Abbey - Mortgage/Slow Problems

AJS33

Dear All

My partner and i have applied for a mortgage the company who came out with the best deal via our financial advisor was Abbey. The FA did the sums and concluded that we could easily afford the house we have offered on, yet Abbey just seem to be taking so long to approve the mortgage. 4 weeks so far, which i know a lot of people will think is not long, but when you can't move forward in the house buy as you don't technically have a mortgage then it is for ever. They keep asking for info they already have been given and then we end up going to the bottom of the underwriters pile.

Obviously i am becoming very angry and upset, has anyone had any similar problems with them, is there anyway to escalate to move things along, does anyone work there and can give me some insider info to help hurry this up..

Thanks

A

_Andy_

What is your broker doing to move things along?

kuyan

Not that it helps but we experiencing similar with the West Bromwich Building Society which they put down to being very busy. I think we are 6 weeks in to this waiting in a backlog of applications to be processed. Like you we supplied extra information which seems to push you to the back of queue. Grrrr...

Good luck!

Thrugelmir

Since the crash of 2008, the number of lenders in the market has fallen by a third. Allied to this many lenders are advancing less money.
Go back to the days when Building Societies provided the majority of funding, and waiting for a mortgage was not uncommon. This was at a time when saving with the lender was a pre-requisite.

Santander (Abbey) may well be giving preference to existing borrowers first. Turning up at the door and demanding instant service simply doesn't cut any ice.

AJS33

The broker is calling them everyday, but they won't put him through to the underwriter and say he has to put any further info via the computer?? They keep asking for more info.

Does anyone know any ways to spend this up, people to contact. Would it help/hinder if i tried to speak to the underwriter or someone in that department??? I don't want to mess anything up, but i also feel very out of control and what to do something.

When i got my first mortgage it was never this this difficult.

are there any mortgage advisors or people who work at Abbey who could give me some advice?

AJS33

Just to update, my Partner currently has two mortgages with Santander, so would hope that we would be given a bit of priority as they have made enough money out of him already!!!

1 property is rented and the other is in the process of being sold, so customer loyalty stands for nothing in this world?

Thrugelmir

AJS33 wrote: »

1 property is rented and the other is in the process of being sold, so customer loyalty stands for nothing in this world?

Santander are reviewing their entire mortgage book, and are actively discouraging renewal business from existing customers. Santander are targeting the business lending market rather than the consumer one. As margins are far better.

Banks subsidised mortgages through the sale of products such as PPI. Era of quick and easy to obtain mortgages may well be drawing to a close.

AJS33

i think i am learning the hard way. I am just so worried that with all these delay in just reading the paperwork and actually just saying yes or no to the mortgage we are going to lose the dream house we want.

i wish if they were going to say No they would hurry up and just say it, instead of hanging us for 4 weeks....

The word frustration does not even come close.

javorb

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Santander are reviewing their entire mortgage book, and are actively discouraging renewal business from existing customers. Santander are targeting the business lending market rather than the consumer one. As margins are far better.

Banks subsidised mortgages through the sale of products such as PPI. Era of quick and easy to obtain mortgages may well be drawing to a close.

you are spot on we waited nearly 4 weeks for a valuation with santander to remortgage only to be told they would not do our application ,we were told off record that they are not interested in remortgaging ,preference to first time buyers with 95%ltv backed by the goverment !

gazter

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Santander are reviewing their entire mortgage book, and are actively discouraging renewal business from existing customers. Santander are targeting the business lending market rather than the consumer one. As margins are far better.

Banks subsidised mortgages through the sale of products such as PPI. Era of quick and easy to obtain mortgages may well be drawing to a close.

If thats the case why do they still offer pretty good, attractive rates and decent multipliers?

Thrugelmir

gazter wrote: »

If thats the case why do they still offer pretty good, attractive rates and decent multipliers?

To their target customer market, yes. Like all lenders Santander is being more selective. As underwriting criteria has become tougher.

Perhaps if I put the change in the mortgage market into perspective it would help you understand better. In 2008 Lloyds and HBOS's combined gross mortgage lending was £78 billion pounds. Last year, 2012, it was £11 billion. A fall of 85%.

So lenders are still lending. But have scaled back on their levels of activity. So employ fewer staff. Envitably leading to processing delays when application levels are high.