How long for a mortgage to be approved?

Weeleesie

Hi!

I'm a first time buyer and had an offer accepted on a flat a few weeks ago. I have a decision in principle with Northern Rock (and also Skipton to fall back on if necessary). This is based on a £20k deposit and £135k mortgage. The application went to Northern Rock 5 days ago and i'm now at the very frustrating "waiting" stage.

I don't really know how the whole process works, and my mortgage advisor hasn't been the best, expecting me to know everything already (even though i've explained to him that I don't necessarily understand all the jargon). The thing is, i'm meant to pick up the keys in 4 weeks and i'm really starting to panic now that the mortgage isn't going to be sorted on time! On top of that, i'm not confident enough to even begin buying furniture.

So I guess my questions are:
How long does it take to be accepted?
How long will it take from acceptance to getting all the Solicitors stuff sorted out?
What happens if the mortgage isn't finalised by the day i'm due to collect the keys?
What happens if i'm not accepted?

I was excited when the offer was first accepted, but it has quickly been replaced by stress, anxiety and frustration

ACG

This is a job for your broker. Tell him your cancelling because of the stresses and not knowing where everything is upto and watch him/her pull their thumb out to reassure you. I hate brokers like that, they give the industry a bad name!

Where are you upto?

The general process is:
Get an agreement in principle,
make an application,
It will get underwritten, if all is well then
a valuation will be done, if that comes back ok then
you will be given an offer in writing,
it will then go to solicitors and your looking a few weeks after that if all is well.
You will then exchange and complete (potentially on the same day but could be on seperate days).

The whole process can take anywhere from a month upwards.
Where are you upto now? When was the last bit your aware of done?

Weeleesie

Hi ACG, thanks for getting back to me!

If I was brave enough i'd threaten to cancel, but I'm afraid that i'd then put myself back to square one, which I can't afford to do when i'm already running out of time!

I'm in Scotland, so I don't think I need to get a valuation done (think that stage is done already by the seller?). Not sure what you mean by "underwritten" - this would be one of the things i'd expect my mortgage advisor to help with I guess haha. I've sent him a couple of emails in the past couple of days asking for clarification on a few things and voicing my concerns over how long it might take, and he sent a half-hearted reply saying he'd get back to me later today (i'm still waiting...)

Do you think it could all go through on time? I'll be really angry if I lose out on this flat because other people have been slow!

ACG

He will be probably be earning about 0.3-0.5% of the mortgage amount plus any fee you may be paying, so he wont want it to drop off the books.

Ive never done a scottish mortgage, i passed the exams which included scottish mortgages but because im no expecting to ever do one, i let it all fall out my head (there isnt enough space in there for everything i need as it is :P ). I wont guess as i dont want to get it wrong but there are advisors on here and people who have purchased properties in scotland who would be able to give you a better answer than i can.

The other thing is, if he has an office go down. Ask him where it is, whats next, how long roughyl will that take....then what happens, and how long that will take....and then after that... etc etc.

Hes working for you! If you were a manager or owned your own business would you let your staff act like that? Hes no different.

sockpuppet

A scottish mortgage?
Its exactly the same as an english mortgage, only the property is in Scotland.

The valuations are done beforehand by the seller (but the lender will deal with this)
The land reg search is slightly different (but again the lender deals with this)

So not really much difference in timescales, or so I have always found, BUT Northern Rock is terribly slow at the moment - we have been having a lot of problems lately and having to constantly chase them up, so this could cause a bit of delay but the broker should really be keeping on top of them

Do you have an email address? perhaps the broker could give you regular email updates? Thats what I do with my clients (for general progress updates) Its quick and easy and keeps them in the loop.