Mortgage declined due to commute - need advice please

K_Monkey

Hi all

FTB here and was happily going through the process of securing a mortgage and decided to go with a broker (L&C). We found a town house in Birmingham and I work in Central London. Train times are 1h:12 on virgin trains one way to get to London Euston with just a single stop and no changes.

Went through all the initial checks and had a mortgage in principle sorted no problem. Ended up going with Bank of Ireland and started to give documents before the weekend.

This morning I got a call from L&C saying that BOI declined the mortgage as the commute was unreasonable! They were saying a single "2 hour" journey was unreasonable. I currently live in West London and commuting already takes me 1 hour door to door.

Is there any point in appealing this? As mentioned above, the journey is 1h:12 and the house is 5-10 minutes away from Birmingham International.

As for me, the LTV is 90% on a 160k house. Gross salary of £37,500 basic.

Note: I have already spoken to HSBC for an application also just in case.

Malmo

From past threads, Bank of Ireland have a track record for declining applications based on what they consider to be unreasonable commuting times.

See this thread which may be useful and answer your questions:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5401929

Rich2808

Comical that the Bank of Ireland doesn't find long commuting journeys acceptable - you wonder how they manage to grant any mortgages in most of rural Ireland.

Is their concern also the commuting cost - the season ticket must surely be at least £6k a year?

K_Monkey

Thanks for the replies. I just read that other topic and it is indeed true that 1.5 hour London commutes are not uncommon.

They did not question the season ticket which I included in my monthly outgoing a in full. It was clearly mentioned to me that they did not think a "2 hour" single way commute was reasonable, which it isn't even a 2 hour commute.

I may just let this one go and try my luck with HSBC, which I have just gone through the first 2 stages and waiting for the documents to proceed with the full application (underwriters?)

princeofpounds

I suspect it's not really about the commute itself, but the suspicion that it might not be being used for really living in yourself. Or representative of the fact that you aren't actually planning to stay in your job. It's all a bit silly really, but if that is their criterion there isn't much you can do apart from ask them to reconsider.

Thrugelmir

What's the cost of a season ticket. In gross terms of salary.

ThePants999

Surely can't be far off a 2-hour commute, door to door. Get to the station, get to the right platform, wait for the train, train journey time, get from platform to tube, tube journey, train to station exit, onward journey (walk, I assume). Sounds pretty close to 2 hours to me.

EppleBay

I agree with princeofpounds - they must suspect you going to let it out. What is L&Cs advice?

anna42hmr

ThePants999 wrote: »

Surely can't be far off a 2-hour commute, door to door. Get to the station, get to the right platform, wait for the train, train journey time, get from platform to tube, tube journey, train to station exit, onward journey (walk, I assume). Sounds pretty close to 2 hours to me.

Yeah it will be, put it this way I live in Birmingham and visit London on a regular basis it has never been under 2 hours. Not to mention depending on where the town house is I assume the op will either go to Birmingham international or Birmingham new st to get the virgin train. International can be a nightmare if any issues on the motorway or events on at the NEC. Getting in to new street is a nightmare too at peak times. If it's a genuine commute i don't envy the Op.


Ps if it's the 1hr 13 mins from new street op you are aware that is the only one of its length as that 7,30 Am train is the only none stopper the rest are all at least quarter of an hour longer and the return trains are also no less than 1 hr 20 and that's if they are running on time (which in my experience is not often the case).

If your still intend to do this would suggest that prior to committing to the house you do a trial run for a while (I.e if no one you know lives in the area to stay in a hotel for a week in Birmingham and do the commute to London from there. As an example where I live in none peak times I can get to city centre in less than 20 minutes, but come any where on the rush hours that same drive can take me up to 55 minutes. And as for international I've been known to be stuck on the motorway in queues for over an hour if major shows are on (crusts, motorcycle show, top gear live etc)

K_Monkey

Hi everyone and thanks for the replies.

The season ticket is £541 per month.

As for the house location, it is a 7 min drive 2.3 miles away via Coleshill Heath road to Birmingham International.

I work in Oxford street which is 1 stop from London Euston where I arrive at.

The trains (virgin) run at every 20 minutes but I accept delays happen. To put things in context, I've worked in Central London for over 13 years and done a daily commute from West London that takes 50 minutes door to door on a normal day.

Hope these answers help a bit in explaining my situation a bit more.

EppleBay

K Monkey

On reflection I was asked the same question but my situation was very different to yours (68% LTV). L&C must have talked to you about the situation (my mortgage is through L&C and the Post Office i.e BoI) and they gave me advice on what I told them. They must be concerned about the spend on travel. Ask L&C for their advice...

HTH