Mortgage offer Halifax

MNM2903

Recieved our mortgage offer on monday with Halifax and were due to exchange contract with bellway by the 14th.

How long should we now wait before contacting the solicitors? We have had the offer through will the solicitors action this ASAP or should we chase them? We havent had any updates from them atall since paying them the initial £250. Its our first mortgage so not sure what we need to do if anything?

libf

I could definitely contact them straight away and make sure that all searches have been done, that any questions have been raised and responded to by the other side, and get them to send you contracts to sign. ASAP if you want to exchange within 2 weeks.

Don't want to scare you but it took two weeks for my solicitors to confirm that I'd actually paid them the deposit to start the searches, we're still waiting for the drainage and environmental searches to come back, and the other side haven't responded to any of my solicitors queries yet. I paid the initial deposit on May 26th and I've been chasing every couple of weeks...

Thrugelmir

Did you ask the solicitors to commence work before the mortgage offer was made?

The £250 is to cover the cost of searches that need to be made. The funds are requested immediately in order that the solicitor can start work immediately ( normally once the offer is received).

The lack of an offer is why you wouldn't of heard from the solicitor previously.

MNM2903

yeah just got the hard copy through of the mortgage agreement. so the solicitor should have recieved it. we rang her and she said once they recieve it they just need to complete their searches.

Thrugelmir

MNM2903 wrote: »

they recieve it they just need to complete their searches.

There's also other paperwork that they handle on behalf of the lender (which you are paying for).

MNM2903

Yeah she didnt seem interested in talking to us in the early stages when we initially paid the £250 which was to start doing searches etc. Now that we have a mortgage offer when weve spoken to them today they seem alot more helpful and willing to talk about it all. Hopefully everything will be sorted from them from now and in time for our deadline of the 14th August. Everything else has happened pretty quickly so fingers crossed. They or halifax must have done the paperwork for our equity loan aswell as we recieved confirmation of that. Anything else that needs done im sure is in hand and they were recommended by bellway so they are aware of the deadlines we have in place etc aswell.

StreetHawk

Can I ask how long the mortgage offer is valid for ?

MNM2903

StreetHawk wrote: »

Can I ask how long the mortgage offer is valid for ?

Yeah its valid until 31st march 2016. We had to use Halifax for this reason as very few were able to not only meet the 14th August deadline for exchange but also keep the mortgage offer open until the build is complete.

MNM2903

was there any particular reason you asked for that info streethawk?

StreetHawk

Thanks for the reply. Was just wondering how long a Halifax mortgage offer is valid for as we are about to apply for a remortgage but old deal doesn't expire for over 3 months yet.

MNM2903

We had to use halifax due to the length of time before our house is ready so its around 8 month they are holding the offer for.