Lender taking so long should I try lifetime mortgage

worid

At the age of 65, I have found myself in the position of having to find a mortgage. I am living with family at the moment but need to find my own house.
I have £115,000 deposit and have found a house at lower end of market at £143,000. I have been told Leeds will give me £28,860 over 10 years in principal and I made my application on 9th December. After weeks of sending in all docs requested in dribs and drabs a survey was done on the property on 6th January. Since then another doc was requested and sent in immediately but still no offer.
To say I am fraught is putting it mildly. The brokers are L&C and they say I should be getting an offer soon but can't say when and how soon is soon. Also the seller is getting a bit cross as we are already to exchange as soon as offer comes through.
My income relies on pensions and is extremely low so I am guess I was lucky in finding anyone at all.
However I am now considering a lifetime mortgage of £30,000 with voluntary payments on the interest and some of the capital. But this will take 6 weeks.
Also the property is empty and has some damp and is deteriorating as empty properties do so may not get equity release
So should I hang on for Leeds or start equity release as I need to move by mid February.

amnblog

Leeds BS are like the average spouse.


Extremely painful if not handled correctly - pleasant enough if managed in the right way and all demands acceded to.


Be patient - you are almost there.

Let_Us_See

I can understand your frustration - Leeds B S are pedantic at the best of time. Lifetime mortgage or possible bridging loan (relatively quick) have their disadvantages, and personally I would keep badgering L & C for updates - a good broker will usually know a lender's current timeframe and if an application is going no where.

worid

Thanks for your replies. I could not get hold of my broker this morning and rang Leeds direct - they say that they need a PCA Damp proof company report as the last company was not PCA. They had put in a request to L&C on Friday.
After a valuation was done it said on the survey that a report was advised and so I got one. Apparently a report was not requested by Leeds but I didn't know that.
I rang broker again and this time got through.
He said to leave it with him and he would sort it out. He rang me back about 30 minutes later to say that after speaking to them and them confirming that the amount to borrow was so low they did not actually need a report at all! He then asked if they could treat this as urgent and he told me I would get an offer, if not tomorrow then the day after. I do hope so but I can hardly believe it, as it has been going on for so long. So let's hope this is correct.

worid

I got my mortgage offer through this morning - wonderful - I can breathe a sigh of relief and start to get on with things.