Accord Mortgages, yay or nay?

sadiebobs

Hi there!

My partner and I have just applied for FTB mortgage and have decided to go with Accord Mortgages. However we are now hearing some horror stories.....does anyone have any experience of them?

Thanks!

Let_Us_See

Hi. Did you not complete an Application in Principle? You do not mention the LTV, if it is high then Accord applies fairly strict criteria - especially at 90% LTV.

sadiebobs

Hi there, we are in process of AIP, looking at 15% deposit, combined salarys £60k, partner has squeaky clean credit report, I have had one late payment (2009) in 6 years. No credit card debts, the only debt we have is £8k car loan.

confused_kid

No personal experience with Accord, but close family had an application which took forever for Accord to decide. When I say forever I don't mean literally. I think from initial application it was 6 weeks and counting, by which time they applied to first direct and got a valuation/offer back...and still not heard back from Accord.

May just be a one-off however...I think they were looking at their offset and were approx 60-70 LTV

Let_Us_See

Obviously any lender will deduct the cost of car loan from income for mortgage purposes, and late payment should be fine as Accord accepts none in last 24 months.

How did you complete the AIP as the result should almost be instant? Fingers crossed.

sadiebobs

We have a key illustrated facts so far, but no AIP. The mortgage broker visit us at home so assuming we will have to wait for AIP.

midget_1907

I have a mortgage with accord - took out about 3/4 years ago but we had no troubles at the time - took about 2 weeks to get the offer through the post.

Find them very helpful - after we had applied for the mortgage there was a long delay in securing the flat and accord offered to extend our mortgage offer beyond the initial 6 months.

The only thing to be wary of is they can have high standard variable rates. That could have been down to our LTV ratio though as at the time this was only 75%

mizzrai

Got my mortgage broker to sort the mortgage out, as it's a minefield on what to choose.
He recommended from his search results Accord Mortgages, a subsidiary of Yorkshire Building Society, so I though okay, if its got to do with YBS it must be okay.

My offer etc was accepted on first week of May. Got my solicitors etc lined up and paid for search fees etc.
Did the mortgage application on 21st May. Broker said I'd have no problems getting a mortgage. I have 25% deposit I'm putting done.
It's now been 4 weeks. Each week my broker comes to me asking for more information, bits and pieces which in effect are not required or previously supplied. It's kind of dragging.
They took money for applicaton processing fee, valuation and homebuyer survey from my account 2 weeks ago. I'm yet to see this. That's 500.00 already gone.
On reviewcentre, have read quite alot of negative reviews, where peoples houses almost fell through, but they changed provider and it was okay.
I certainly dont want the sale to fall through, so unsure what to do, as it seems to be dragging.
My broker assures me, he'll sort it out, but I'm still left worried until I have it in writing.

Just wondering what I should do really.... My options?
Any advice?
Surely you would think that Accord mortgages being related to YBS, would mean they are good and reputable, but my gut instincts tell me otherwise.....

amnblog

Accord Mortgages are reputable but that does not necessarily mean each case is handled efficiently, nor that your broker is efficient.

A few simple rules

1. Supply every thing requested by your broker exactly as requested, as soon as you can

2. Have a agreement as to when you will receive each update

3. Have an agreement that your broker will let you know if the lender is letting him/her down

4. No false promises

5. Honesty from everyone

kingstreet

mizzrai wrote: »

Surely you would think that Accord mortgages being related to YBS, would mean they are good and reputable, but my gut instincts tell me otherwise.....

... or simply unable to cope with the high volumes of business they are trying to process because they have decent rates.

Often, when it comes down to it, when given a choice, the average borrower will choose cost over service, but then appears unhappy with that decision when a month has gone by and there's no offer forthcoming.

We make it clear to those applying to the likes of Skipton and Leeds you'll typically wait three weeks to a month for an offer. We rarely use Accord.

amnblog

Sometimes I tell the client that if we go with "X" lender there will be a point where they cannot understand why it taking so long and I will have to remind them of this conversation.