Clydesdale and London & Country - an ongoing tale of delays and miscommunications

MikePJ

A warning to fellow mortgage applicants: Clydesdale Bank are possibly the slowest, least efficient and most incompetent institution I've had to deal with in a long, long time.

So, the back story: my partner and I have moved to Oxford recently - change of job forced a change of town. My firm will pay me relocation expenses (up to £8k, the tax-free limit) so we decided to sell our house in Cambridge and buy a new place in Oxford.

We are arranging our mortgage through London & Country. Their sales staff are extremely helpful, return calls quickly and generally seem to be on the ball. The best rate that we could obtain was with Clydesdale Bank, and as soon as they came into the loop the whole process became unfeasibly slow. To cut a long story short, we made an offer on a house on January 30th this year, and are still waiting for Clydesdale to give us the mortgage offer. Two weeks delay was caused by a schoolboy error on my part (insufficient postage on a pack of documents - Royal Mail hung onto the package for two weeks while the fees were paid), but all the rest has been waiting for Clydesdale to make decisions. The frustrating part is that every week we think we're nearly there, and every week they come up with another precondition.

From initial application to valuation survey took two months. A further month's delay has been added because the original survey recommended a damp and timber survey, but it wasn't made clear to me that the bank would require this as a precondition of the mortgage until at least a week later. The damp-and-timber survey was sent to them on Tuesday of last week. Friday the brokers called and Clydesdale's "computers were down". Today we've been told that they've managed to inadvertantly mark our application as "lapsed" and so it's dropped off their system altogether. I'm promised that it will be reinstated tomorrow, but I'll believe that when I see it. All the while we're getting threats from the vendor's agent about pulling out of the deal, which doesn't help.

Anyway, words of advice for other people:

1) Clydesdale are useless, don't touch them with a bargepole.
2) London & Country's case managers have a high workload and often don't return calls, etc - leaving you in the dark as to what's going on. I'm not convinced that I'd use them again.
3) Most mortgage lenders now insist that you work out your probationary period on your contract before they'll lend to you - this makes it very difficult to buy a new house if you change job and move to a new location. I managed to persuade my employers to drop this clause from my contract, but this may not be an option for you.

The_J

Clydesdale are poor, would it help if I told you they used to be much worse? I swear, they have spent a lot on improving their systems :rotfl:

There's little excuse for poor customer service post application although I expect they share your frustration at being delayed at every opportunity.

Finally most lenders are OK with probationary periods now, used to be a bigger problem but if you're staying in the same field they should be fine with it.

Good luck getting it sorted.

MikePJ

The J: thanks! I suspect their staff morale's not that great at the moment, either.

Dave_Ham

Grim all round - L & C should have known better - their deal was not that good and you would have had similar alternative options..

Fingers crossed you get it sorted soon....

MikePJ

Dave: we were led to believe that a lot of lenders wouldn't look at us for a variety of reasons - and this was certainly true when I tried a few of the non-broker lenders and got Computer Says No answers.

Complicating factors (real or imagined!):
- both having started new jobs: in fact, we were applying for the mortgage before my new job had officially started - I had a job offer and had to wait for the contract.
- my partner is an NHS doctor at the end of his training. This means that he's changed employers every 6-8 months for the last 5 years! Doesn't look good when banks want to see a steady job.
- I'd held my previous job for only 11 months, before that I was a contractor and before that a PhD student.
- He's also not a British citizen, but does have permanent leave to remain. - His present contract runs only for another 2.5 years.
- We're not (yet) in a CP, either.

Dave_Ham

Not sure if too early for me, although not sure what CP is int his context?

You are correct; some of these will be contributing factors although I personally am surprised still with their selection.

Given you are relocating for work needs and a contract start date, I would imagine speed of progression would have been quite a critical factor and we are well aware Clydesdale are struggling..

Push L&C harder, as they have significant sway with some of these lenders and therefore can choose to push harder if they want.

Good luck

MikePJ

Dave Ham: thanks - sorry, should have made myself clearer: civil partnership.

We'd already made the decision to rent for 6 months in order to smooth the transition, as it wasn't possible to commute from the old house, so we're not in any danger of homelessness. But had we known it would take this long we'd have completed the sale of the old house and moved our remaining stuff to store long before we actually did - because every week we thought something was going to happen!

Oh well, thanks for the advice. I do wonder how other people manage all this if they can't take time out during the working day to hassle banks, brokers, estate agents, solicitors, surveyors etc. Fortunately my boss is fairly understanding.

Dave_Ham

Thanks - I hear you on this point, the house buying/selling process is broken and I dare say it is now the most stressful thing..

My only advice would be to surround yourself with the best people to try and protect you; mortgage broker, solicitor and although recognise the irony on this the best estate agent you can find...


Good luck

betmunch

I had a nightmare case with Clydesdale, they wouldnt do anything for me.

In the end client lodged a formal complaint with their customer facing staff. All of a sudden they couldnt do enough to sort things out.

If I was you I would try this, especially poinent if L&C arnt helping you.

MikePJ

betmunch: I'm in the process of complaining via their second-line complaints address. L&C are supposed to be chasing them up today, we'll see what happens.

Dave Ham: thanks - so far we've done well with our solicitor and I can't speak highly enough of the agent we sold the house with in Cambridge. Unfortunately, the agency in Oxford (with whom, ironically, we are both renting the temporary flat and trying to buy the house) are both incompetent and unpleasant to deal with. I fully intend dragging them through the complaints process as soon as I no longer need to keep them sweet.

harvey115

Clydesdale?

I have recently spoken to a broker and they recommended Clydesdale for my specific circumstances. Should I not go for this deal?

- I am a contractor
- Accounts only available for the last year
- Been on the same job for the last 19 months with another 5 to go on my current 6 months extension
- Interested in Offset mortgage

Sorry to insert my situation in the thread, thought it is relevant.