Mortgage probs with Chinese buyer because of HO

leftieM

I hope one of the sages on this board can help!
We agreed the sale of our house to a Chinese lady a month ago. She seemed like a good bet (big deposit, already had a MO in place we were told).
Now it turns out that her mortgage company has an issue with her status. She applied for residency in october and the Home Office didn't contest it. The mortgage company say this isn't enough, they want a letter from the HO saying (I presume) that she won't be booted out.
Is this usual?
I'm pretty peed off. Our EA was speaking with her mortgage adviser until now and he didn't mention this issue once. In fact he told lies about why the MO was taking ages. We phoned the buyer ourselves last night and she told us the truth without any bother or pressure. She's offering us a cash deposit as an act of faith.
Most worryingly of all our vendor is getting nervous and if this isn't sorted soon she'll pull the plug on the deal. The EA spoke with the MA this morning and he said the issue would be resolved today or tomorrow. Our buyer gave a date of Jan 17th. At this stage I've no confidence in their MA.

herbiesjp

She could not have had a mortgage Offer yet, as she had not applied to purchase your mortgage yet - she may have had an agreement in principle though.

The MA should be aware from the outset as to the stauts of their applicant - however sometimes people cliam to have permanent right to reside, but it turns out that they do not.

Some lenders may accept the applicant depending on her current visa status, assuming she still has a long length left on the visa. However if she has only now applied for permanent right to reside, that will not get dealt with for many weeks normally so I cannot see anything happening fast, even if it is not contested.

All of what the lenders is asking for is normal, and the MA should not really have applied for the mortgage if all the paperwork was not to hand for a full application - as it would lead to the problems you are now facing.

Your buyer may well be acting in good faith - make sure that any money she gives to you is non refundable to her.

Find out how long she has been in the UK, and what her current visa status is and post back

HTH

Rick62

She applied for residency in october and the Home Office didn't contest it. The mortgage company say this isn't enough, they want a letter from the HO

So if the Home Office didn't 'contest' it then they should have granted it and she should have a letter from the Home Office or/and a stamp in her passport. Unless in fact it is still under consideration.

When the MA says it will be 'resolved' in the next couple of days what does he mean? Get specifics, has the buyers application to the Home Office been approved or not. She either has approved right to remain or not and her lender either will lend to her or will not.

UK007BullDog

Depending on lender without the stamp in her passport they will not lend.

It usually takes 4 to 12 weeks for a passport to get the stamp.

The MA should have called the bank to ask procedure and should have told her and she told the EA that her passport is being processed.

She might have an official letter stating she is entitled to the status, maybe the lender is happy with that, but its unlikely, most want the photographic official stamp/sticker in the passport.

Conrad

leftieM wrote:

In fact he told lies about why the MO was taking ages. We phoned the buyer ourselves last night and she told us the truth without any bother

Im sure you would raise hell if your own MA divuldged your private details to a third party! Cmon

leftieM

He didn't have to mislead us! We were told that the mortgage offer had been issued with the incorrect purchase price and when it seemed to take ages to reissue this (fictitious) offer we were told that it had been 'put to the back of the queue'.
This is too big an issue to hide. If we had known at the time of accepting the offer we could have made an informed decision as to whether to accept the offer. We had 6 (yes, 6!) other bidders. It is likely that we wouldn't have gone with this purchaser - she wasn't the highest bidder - and that is why they hid the truth. Now it has come home to roost and it looks like noone is moving anywhere in this chain.

Rick62

Why not see if any of the other 6 are still interested?

leftieM

Our vendor already gave us one chance after our first buyers pulled out. She won't give us another (that's what she told the EA). So we have to stick with this for now and then make a decision when we know what's going on.

leftieM

I have more details if there are any more FAs who have advice...
The purchaser just explained the situation to us. She applied for permanent residency in the UK and was refused. She contested the decision in court and the refusal was overturned - she was told she could have PR. The HO didn't contest this. The Home Office now have her passport but have not stamped it yet despite the court decision. The HO say they will deal with it when it suits them.
Her mortgage lender says they need the stamp on the passport despite the letters saying she has PR. Can she get a mortgage before she has the stamp?

MortgageMamma

The home office don't say "we will deal with this when it suits us" I have a friend at the home office in immigration and its taking 5 weeks from approval to stamp passports at the moment. the reason for this is staff shortages and its not far outside their usual service standards. You could ask the Home Office for written proof, although surely the court would have ordered this to have been done immediately as is often the case.

Whether the lender will release funds in these circumstances is doubtful, it depends very much on who the mortgage lender is and what evidence you can give to them

I would suggest that your vendor rethinks her position with regards to selling to the chinese woman/. its clear that neither she nor her broker have been upfront with you in the first place, and theres nothing to say that this new tale is not a lie. If she is prepared to pay your vendor a NON RETURNABLE deposit in good faith in order to keep the sale moving then I suggest you take her up on it!

Edit - I would also consider putting in a complaint against the broker, unless of course he/she can provide you with the "incorrect" offers as evidence. This is not professional conduct and has almost lead to a lost sale for both you and him, no matter what the clients situation there is no excuse for bare faced lies.

leftieM

Sorry I shouldn't have put that slant on the HO wording. Of course they didn't say it like that. They will hardly expedite a procedure because someone decides to put offers on properties that they can't buy.
We are considering putting in a complaint against the adviser. As for the deposit - if this goes on any longer we will have to remarket our property to get more money as, if our sale falls through, we will have to pay more money for another house so a deposit is meaningless.