Acceptance chances for Chelsea/Yorkshire Building Society

reallyjammyjam

Hello

I realise this is somewhat a 'how long is a piece of string' question but I thought I might be able to gather some useful info on the above.

We have a 5% deposit so limited with what we can get and the best rates we can find is the Yorkshire and Chelsea Building Society....however.....our worst case scenario is that we might apply, get turned down because they might be very picky and then have a blot on our credit history (in which case we would rather just not bother and go with someone with a slightly higher rate that we have a good chance of acceptance). I have heard of other banks etc. that whilst they say they do 95% mortgages, the actual chance of being accepted is very low.

I can't find anything recent on a google search and was hoping that someone on here might have some recent experiences with these two building societies?
Thanks in advance!

Thrugelmir

What's the blot on the recent landscape?

reallyjammyjam

Oh there isn't any blot on our credit histories currently, as far as we are concerned we both have very good credit histories (I'm just really paranoid and with our 5% deposit I know we aren't the most desirable lenders!)

I meant as in if we applied, and they did a search, got declined, that would show up on our credit profile and then might hinder our chances of applying for another mortgage with someone else.....

jcgalliard

reallyjammyjam wrote: »

Hello

I realise this is somewhat a 'how long is a piece of string' question but I thought I might be able to gather some useful info on the above.

We have a 5% deposit so limited with what we can get and the best rates we can find is the Yorkshire and Chelsea Building Society....however.....our worst case scenario is that we might apply, get turned down because they might be very picky and then have a blot on our credit history (in which case we would rather just not bother and go with someone with a slightly higher rate that we have a good chance of acceptance). I have heard of other banks etc. that whilst they say they do 95% mortgages, the actual chance of being accepted is very low.

I can't find anything recent on a google search and was hoping that someone on here might have some recent experiences with these two building societies?
Thanks in advance!

My own experience:

YBS own Chelsea BS so they process all applications from the same department based in Bradford.

I applied for a 85% LTV mortgage in September this year. I am a FTB (IT professional) full time employed over 5 years. No credit problems ever. 2 credit cards, no loans or hire purchases. Anyway, applied online - they requested relevant docs, payslips, bank statements, ID etc. Paid them the app fee and valuation fee - they carried out valuation and it came back fine.

Everything was going smoothly, until they asked why I was buying a property 100 miles away from where I was currently working - so I explained I was planning on relocating with my current employer (not a new job - just relocating to a different office) - unfortunately for me they thought I was lying despite the fact I produced a confirmation of relocation from my employer and signed a document to reside. They cancelled my application.

As I had already paid the solicitor to carry out searches on the property I was buying and I obviously needed a place to live in when I moved closer to my new job location, I applied direct with the Leeds BS in the exact way I did with the Yorkshire BS - and they accepted and offered me the mortgage.

I have since wrote a letter of complaint to Yorkshire BS who have refunded my application and valuation fee as I threatened to take my complaint to the Ombudsman. They have yet to give me an explanation as to they came to the conclusion I was not planning to live at the property I was looking to mortgage.

This is just my own personal experience - maybe different for you.

I would not recommend Yorkshire BS or any of there sister companies as some reviews I have read from other websites suggest they are extremely picky and have a high decline rate based on there lets just say unorthodox lending criteria.

reallyjammyjam

I just wrote a reply and my laptop decided to wipe it!

But in essence, it was thanks! Interesting to know someone's recent experience and seems to tie in with the (allbeit old) reviews I have read about not completely straight foward applications (although I am not sure why yours was a problem). Also didn't know that YBS and Chelsea were linked

Thrugelmir

reallyjammyjam wrote: »

Oh there isn't any blot on our credit histories currently, as far as we are concerned we both have very good credit histories (I'm just really paranoid and with our 5% deposit I know we aren't the most desirable lenders!)

I meant as in if we applied, and they did a search, got declined, that would show up on our credit profile and then might hinder our chances of applying for another mortgage with someone else.....

Underwriting at the 95% LTV level is stringent across all lenders.

What you'd expect really given the potential risk involved.

FreezingWarm

jcgalliard wrote: »

My own experience:

YBS own Chelsea BS so they process all applications from the same department based in Bradford.

I applied for a 85% LTV mortgage in September this year. I am a FTB (IT professional) full time employed over 5 years. No credit problems ever. 2 credit cards, no loans or hire purchases. Anyway, applied online - they requested relevant docs, payslips, bank statements, ID etc. Paid them the app fee and valuation fee - they carried out valuation and it came back fine.

Everything was going smoothly, until they asked why I was buying a property 100 miles away from where I was currently working - so I explained I was planning on relocating with my current employer (not a new job - just relocating to a different office) - unfortunately for me they thought I was lying despite the fact I produced a confirmation of relocation from my employer and signed a document to reside. They cancelled my application.

As I had already paid the solicitor to carry out searches on the property I was buying and I obviously needed a place to live in when I moved closer to my new job location, I applied direct with the Leeds BS in the exact way I did with the Yorkshire BS - and they accepted and offered me the mortgage.

I have since wrote a letter of complaint to Yorkshire BS who have refunded my application and valuation fee as I threatened to take my complaint to the Ombudsman. They have yet to give me an explanation as to they came to the conclusion I was not planning to live at the property I was looking to mortgage.

This is just my own personal experience - maybe different for you.

I would not recommend Yorkshire BS or any of there sister companies as some reviews I have read from other websites suggest they are extremely picky and have a high decline rate based on there lets just say unorthodox lending criteria.

Thanks for the feedback on YBS. Sorry to hear about such a poor experience with YBS.

How soon after the valuation did they decline? I've had a survey done within the last week, but now getting nervous..The AIP has been accepted, and bank statements/Wage Slips have been okay'd.

:embarasse:

jcgalliard

FreezingWarm wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback on YBS. Sorry to hear about such a poor experience with YBS.

How soon after the valuation did they decline? I've had a survey done within the last week, but now getting nervous..The AIP has been accepted, and bank statements/Wage Slips have been okay'd.

:embarasse:

Around 1 week after valuation.

drdpj

FreezingWarm wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback on YBS. Sorry to hear about such a poor experience with YBS.

How soon after the valuation did they decline? I've had a survey done within the last week, but now getting nervous..The AIP has been accepted, and bank statements/Wage Slips have been okay'd.

:embarasse:

Just remember the decline was based on them thinking the house was too far away from the workplace for it to be a residence, if you're not in that situation there's no reason to think the same will happen to you (apples/oranges etc).

Jones01

Just wanted to ask if FreezingWarm & reallyjammyjam had any luck with Chelsea/YBS? I'm tempted by their low 5 yr fix and they seem to be offering a little more in terms of lending (at least from their online calculator) but I'm nervous about applying and being declined for my remortgage. I will have paid off any remaining debt I have by the remortgage but just worried about not getting the amount I want because of low income (original mortgage was joint but now applying in my name alone). Any ideas if they actually do offer the amount the calculator suggests?
Thanks

james_09

I have just switched my mortgage to YBS. It took over 3 months to get approved and was an absolute nightmare. The so called "mortgage advisers" you deal with at their branches are useless, they can't make any decisions without running past head office which usually takes days to get an answer. I would often call in office hours to get the answer phone or someone who could not help be but promised to call back and never did.

The main issue for me (although there were various other problems) was I had just recently bought a small percentage (5%) of the firm I have been working at for the last 10 years. Their system immediately classed me as self employed and refused to count any income prior to me buying in. This is despite my salary remaining the same, plus additional income in the form of dividends.

No matter what I sent them (including various letters from my firm stating I had worked there continuously for 10 years and that my salary was still fixed) it made no difference. They classed me as newly self employed having only worked for 3 months!

In the end they would only count £6k of my total income towards the mortgage. Luckily my wife's employed income was high enough to borrow the rest.

I think it's probably fine if your circumstances are very straight forward.