Escaping the clutches of an accepted mortgage offer to a better one?

squeakybadger

Hi,

I have a mortgage offer with hsbc that is interest only, and everything is setup and ready to buy a house (reposession, which has taken around 6 months so far). However, I have had a look around and found a much better one with the halifax.

Will it be wise to change the mortgage over to the halifax at this late stage in the game? and if so, what sort of fees/penalties can i expect from hsbc when cancelling?

Thanks

-j

MortgageMamma

I dont know what HSBC#s policy is on refunding arrangement fee's or deducting them if you pull out last minute

I think unless there is a substantial saving to be made you would be foolish to do this at this stage, especially since its took you six months to get where you are - you would have to fork out for another survey for a start and there is no guarantee halifax would accept you.

silvercar

If the surveyor is on halifax's panel, they could rewrite the survey valuation for a fee of about £40. All fees paid to HSBC would probably be lost, so I guess it depends how high the Halifax fees are compared to the saving you make.

Also consider how near to exchange you are, Halifax could take a few weeks to process your application. If the HSBC has no early redempton fees you could wait til after completion before looking around for a new deal.

squeakybadger

Thanks for the replies.

What has taken so long is that the seller is having his house sold as part of a repossession, and this seems to have taken quite some time to sort out.

My hsbc mortgage expired last friday (only valid for 6 months), i asked for a longer extension, but they could only give me 2 weeks longer.

The occuupant in the house has said he will vacate at the end of the month, but i have no guarantees of this, which is why I am looking for a new mortgage (and in essense, a whole new 6 months of 'in case this happens...')

Halifax have said they can be ready for my completion in 2-3 weeks, due to al l the searches etc being done. Unfortunately it looks like I will have to pay for a new survey to be carried out on the house, but the benefits of the new mortgage outweigh this little inconveniance.

silvercar

HSBC are now advertising in the paper zero fee deals, no arrangement fees, no exit fees etc etc so it may be worth reapplying to them.