitch. The issue was more to do with the offer containing incorrect information rather than an underwriter's mistake, however.

More bizarrely - this weekend we received offer number three through the post, almost three months after we completed!

maninthestreet

corndisty wrote: »

We did receive a mortgage offer in principle 3 weeks prior to the moving in day and was told a week before moving in that the bank were going to fax the actual mortgage offer to the solicitors, they didn't and postponed this for a week until I escalated this.

If the bank had faxed the mortgage offer to my solicitor in the morning which they agreed to, then yes we would have exchanged and completed the same day so that was actually our moving in day. Our solicitor only need the mortgage offer before 1pm to wire the funds before 3pm and we could move in at 5pm, this was all ready until Woolwich realised they could not count!

Sorry for any confusion before, I am obviously very distressed by this situation.

So what does your solicitor have to say? They should not have allowed echange to go ahead on the basis of a promise from the Woolwich to merely fax the mortgage offer on the day of completion - they would need the mortgage funds from Woolwich in their bank account at least 2 or 3 days before completion.

maninthestreet

WellKnownSid wrote: »

Not entirely true. Our Woolwich mortgage took five attempts - they made mistakes with every offer they sent - house name, LTV, product, %age, amount, etc. On three occassions they were trying to give us 15k too much money... try telling that to a call centre, it's not on the script and no sir you cannot speak to my supervisor!

In our case the final (correct) offer came through about six weeks after the first, by fax at around 2pm on the day before completion. Bizarrely, completion went through without a hitch. The issue was more to do with the offer containing incorrect information rather than an underwriter's mistake, however.

More bizarrely - this weekend we received offer number three through the post, almost three months after we completed!

How could completion have taken place if the required funds were not available to pay the vendor?

WellKnownSid

maninthestreet wrote: »

they would need the mortgage funds from Woolwich in their bank account at least 2 or 3 days before completion.

Why would they? To earn some interest?!

WellKnownSid

maninthestreet wrote: »

How could completion have taken place if the required funds were not available to pay the vendor?

Let me see...

1. The money arrives on the following morning (day of completion).
2. Our solicitor uses the money to pay the vendor.
3. The vendor gives us the keys.

Why does it need to be in days before?

PaulLuke

I would guess that the reason solicitors want the money in their account a couple of days before completion would be to cover off the issue of anything going wrong with a transfer.

It could be very costly if funds don't arrive when expected and there is not sufficient time to trace and find them prior to having to complete the purchase.

Thrugelmir

WellKnownSid wrote: »

Why would they? To earn some interest?!

No, to ensure that the transaction could be completed on the scheduled day.

Thrugelmir

GMS wrote: »

Something does not add up here. Lender may have made an error but as they never issued an offer there is no way you can claim any compensation. Even if they had issued an offer they can withdraw it at any time.

The OP may have planned on moving on a given day, having given notice to vacate. Though this is of course different to being in a position to legally complete which follows its own timetable depending on how events unfold.

Thrugelmir

WellKnownSid wrote: »

The money arrives on the following morning (day of completion).

That's different. The TT was processed the day before. Hence why it was available to draw on on the day of completion.

GMS

If there was never a mortgage offer how could the solicitor complete the conveyancing? What if there were special conditions contained within the offer?