Nationwide Mortgage Referral - Please Advise

markc1975

Hello,

Firstly I'd like to say hello to everyone. I'm a long-time lurker but have only just signed up as I need some advice and can't find it anywhere.

We're getting a Mortgage through a broker with the Nationwide, for £210K. However, upon chasing the broker (he works for Countrywide) we find we have been referred to the head office for a credit referral, potentially losing our mortage hopes, and the house, forever.

We have paid off all our credit cards, my girlfriend has paid off her student loans in the past year or so, I have an A+ credit history and hers is pretty good. We are both in full time work, bringing in about £60K a year, and in good health.

If we get refused for credit reasons, what can we do? Where do we stand legally? We have all this money and no-one seems to want to take it! Do we reapply with the broker, or get him to appeal the decision.

As first-time buyers, any help would be muchly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mark

AndrewSmith

HI,

First thing is that it is quite normal for Nationwide to occasionally quality check a case file which would involve the case being referred to head office. This does not automatically mean that there is anything wrong with your ability to mortgage.

However, you have to remember that a lender reserves the right to refuse or decline any mortgage application without having to give you a reason. If you are declined you can ask the broker to try appealing the decision for you but it is rarely successful.

Nobody has a legal right to credit or a mortgage, and the lender has no obligation to agree to lend you anything at all.

If declined the lender has broken no law or contract thus you have nothing to claim legally.

Andy

markc1975

Andrew,

Thanks for that.

I guess, as it's our first time, the alarms have gone off in our heads and we're just worried that we'll be blacklisted forever and never get a house...

My girlfriend had a bad mark on her credit history 2 years ago, but since then has worked to clear it. A credit check with Experian has confirmed that she has now got a good credit history.

Fingers crossed... I'll let you know how it goes. They're deciding today or tomorrow hopefully.

Mark

LisaT186

What was the bad mark 2 years ago? A credit file holds deatils of 6 years so it will still show and a lot of lenders don't like anything in the last 3.

markc1975

As a student she kept going into her overdraft on her Barclays account. The overdraft was paid off 18 months ago, and she has since cleared all loans from her student days. She never missed a payment, as her student loans were being taken from her wages every month.

We have both cleared our credit cards too, so now we have no outstanding debt, apart from a loan I took for the car, which is paid by direct debit every month.

She earns much more than me, but still seems to have problems with credit referances, even though she has a green light from the credit checking agencies (we have checked with both)

Mark

LisaT186

Sounds like just a random quality check as Andrew said or maybe as the overdraft shows up on file then they're just getting a human to look and clarify. Fingers crossed, let us know what happens

markc1975

After 4 weeks of stress and expectation we finally got the mortgage certificate through the post.

Yet the broker didn't know about it!

Anyway, it was an odd situation, which I will explain here should anyone have it happen to them.

Nationwide allow CountryWide 1 extra day to book mortgages in the event of an interest rate rise/fall. We applied for our mortgage on this particular day in January, 1 day after the interest rates rose.

These are referred to as 'exceptions', and get forwarded to Head Office to be signed off by some manager-type people there.

Our broker was advised that this was due to credit, so he phoned the Head Office on our behalf and got the above explanation.

The reason it took so long was that there was a rush on mortgage applications after the rates rise to get them at the lower rate of interest.

Thanks for the tips guys!

Mark

LisaT186

Really pleased it is all sorted for you

markc1975

Thanks!

We still haven't got the house yet... but at least the cash is there now!

Mark