Natwest Random Audit - Post Offer!!!

Barry_R_2

Hi all, I am having a hugely stressful time trying to get a mortgage with Natwest. I had an AIP with them and am completely chain free. I found a property at the end of Feb and had an offer accepted. The seller has a very progressed deal agreed on a chain free property and is wanting to move very fast - my position was one of the attractive factors of my offer.

I therefore applied for a mortgage on the property with Natwest on 25th Feb. Since then, I have jumped through various hoops, sending them duplicate information over and over again, waiting 5 days for them to ask a question, then 5 days for them to look at my response, before asking another question! It has been hell. I was put under extreme pressure by the seller to move faster and even had to take the risk of instructing the valuation survey before Natwest actually offered me the mortgage! Finally on the 15th May, over 11 weeks after applying, they formally offered me the mortgage. I then instructed all of my legal searches etc.

3 weeks later and we are looking to exchange contracts at the end of this week. At least we were until Natwest wrote to me to say that my application has been randomly chosen for an audit and was being returned to the underwriters!!! The formal offer has been withdrawn until they complete that. They have written to me asking for consent to contact HMRC along with a raft of other questions! My seller is going to flip his lid! They are unable to advise on a timescale but I suspect its going to be weeks at they will take 5 days to look at signed consent forms, 5 days to contact HMRC, 5 days to look at their response etc etc...

How can they do this post formal offer?! Has anybody experienced this before? I've been completely upfront and accurate with everything so I'm not overly concerned about something dodgy being unearthed, it's just the timescale that is killing me and the fact that seller quite rightly feels as though he's being messed around.

TMSL

It doesn't sound very random is there anything unusual in your circumstances or situation that may have triggered this.

Barry_R_2

TMSL wrote: »

It doesn't sound very random is there anything unusual in your circumstances or situation that may have triggered this.

Nothing that I can think of. I have spoken with Natwest and asked why this was happening (in a manner not as polite as that) and was basically told that I was unlucky as the process for selecting applications for audit was completely random. I have explained the situation with the timescale, wanting to exchange etc etc andI just get, "sorry about that." Which provides no help whatsoever!

mrginge

Personally i am delighted that our financial institutions are performing due diligence before lending money and risking shareholder return and customer security.

Reminds me of the good old days (ie about fifteen years ago)

Thrugelmir

Barry_R wrote: »

and the fact that seller quite rightly feels as though he's being messed around.

The vendor should accept that these things happen. Delay should only be temporary.

Barry_R_2

mrginge wrote: »

Personally i am delighted that our financial institutions are performing due diligence before lending money and risking shareholder return and customer security.

Reminds me of the good old days (ie about fifteen years ago)

Agreed, but surely they should carry out all their due diligence within a reasonable timeframe, not request identical information on multiple occassions and then randomly withdraw the offer to carry out more checks after they've already confirmed a full offer in writing?

Barry_R_2

Thrugelmir wrote: »

The vendor should accept that these things happen. Delay should only be temporary.

Thanks, Fingers crossed you're right!