Halifax Mortgage - Valuation Fees

jinsin

Hello! First timer on this forum

I am currently going through an application with Halifax Bank for mortgage with 85%LTV putting in a deposit of £100K, after having sold my house.

Right now I am getting a little nervous, because my first choice lender Accord was declined because of a default registered on my husband and I file back in 2009, however only settled in April 2013. (the default was registered in error, long story, but we are waiting to have this removed from our file, which i understand takes 28 day min) time we do not have as we found a house without chains and our offer accepted.

My Mortgage advisor has put in a 'soft search' with Halifax, and said it was accepted - this was on Friday, and she also applied straight away.
I noticed yesterday (monday) that £680 valuation fee was taken out of my account.
1. Does this mean the application is accepted?
2. If they go through the credit search can they still refuse me and i loose the deposit?

Help! - I am getting so stressed out, and my Mortgage advisor is away this week!:undecided

Mortgage_Mark_2

jinsin wrote: »

Hello! First timer on this forum

I am currently going through an application with Halifax Bank for mortgage with 85%LTV putting in a deposit of £100K, after having sold my house.

Right now I am getting a little nervous, because my first choice lender Accord was declined because of a default registered on my husband and I file back in 2009, however only settled in April 2013. (the default was registered in error, long story, but we are waiting to have this removed from our file, which i understand takes 28 day min) time we do not have as we found a house without chains and our offer accepted.

My Mortgage advisor has put in a 'soft search' with Halifax, and said it was accepted - this was on Friday, and she also applied straight away.
I noticed yesterday (monday) that £680 valuation fee was taken out of my account.
1. Does this mean the application is accepted?
2. If they go through the credit search can they still refuse me and i loose the deposit?

Help! - I am getting so stressed out, and my Mortgage advisor is away this week!:undecided

1. No - they take payment for valuation on application.
2. They can refuse you at full application, the credit search at this stage is far more detailed that the soft search at DIP stage, although if the default has been declared at DIP stage it should have been taken into account, so unless there is anything else in the background worrying you, this should have been covered. I'm assuming you're classing the valuation fee as 'deposit' for this question (your deposit shouldn't be paid until exchange of contracts to your solicitor, but you'll likely have to prove that you have it available during the mortgage application process); if the valuation is carried out then you won't get the money back since you've got what you paid for - if your application is for some reason declined prior to the valuation being booked in and carried out, you do usually get it back.

jinsin

Mortgage_Mark do you know when the default is taken into account? - I believe some lenders would disregard defaults over 3 years old.
If my default was registered in 2009, and settled in 2013, which date is applicable?

Mortgage_Mark_2

jinsin wrote: »

Mortgage_Mark do you know when the default is taken into account? - I believe some lenders would disregard defaults over 3 years old.
If my default was registered in 2009, and settled in 2013, which date is applicable?

Date of registration.

Halifax are not a lender who will just ignore previous defaults, by the way, but they will potentially lend based on overall credit score.