Huge delay in obtaining a mortgage offer

clarkkent76

Hi all,

I'm currently going through the process of buying a property as a first time buyer.

Unfortunately there were some adverse credit cirumstances, but I have been accepted by a lender and, although somewhat loaded, the deal is well within affordability and has no early repayment fee which is perfect as we will be back in the mainstream within 2 years.

However, I can;t believe how slow the process seems to be! I first contacted the broker we are using on April 24th. It then took nearly 6 weeks to get the agreement in principal and send us the full application forms. We have just now reached the point where the valuation has been completed and approved (1 week ago) but are still not in receipt of a mortgage offer.

I don't get the feeling that there's anything wrong as such. The brokerage's standard line is that the lender has a large processing backlog.

What I'm wondering is; Is it normal/usual for this whole process to take nearly 3 months? Is there any standard or regulation that states these things should be dealt with in a reasonable time frame? It seems to me that a lot of people with less flexible circumstances than our own would have had their purchase fall through if made to wait this long for a mortgage offer.

Comments/advice appreciated.

kingstreet

There is no set timescale, just the lender's workload and your (and your broker's) speed in responding to requests for information.

opinions4u

Fastest offer I've ever been involved in was less that 4 hours.

I've had a couple that went over 6 months.

For me the clock starts ticking with submission of application forms. AIP is irrelevant.

Dave_Ham

GE Money are behind at the moment and furthermore your broker may be going through a packager, which tends to add time to the process.

You are too far gone to suggest alternatives, so all you can do is supply any information quickly and stay in communication with your broker.

Into Summer Holidays, I do not expect the speed to get better and in fact quite the opposite.

Good luck