Mortgage Hell

KingWoollard

I will try and cut this very long story short. My GF and I have been trying to buy a newbuild shared ownership property since May and it is proving to be an absolute nightmare. We are now on a 2nd failed mortgage and are wondering whether to call it quits or if its worth trying a 3rd.

The house is a 3 bed semi in a nice small village near Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire. Agreed sale price of £149,000, so £74,500 for our share. We have a 10% deposit sat in the bank so are looking to borrow £67,050. Household income of circa £45k between us, both good credit ratings with very little debt.

We have used a specialist shared ownership broker who original put us forward for a Co-op mortgage. All seemed well initially until Co-op deciding they did not like how I get paid (small salary, rest in dividend - I am not self employed however). They would not include me whatsoever on the mortgage and would not use my GF as she has moved job (within the same company!) in the last 6 months. They refused to listen on any of this including an offer from our company accountant to explain how I get paid. Ridiculous but we moved on...

We were then put onto a Leeds Building Society mortgage (at a much higher rate I might add!). Again all going well until they've done the valuation, which has come in at £135,000, a massive 10% difference meaning they will only lend us £60,750. The housing association have refused to move on price as they have SOLD next door for £149,000. There are also plenty of similar properties on a development just round the corner for £182,000.

Armed with this info I have today gone back to LBS to challenge the valuation and apparently it is company policy to not challenge valuations. So, despite 2 other surveyors valuing the houses at £149,000 and similar comparable's nearby including a few that have sold within the last 3 months, LBS are refusing to take another look and have instead just swallowed the £200 they have taken from us so far, for nowt.

Firstly, do I have grounds to complain about LBS and their stance? And secondly do you think it is worth trying to find another lender, given the problems so far?

It's been an absolute pain so far, the whole house buying process really needs looking at.

kingstreet

At 90% you will struggle to get anyone to lend on newbuild shared ownership. You've exhausted Leeds BS and TBH I had no idea Co-Op would even look at such cases. They don't come up on my sourcing report, with direct products switched on.

It may be worth a ring around the smaller building societies nearby to see if any of them can help. It's what I'm doing with my current case which sounds similar to yours, except my client is on a fixed term contract from Sunday this week.

http://www.bsa.org.uk/aboutus/buildsocmember.htm

ACG

I used to work for co-op mortgages, they do do these schemes but only with certain providers.

Also their stance is 6 months in employment.

As for your income, im a little surprised as they do usually take a common sense approach if you can understand things. I used to speak to the underwriters daily and they were always really helpful...i would go as far as to say if theyre declining it then there will be a valid reason for it, theyre not doing it just to be awkward.