Rant about Mortgage Talk

mrssjs

We're in the process of buying a new build by Ben Bailey and instead of porting our mortgage we decided to take out a new mortgage. We had a mortgage in principle from our previous lendor for £260k. We only need the mortgage for £140k.

We spoke with an independent financial advisor who came back with the same company as Mortgage Talk (the FAs employed by Ben Bailey), but decided to go with MT thinking it would be an easier transaction :rotfl:

Fast forward 3 weeks and we still have not received a mortgage offer. They are saying we're just below the affordability for the mortgage we need :-o They don't understand how childcare vouchers work with tax savings, they ask a new stupid question every single day.

We have a household income of £52k and our only outgoings are childcare at £400 per month. We have no debt and a 15% deposit. Why is it so difficult to get the mortgage offer??
Absolutely peed off. We going on holiday in a few days and completing on our house 3 days after we return and really don't need this stress.

kingstreet

So Mortgage Talk is a broker and they've made an application to ? who have a problem with your income and affordability.

Is the application reliant on a builder's deposit or shared equity loan?

mrssjs

kingstreet wrote: »

So Mortgage Talk is a broker and they've made an application to ? who have a problem with your income and affordability.

Is the application reliant on a builder's deposit or shared equity loan?

I believe the application is to "Accord" - we have a household income of £52k, no debt, a 15% deposit and only expenses are £400 per month childcare.

kingstreet

Mortgage Talk charge a fee and receive commission from lenders, so they probably won't have told you about better deals direct from lenders. They are tied to Legal & General, so if you want new insurance products, they can only advise you on L&G deals.

As far as Accord is concerned, they have had considerable processing problems lately. They have been struggling with the amount of business they have been receiving.

I've just run the details you gave me through the Accord affordability calculator and it comes out at £140,273 over 25 years if you use £26,000 and £26,000 as the incomes, £400 childcare cost, £165,000 purchase price, £140,000 mortgage, 2 applicants and 1 dependent child. A term of 30 years pushes the maximum mortgage upto £149,000.

I suggest you have a play and see what you get based on your real data;-

https://online.accordmortgages.com/public/mortgages/quick_enquiry.do

mrssjs

Thank you for that link. Taking into account childcare costs that says we can borrow around £140k which links in with them saying we are just below affordability. Take out the childcare costs (which will be no longer in April anyway as DD1 is due to receive her 15 hours government funding hours) shifts it up to nearly £180k.

However we also receive some rental income @ £350 per month (buy to let mortgage is £90 per month) - and they have also taken this into account, so should have shifted us above the £140k mark.

I just find it bizarre that we were offered £260k from our existing lender from the outset.

Thank you.

mrssjs

Just a quick question, we also have £5k in savings which has been earmarked for solicitors/estate agent's fees, is it worth us telling the broker about these?

kingstreet

mrssjs wrote: »

Just a quick question, we also have £5k in savings which has been earmarked for solicitors/estate agent's fees, is it worth us telling the broker about these?

As they are earmarked for a specific purpose, I can't see how they could help with a mortgage application. The broker and lender will simply assume you have these fees covered, otherwise the transaction couldn't proceed.

It sounds like you will get there with Accord, but it's likely to continue to be a slow process until they get all the detail sorted and an offer out. The good news is, if you get the builder harassing you for exchange, tell them to ring their broker as it wasn't your idea to go to Accord.