Nat West....so slow !

Brit27

Hi my first post here.

I've recently applied for a transfer of equity on the matrimonial home as my wife and I have split over 15 months ago. She has continued to live in the home with our two teenage children, but is now moving on, so I am trying to buy out her share of the house. We've agreed a price and I have begun an application for additional funds to cover the cost of the transfer with the Nat West bank.

This began four weeks ago and after having to change the initial loan duration from 20 years down to 15, due to my age, I awaited the next step.
I was told that a letter had been sent to my wife for her to give consent for the transfer and after waiting a week called the Nat West back again . They then informed me that she must write the letter, sign and send back ! This she did last week and they have confirmed to me that they have received it. I have now had to wait two days for the underwriters to asses the consent letter, then apparently, they are going to call me, although I doubt that very much.
Once they have confirmed the consent, a valuation of the property needs to be carried out by the bank and then assesed once again by the underwritters, if that's ok I should receive my offer. I'm really not sure how long this will drag out ?

Can anyone give me any tips in how to speed the process up and inform me of any other possible hold ups in the application process ? I'm not sure what my solicitor will need to progress things, I've heard nothing from them nor from the bank regarding this. I am calling the Nat West daily, as they haven't contacted me once since the application began (by telephone).

Both parties have mutually agreed to move on the 19th November, but I have my doubts that everything will be in place by then .

Thrugelmir

I have empathy with your situation. There is little point in getting stressed over matters which you have no control. Plenty of time yet to get matters wrapped up by the 19th November.

Brit27

Thanks Thrugelmir, naturally I have pressure from other parties to be seen to be moving things along, even though she dithered over the consent letter. Applying for extra borrowing after all these years has been a bit of a worry and reading various posts on here sets alarm bells off when your own case appears to be losing momentum.
I'll continue to make sure that they (Nat West) are aware that I am keen for things to move along.

Thrugelmir

I was going to mention the consent letter earlier. One would suspect that legal advice was sought hence the delay.

kingstreet

I'd expect a TofE with additional borrowing to take a couple of months to complete. Once the lender has completed its checks it'll hand over the matter to the solicitor to complete the legal work - change to the mortgage deed and removal of other borrower from title and charges register at Land Registry.

Remortgaging to a new lender on your own may have been a quicker solution if you had time constraints.

Brit27

Yes I did consider a different lender but was tied into a 3 year fixed deal at the Nat West, which ends on the 31st Dec, my soon to be ex was quite insistant on completing before then.
I am hoping things will go smoothly with my sols regarding the transfer, however I've not dealt with them before so who knows. As my wife recently reminded me, 'The clock is ticking!'

kingstreet

Brit27 wrote: »

Yes I did consider a different lender but was tied into a 3 year fixed deal at the Nat West, which ends on the 31st Dec

I guessed it may be something like that.

Brit27

Well no call regarding the consent letter approval this morning, so I called them. The letter has been approved and I now must wait a day or two for the valuation people to contact me. I know I must be patient .

Brit27

Ok the survey took place on Monday and lasted all of 15 minutes.
I've had a call back today from the Nat West telling me that the valuation came back at £10,000 less than was originally quoted by the Personal Mortgage Advisor when I applied for the borrowing (£175 against £185 originally). This has put my LTV rate up to 80% from below 75% and therefore I can no longer be offered a 2.89% rate on a 2 year fixed deal. I've been offered a 5 year of 3.79% or a tracker rate at 3.29%.

Could anyone gve me some advice on which would be the best offer to take ?

I have filed a complaint against the valuation figure that came back from their independant surveyor, this is going to take another 48hours to process and probably wont be very successful. I've had four estate agents quote me my original figure (£185k), so was surprised that this valuation came back £10k lower.