[NATIONWIDE] Mortgage process so far - reassessed at a lower offer!

AlexioMomentum

First time buyer on a new build property valued at £129,995 with H2B-EL so a mortgage of around £97K. Myself (21) and my wife (26), no dependants and only a car finance commitment of £250pcm. See at the end of the post for more detail, was very promising to begin with but to date has been very stressful so far and so early on with the entire process!

2/03 – View new build property and register interest with developer
2/03 – Discuss with mortgage broker and receive DIP the same day from Nationwide
3/03 – Reserve plot with developer
3/03 – Help2Buy EL application made by broker
9/03 – Authority to proceed from Help 2 Buy EL scheme
9/03 – Provide 1mths bank statements and 3x payslip for both me and wife for application
10/03 – Full application made by broker
12/03 – Request from broker for proof of address – unable to provide as we both live with my parents and don’t receive any correspondence other than joint a/c bank statements!
12/03 – Survey completed by Nationwide
13/03 – Request from broker for wife passport
16/03 – Request from broker for copy of employment contract for wife
18/03 – Request from broker for a letter of confirmation from wife’s employer
19/03 – I provide broker with 3 months extra payslips and 5 months extra bank statements to support application as Nationwide appear to be grilling my wife!
20/03 – Request from broker for a more specific letter of confirmation addressed directly to my wife (and not “to whom it may concern”) along with confirming her salary, hourly pay and contracted hours! – Responded with document in the afternoon
27/03 – No news from Nationwide
30/03 – Get frustrated with broker a little bit due to lack of information and response, I telephone Nationwide to find that the application has been reassessed and they are offering only £40K instead of £98K! I telephone broker to try and discuss what the situation is, I’m told it’s under control and they have challenged this decision.
31/03 – Request from broker for wife’s most recent payslip for the end of March, they are hopeful that the application should be approved.
02/04 – Still no update, fingers crossed for Tuesday! Supposed to have exchanged contracts by the end of the week (10/04) – so super hopefully for the application being offered/approved otherwise I’ve got no bargaining tool with the developers!!


Just a bit of a background, I’m salaried on about £17K gross and my wife has worked for her employer mainly on a zero hour contract. As this was creating problems for brokers/lenders, we went back to employer and she obtained a 15hr contract in March! My wife works in a care setting so hours fluctuate and aren’t always the same (but don’t differ greatly), she has always averaged 28hours minimum per week since starting her job 18months ago and still maintains this.

Nationwide have so far re-assessed our mortgage at a far lower rate as my wife’s “overtime” (as she has a 15hr contract) varies from £850 to £1100 net pcm.

I just don’t understand how the mortgage can be reassessed so low and they don’t appear to be listening to the evidence we have provided through her now 7mths payslips all £850+ net pcm combined with my salary!

Thrugelmir

AlexioMomentum wrote: »

I just don’t understand how the mortgage can be reassessed so low and they don’t appear to be listening to the evidence we have provided through her now 7mths payslips all £850+ net pcm combined with my salary!

Your wife's guaranteed hours are only 15 a week. That's the base point of any decision. An underwriter is naturally going to err on the side of caution. Understandably as a borrower you will take the optimistic view of the situation. However it's the lender that's taking the risk.

How do you propose repaying the equity loan?

AlexioMomentum

Completely agree and understand any and all risks associated from the lenders point-of-view.

I just hoped that they would see the 15hrs as our security fall-back should the unfortunate occur (as it was far better than the zero hour contract) and instead look towards the hours she has been putting in over the past 18months which are typically double what her contractual hours are.

Don't you think it's a low amount they have reassessed to though?

We aim to put money aside and staircase our way to repaying the entirey of the EL within 10years (or sooner where possible). It'll be the first priority if/once we get the mortgage approved.

katiebrown20

Hi alex, just wondering how far did you get with process????

kingstreet

The OP hasn't been back since then, so don't hold your breath.

AlexioMomentum

katiebrown20 wrote: »

Hi alex, just wondering how far did you get with process????

Hi Katie,

Nationwide were pretty adamant that they wouldn't offer any higher. My broker was baffled considering all the evidence we provided that all they could offer was £40K with a flawless credit history from both of us, they wouldn't change their minds even with several months worth of statements proving that my wife earned far beyond the 15hr contract.

Rather than continue to waste time, my broker advised that we apply with Halifax and provided only 1mths bank statements and payslips from both me and my wife, the application went straight through to approval without any issues or additional requests for documentation. The builders (Persimmon/Charles Church) were incredibly helpful and understanding so there was no issue from the initial deadline point of view.

I did go through Nationwide complaints procedure for the awful response times, although I can't guarantee that my broker was also initially to blame for not being straightforward with me, I eventually decided it wasn't worth my hassle to pursue it any further and instead bask in the excitement of the positive news we had from Halifax.

Was very pleased with Halifax though and speaking to friends/family they had similar speedy and straightforward processes with HF too which at the time of researching on this forum there wasn't much feedback I could find so they seemed pretty niche.