Mortgage Advice

FISH

Hi all

Hope someone can offer advice! We are in the process of purchasing a house on the help-to-buy scheme. We have submitted all our documentation (payslips, bank statements, debt information etc) to the mortgage advisor recommended by the developer and have received an AIP from Santander. Help-to-buy has also been approved. I am a British citizen and hubby is South African and here on a dependency visa. We have been in the country for 18 months. Both our credit records are above average. Between us we earn £120k pa. The house we are buying is £600k and we are will be mortgaging £450k of that (after 20% htb and 5% deposit). Do you think we will get the mortgage? So nervous about it but the mortgage advisor seems to be confident.

kingstreet

I can't see anything in that which would produce any doubts, but there is far too little detail on which to speculate with any degree of accuracy.

As a newbuild specialist, we would not submit an application to a lender we had any doubts about;-

a) because under MMR you are supposed to have ensured your applicant meets the lender's criteria and;

b) you don't keep your builder happy by messing them around and not getting buyers in a position to exchange contracts on time.

If you have doubts, it is for your broker to reassure you. They are getting paid for doing this.

FISH

Thanks so much! I guess I am just worried about the credit checks since we have only been in the country for 18 months. Not sure if this would have come out with the AIP.

kingstreet

Yes. You wouldn't have got to full application submission if you didn't pass the credit score at the agreement in principle stage.

FISH

Thanks so much for your help. You have made me feel much better

FISH

Okay, so Santander has just declined the mortgage - based on our "credit score". The only reason this is low is because we have only been in the country for under 2 years (which the bank and the mortgage advisor knew from the get go!). Hubby's is a 2/5 (in the country since 2014) and mine is a 3/5 (in the country since 2013). The mortgage advisor in now putting in another application through Nat West but I am slowly starting to lose hope.

libf

FISH wrote: »

Okay, so Santander has just declined the mortgage - based on our "credit score". The only reason this is low is because we have only been in the country for under 2 years (which the bank and the mortgage advisor knew from the get go!). Hubby's is a 2/5 (in the country since 2014) and mine is a 3/5 (in the country since 2013). The mortgage advisor in now putting in another application through Nat West but I am slowly starting to lose hope.

Those numbers don't mean anything as every lender scores differently. Did Santander specify what about your credit score put them off?

Socksey

When I came back to the UK after having spent 4 years in Botswana and 18months after I was back, the only lender I could get on sensible rates with that was Halifax.... my own bank said no as did most of the others and so I missed out on the best deals available and that was only 3 years ago.... Fingers crossed you get something

FISH

Nope, the mortgage advisor says they just said that all the bank told them was that it was declined on insufficient score . I just get the feeling that if Santander has said no, that Nat West will too. According to the mortgage advisor, those are the only ones who will look at us.

kingstreet

Two months for a decision?

What's been going on?

Halifax, NatWest and Santander would be the lender options open to you on HTB EL, but at the level you need to borrow, £450,000 Halifax falls out as it limits HTB - EL to £350,000 max.

FISH

The house is only ready in January so we are now within the 6 month window. If Nat West also says no, is there someone that would be able to give us advice on when we would be able to apply again and at what level? We just feel so clueless in this whole process