Why the backlog on application processing?

fimonkey

Britannia currently have about a 4 day backlog on their underwriting part of mortgage applications, and I read on other forums that other banks/BS are also being slow to process.

Britannia tell me this is due to an increase in applications and they are working overtime to resolve it.

So next month we will see a reported massive increase in mortgage application figures then? Or is there only one person now working in these departments?

Just wondered why the backlog when generally speaking the housing market (London excepted) is stagnant?

The_J

Remortgages maybe? Not dependent on house sales.

Dave_Ham

4 days is good considering some of the rubbish I am seeing lately.

The issue remains which banks (if any) have a true appetite to lend at the moment.

Since many have tightened their criteria further on all sorts of policies including interest only and in particular credit scoring with adverse in the 3-6 year bracket.

Previously, many of the bigger lenders would accept these with a decent recent credit history although they then pulled the plug.

It means more applications going into small building soceities that cannot cope.

More specific to your issue is that HSBC & First Direct (market leading rates) decided they were bored to just lending to straightforward cases and now want the top tier of the population only.. This has pushed more business to Co-Op, Britannia, Post Office and Leeds BS directly which has pushed their service times backward.

Hopefully all lenders will seriously re-enter the market soon and this may prevent the underlying rates continuing to increase as is current state of play..

Well - you did ask and just my pennies worth...

fimonkey

Cheers, lots more going on behind the scenes than I realised then! No wonder some vendors are preferring cash buyers at the moment.

fimonkey

Dave_Ham wrote: »

More specific to your issue is that HSBC & First Direct (market leading rates) decided they were bored to just lending to straightforward cases and now want the top tier of the population only.. This has pushed more business to Co-Op, Britannia, Post Office and Leeds BS directly which has pushed their service times backward.
.

Reading between the lines here are you saying that Banks =V hard to get mortgage from unless your spotless. HSBC and FD, second hardest, Co-op, Britannia, PO and Leeds = more chance of getting a mortgage?

I know it is all about personal situations, I am probably thinking of the 90%LTV market for FTB's in the above.

Or have I just got 5 from 2+2?

gazfocus

I'd say HSBC and FD = Hardest, Banks = second hardest, building societies = flexible.

We too are suffering because of our chosen building society taking a couple of days to process each document we send them and every time they request a new document, it's another 3 days or so added onto the wait....fed up of the sleepless nights now!!

Dave_Ham

Gaz is on the money. Essentially HSBC/First Direct are hard work and this has heaped pressure on the next tier (names previously) who have the next best rates and harsh but not impossible criteria.

All the rest are in with the BS's which is why clients like Gaz are waiting weeks as they do not have the infrastructure to deal with this weight of applications..

Thrugelmir

fimonkey wrote: »

Britannia currently have about a 4 day backlog on their underwriting part of mortgage applications, and I read on other forums that other banks/BS are also being slow to process.

All lenders have target amounts that they wish to lend in any given period for a particular product. So at times they won't be in a rush to offer mortgages.

fimonkey

Well after a daily phone call from me I got my offer today, whoo hoo (by text, not seen the paper version yet so not sure if there are conditions).

So from application to offer = 4 weeks exactly which I am led to believe is actually quite good? There were delays with various things not been passed on (Drains report to the mortgage company to the valuer to the surveyor and back again, missing employer references which I then faxed and sent registered post etc).

Fingers crossed for the rest of the process.

skierskier12

Dave_Ham wrote: »

4 days is good considering some of the rubbish I am seeing lately.

The issue remains which banks (if any) have a true appetite to lend at the moment.

Since many have tightened their criteria further on all sorts of policies including interest only and in particular credit scoring with adverse in the 3-6 year bracket.

Previously, many of the bigger lenders would accept these with a decent recent credit history although they then pulled the plug.

It means more applications going into small building soceities that cannot cope.

More specific to your issue is that HSBC & First Direct (market leading rates) decided they were bored to just lending to straightforward cases and now want the top tier of the population only.. This has pushed more business to Co-Op, Britannia, Post Office and Leeds BS directly which has pushed their service times backward.

Hopefully all lenders will seriously re-enter the market soon and this may prevent the underlying rates continuing to increase as is current state of play..

Well - you did ask and just my pennies worth...

Thank you for this, as I have received my mortgage offer from Nationwide, the whole process took barely 5 weeks and I was asked for no additional documents following the valuation of the property I am buying. However, my buyer is still waiting for his offer, even though his application went in a good ten days before mine with another BS. 7 weeks into the process, 3 weeks after the valuation of the house I am selling to hi, no sign of any offer, documents were requested but were sent to underwriters instead of the lender, and have since Tuesday been reunited with the lender. Buyer told that there is a 72 hour turnaround on post, so now the application won't be looked at until Monday at the earliest, this is too bad, as I am wondering how long it will take them to issue the offer, considering everything else is there now ( he did ask apparently ) including a positive satisfactory valuation.
I find your explanation of what is going on interesting and helpful, I do hope all is sorted soon though as getting anxious !!! Thanks for your input anyhow :-):rotfl: