bank withdrew on the day! we were in the van..

stungbank

Hi there, can you help, my mortgage was due to complete on Friday however the bank called at 12.15pm to advise they had withdrawn the mortgage offer! We were in the van as we had sold our house and the new owner was moving in. I purchased the new house through an estate agent (quicksale) and got it 10% below the home report.
On completion of paperwork, the solicitor received paperwork advising the seller was paying a company £12k of the sale to a company they had employed to sell on their behalf (the company paid all expenses). Our solicitor sent this to the law society who confirmed it was legal but to let our lending bank know which he duly did.The legal dept in the bank did nothing as advised, 48hr sla, then 72 hr. After a lot of chasing on the day before the sale, they sent the paperwork to the mortgage advisor in our branch, he immediately sent it back to them advising he was an advisor not a lawyer. It was extremely fraught but appeared would be fine. However they called as we were on our way to advise the set of the seller had in place was against their policy (I am still trying to est more about this) and they withdrew the offer.
We were left homeless with all our belongings in transit.! And 4 hours until a bank holiday weekend.
Ultimately we managed to get a tiny flat and put all our stuff into storage (we didnt pack for a temp move!) which has been expensive and I am hoping someone could give me advice on this situation.
Im still in shock that a large bank would do this to someone, when we have done nothing wrong and we are not high risk customers.
The estate agent who sold the property has advised this bank already have many mortgages on their books that have gone through this same set up with them and the 3rd party sale company. This seems unfair and that the bank cannot have many checks and controls on their own policy, not to mention treating customers fairly.
Would really appreciate your views on this situation as I am struggling where to start with my complaint and the un-justness of this situation! many thanks

Brock_and_Roll

Just to be clear, are you saying that the bank only had 72 hours notice of the legal situation?

If that it is the case, that really is not long enough for them to check and process - no doubt their legal team have a case load to work through, and basically if they don't get to it in time, it wont happen. From my experience (as a banker) if there is one thing that credit & legal officers in banks hate it is having a timescale "gun put to their heads" - they get enough of this from their own internal sales people.

It would appear that your mortgage lender is right - the bank probably has had many similar situations like this on its books - I suspect this was just a timing issue.

kingstreet

IMHO your solicitor shouldn't have exchanged contracts with such an issue outstanding. I have no idea why it was felt necessary to consult the Law Society as it was always the lender's opinion which would be required.

Unfortunately, a lender can withdraw an offer at any time but I would have expected the solicitor to have the completion funds usually a day before completion and not being told they were not going to be coming at 12:15 on completion day.

Solicitor issues here for me, rather than lender.

moneyistooshorttomention

I am wondering whether there is some sort of ombudsman for banks.

In your position - I would be googling to see if there is such a person and getting in touch with them if there is.

It certainly looks as if you need to launch an official complaint one way or another.

Other passing thought - an organisation like Which might be able to point you in the right direction.

Goldiegirl

I also think it's the solicitor who is at fault here.

He should have referred the matter to the lender as soon as he was aware of it - not the Law Society.

And he certainly shouldn't have exchanged contracts and arranged for completion while this matter was outstanding.

Complain to the solicitor, not the lender

I think it's the Law Society that regulates solicitors, so if you don't get a satisfactory response from the solicitor, then the Law Society would be the next port of call

stungbank

thanks for getting back to me so quickly, the bank had the document for 8 days before they made a decision. The decision was ultimately made by the department that had the paperwork all that time. I believe we have been unlucky as our solicitor paid due diligence and sent all the paperwork to the bank where as perhaps others haven't as it isn't relevant to the sale how the seller spends their sale price monies.
the reason we have been given for the decline is the bank do not deal with 3rd parties. (the company employed by the seller to engage the full sale).
Have you heard of this before?
thanks

BlueC

something doesn't seem right. the bank aren't dealing with a third-party, they are lending to you.

the third-party is on the seller's side and surely none of your bank's business?

kingstreet

Your solicitor is also acting for the lender, so it is wholly necessary for the solicitor to bring to the attention of the lender anything he/she considers necessary.

As mentioned, your solicitor should not have exchanged contracts unless clearly in a position to proceed with both sale and purchase and it is your solicitor who has left you homeless by not ensuring a clear path to the simultaneous completions of your sale and your purchase.

The solicitor should have simply stopped any further moves towards exchange of contracts and completion when it was clear the lender was not quickly responding to the question of the third-party finder's fee.

Such things are an issue for most lenders and we recently had a case where an offer was withdrawn because a third-party finder's fee was entered on the newbuild CML form, unknown to us.

stungbank

the lawyer said he referred to law society as hadnt seen this type of doc before.. the missives ect had been signed but not submitted so we are not committed to buying the house, though are currently looking at alternative mortgages.
I believe the lender had the chance to give us notice however to wait to the actual day seems incomprehensible to me.
The lender had released the funds but advised they could not be used until the decision was given.
I will investigate the solicitor more as per your threads above, its a mine field and costs are due to everyone (including the solicitor!)
thanks

stungbank

kingstreet wrote: »

Your solicitor is also acting for the lender, so it is wholly necessary for the solicitor to bring to the attention of the lender anything he/she considers necessary.

As mentioned, your solicitor should not have exchanged contracts unless clearly in a position to proceed with both sale and purchase and it is your solicitor who has left you homeless by not ensuring a clear path to the simultaneous completions of your sale and your purchase.

The solicitor should have simply stopped any further moves towards exchange of contracts and completion when it was clear the lender was not quickly responding to the question of the third-party finder's fee.

Such things are an issue for most lenders and we recently had a case where an offer was withdrawn because a third-party finder's fee was entered on the newbuild CML form, unknown to us.

thank you I will look into this

Pixie5740

Missives? Are you in Scotland?