Mortgage application taking forever....

Clearlier

It's a bit of a long shot but wondering if anyone has any insight as to what might be happening here and what if anything we might do about it.

We agreed to purchase a property and got the mortgage application in through a mortgage broker to Nationwide by the end of March. The valuation was done a few days later and the lender requires a structural engineers report (we don't think it's necessary, we had a separate survey done but we're not engineers and if this were to pick up a problem then it will have saved us). On our brokers advice we've agreed to commission the survey as soon as the lender has said that they will give us the mortgage subject to the structural engineers report.

They have since asked for extra documentation including a bank statement that we have received since we made the application (we've also sent them another one that we've received since then). We've responded to all requests for documents within 24 hours. The latest is that they have never heard of childcare vouchers and have written to my wife's employer asking what these are but they seem unable/unwilling to tell us who they have written to. I can't believe that they don't know what childcare vouchers are and I can't believe that they're bringing this up more than 6 weeks after they received the application that included this information.

At this stage our vendors are getting fed up and are making noises about putting the property back on the market. Our mortgage broker is calling Nationwide daily and can't understand what's taking them.

If it's relevant the mortgage is 80% LTV on a 5 year fix.

Is there anything constructive that we can do? Is there something obvious that I'm missing that's going on here?

ACG

Dont worry about the sellers too much, the estate agents do this to push a sale through quicker - there is nothing you can do to speed it up, so if theyre unwilling to wait then it will take them longer to re-list the property, get a seller and sell the property quicker than you probably can as any new lender would have to do a valuation and then a structural one too most likely.

Its a buyers market now not a sellers.

Clearlier

Thanks ACG - to be fair the EA said that we should have a few weeks even if the vendors insist on relisting it however we're also beginning to get concerned about it in respect of our own timelines as we were served notice to vacate our rented property.

They have had the application for approximately 2 months now and there's no indication that they're going to come to a decision any time soon. If there's nothing we can do, then there's nothing we can do but I thought it was worth checking here just in case..

Credit-Crunched

Wow not knowing what childcare vouchers are? That is scary!

Next they will be asking what this PAYE deduction is on your payslip!

Did you go through a broker? If so get them to chase they generally have the right contacts, if no joy write a letter of complaint, make a noise.

The_J

Nationwide certainly do know what childcare vouchers are and they will treat them as a commitment, your broker should know this.

paulmapp8306

Im in a similar boat.

Submitted the full app 2 weeks ago, on Thursday. Got a call on Monday saying they wanted proof of rent being paid. Thats not bad - 3 days from submitting the app, although it was on the initial paperwork that rent was deducted at source (forces accommodation) and shown on my payslips !!!!!

ANYWAY, my mortgage advisor rang them on the Friday, and they said "were 4-5 days from getting paperwork/information until looking at the app". SO - they should have looked at it Friday latest. Mortgage advidsor rang yesterday and they said "yes we can see we have the information re rent - and can now escalate the app". My advisor got a bit angry by all accounts. She said "it should have been esculated 8 days ago when you got the info !!!!". apparently they are going to look at it today. Meanwhile my sellers are getting itchy feet - they have an accepted offer on another property with no chain, and as were FTBs the whole thing should move quickly ......Once the lenders get their ar*e into gear.

Clearlier

The_J wrote: »

Nationwide certainly do know what childcare vouchers are and they will treat them as a commitment, your broker should know this.

Well I did say that I can't believe that they don't know what childcare vouchers are and I don't believe that our broker does either which leaves me wondering what they are playing at. I have asked our broker to confirm with them that once they get a satisfactory answer on the childcare vouchers that they'll approve the application subject to the structural engineers report. I can't think of anything else I can do that might help.

paulmapp8306

sorry - my timescale is decidedly short compared to yours !!!! Still, it seems lenders are just dragging their feet at present

Clearlier

So far as we can determine no letter was actually sent requesting the information so we got them to fax the request and had it turned around within a couple of hours.

Unfortunately the EA has now phoned to say that he has been instructed to put the property back on the market. I'll be seriously unhappy if we lose this because of these delays.

Thrugelmir

Maybe your reluctance to pay for a structural report is back firing. You don't want to spend the money but are happy for the NW to potentially waste theirs.

Just a thought.

Clearlier

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Maybe your reluctance to pay for a structural report is back firing. You don't want to spend the money but are happy for the NW to potentially waste theirs.

Just a thought.

I hadn't considered that possibility. That would leave us in something of a Mexican standoff then as at this stage having taken so long and given (what seem to us) spurious reasons for the delay we no longer trust them to behave seriously.

In truth I got the impression that this was a fairly routine approach to take given the sum of money involved. They have seen that we've paid for a homebuyers survey as we gave them a copy of the report when their valuer came back with his report. They aren't however directly aware of the legal costs that we have incurred. I'll suggest to the broker that he mention the legal fees that we have incurred and that we can provide evidence of these. It's not perhaps the strongest argument but I'm not sure that going ahead and paying for the structural engineer would be a particularly sensible thing to do right now.

Thanks for the thought.