totally confused...

sarah759365

hoping someone can advise.

To cut a long story short, my partner is in the process of buying a house. I am not on the application because I had a £45 default on a mobile bill last year. Despite him having an 'excellent' credit rating the financial association (shared utility bill) meant that he was declined by 3 seperate lendors when applying. He applied for both new buy 5% deposits and 10% deposit schemes with Halifax.

The Halifax then said that they would be willing to lend, but only with a 15% deposit. Through borrowing the extra money we got to 15%. After we had recieved the offer in principle we paid for the valuation survey.

Our broker called on Monday to say the survey had been done and approved and we would recieve the full offer shortly. However on Tuesday Halifax came back and said they don't currently have a 15% arrangement with our developer??

I don't understand as they have a new buy relationshop with them and were willing to do 5% up until he failed credit check because of my record?

Horseunderwater

Have you tried using London and country Mortgage brokers. Part of motley fool group. They can do a much more comprehensive search than high street ones and can usually get you a very good deal.

kingstreet

Halifax newbuild maximum loan is normally 80% unless it's part of a special scheme via a particular developer/broker, like Newbuy.

They may not permit above standard lending outside Newbuy though.

sarah759365

thanks Kingstreet but why would they have given us an offer in principle and surveyed the property if they didn't have an agreement in place?

kingstreet

Not a question I can answer, I'm afraid.

One you need to put to whoever is advising you and perhaps for them to put to Halifax?

bigadaj

The OP states that the 15% deposit was achieved through additional borrowing, this is not something the lender would allow or condone, the deposit has to be equity, savings or gift without reservation.

kingstreet

bigadaj wrote: »

The OP states that the 15% deposit was achieved through additional borrowing, this is not something the lender would allow or condone, the deposit has to be equity, savings or gift without reservation.

Possibly. But we don't actually know if Halifax know that. The OP is saying the reason was due to the relationship between the developer and lender. It would appear arbitrary for the broker to have negotiated a new arrangement which Halifax, after spending the applicant's valuation fee.

I suspect the broker has played around with the figures, got an "accept" at 85% and assumed it would be acceptable to Halifax, without actually checking with them that the property/developer would be acceptable.

It may well have "hit the fan" later, with the borrowed deposit.

sarah759365

the additional borrowing was from a family member so it didn't alter our financial commitments

The broker has now come back to us and said that his contact at Halifax assured him that they did have a 85% LTV agreement with the developer but they are now saying they do not and they will only lend based on their standard new build criteria of 20% deposit.

Halifax have said that as we were misadvised we will get a refund for the valuation costs.

It looks like the whole purchase will now fall through as my partners credit rating has gone from excellent to fair due to all the searches that have been done on him through the process. Completely gutted and very angry by all the incorrect advice we've had from our broker. This is now the 3rd deal that has fallen through after he's assured us that everything would be fine.

droiderm

Sounds like you need a new broker.
Is it a flat or a house ?

Thrugelmir

sarah759365 wrote: »

The broker has now come back to us and said that his contact at Halifax assured him that they did have a 85% LTV agreement with the developer but they are now saying they do not and they will only lend based on their standard new build criteria of 20% deposit.

I doubt that the contact has any influence when it comes down to making a lending decision.

sarah759365

it's a house. We were also told that the minimum of 20% deposit for a new build only applied to flats, but apparently not.

I now don't think we'll be able to get a mortgage at all now that credit ratings have been destroyed.