Mortgage offer withdrawn 3 hours before completion

j_j_mooney

Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone could give us some advise.

Myself and my brother are in the process of buying myparents house off them. Completion was due on Thursday (05/04/12) at 12.15pm at 9.30am our solicitor got a call from Santander to say they were not happy with the transaction and they were withdrawing the mortgage offer. Obviously we are all devastated as my parents were looking forward to renting and downsizing and being able to enjoy their retirement with some money in the bank and we were excited to own the property we grew up in. My father suffers from Bi-polar and has taken to bed since Thursday, he hasn’t eaten or spoken to anyone and we are so worried. We just want to get this sorted once and for all.

Santander said that they were not happy with the wording on a letter our solicitor sent in relation to the gifted deposit my parents we contributing towards the sale.Basically we bought the house for £200,000.00 my parents were gifting us £50,000 from the sale of the house meaning our mortgage was for £150,000.00. Our mum and dad still owed £76,000.00 on their mortgage leaving them with £74,000.00. We have gotten our solicitors to reword the letter they are disputing and send it again which they have done. Santander have agreed to send it on to their lending team to look at again but it is not looking to promising. Is there anything we can do about this? It was literally 3 hours before completion when they pulled out and we cannot understand why. We have provided them with everything they have asked for so we want to know were we stand. Can we appeal this to any outside bodies?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Many thanks



Jim

getmore4less

Had the solicitor drawn down the money?


Since actual timing is not that critical, as long as the income etc stack up I am sure you will be able to find another lender if Santander don't play ball.

You could probably proceed with the plans anyway, have they found somewhere to rent yet?


Given the bad rep Santander have for just about everything they do not sure why you chose them in the first place.

probably quicker to find another lender than to try nad get the decision overturned by an outside body

Thrugelmir

Where are your parents intending to live after you've bought the property?

maninthestreet

Do actually have the letter sent by your solicitor to Santander that seems to be the bone of contention??

alexjramsay1

Hi

I've used Santander for exactly this scenario in the past, and there are other lenders that will lend for this type of transaction so I wouldn't panic.

It's probably more the case that the solicitor has misworded something that has spooked santander, so hopefully the clarification that has gone across to them will do the job for you...

Alex

Dorastar

We had something similar the day before we were due to complete as our deposit was a gift from family and solicitors suddenly went into red alert mode as the lender suddenly decided they wanted to see the whole 'paper chain' of the money to make sure there was no money laundering involved - they don't like anything out of the ordinary and your situation is not 'ordinary' enough and if the solicitors letter is badly worded it might make it seem 'dodgy' to Santander.

Hope you can work something out but know how stressful this can be.

VfM4meplse

Nightmare but at least it's within the family and presumably you weren't made homeless in the process?

getmore4less

Dorastar wrote: »

We had something similar the day before we were due to complete as our deposit was a gift from family and solicitors suddenly went into red alert mode as the lender suddenly decided they wanted to see the whole 'paper chain' of the money to make sure there was no money laundering involved - they don't like anything out of the ordinary and your situation is not 'ordinary' enough and if the solicitors letter is badly worded it might make it seem 'dodgy' to Santander.

Hope you can work something out but know how stressful this can be.

It's equity in a property there is no money to launder.

getmore4less

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Where are your parents intending to live after you've bought the property?

parents were looking torenting and downsizing and being able to enjoy their retirement with some moneyin the bank

Thrugelmir

getmore4less wrote: »

parents were looking torenting and downsizing and being able to enjoy their retirement with some moneyin the bank

Not remain in the property?

£74k doesn't leave them much to downsize and enjoy retirement with.

Also issues with deprivation of assets in the future.

j_j_mooney

Hi,

Thanks for all your replies.

My parents were planning on moving into a rented bungalow in the same area. But the people they are renting it from are not willing to wait any longer so it looks like they might loose it. Santander were aware from the very start of the application that the gift was from my parents we even had to send a letter to them from my parents stating that they are gifting the money and they do not expecting it back. Santander have said they were not aware but our solictor even showed us the application and it is clearly stated that it is a gifted mortgage. I just can't believe they can do this on us at such a late stage. We are absolutly horrified.

I should have mentioned on Thursday after we heard this news our broker advised us to submit an application to halifax which we did and they have accepted and they haven't even asked for any income details they are now just asking for payment for a surveyor so fingers crossed if santander don't come back with a favourable answer we can go with halifax although i do find it strange they haven't asked for any financial information from us and also there is no record of them checking my credit report.

thanks again everyone