Employer says no

dk5294

Husband called his HR department to give them the heads up about Leeds contacting them for a reference and to ensure they complete the paperwork Leeds sends and not send a standard reply. The woman was lovely and understanding but made it very clear that they would not give out information on their employees other than that they work there and even then they don't like doing that.

Scared to tell Leeds this in case they decide they won't lend now, but this obviously can't be dragged out.
He received his income statement from the tax office today, from inland revenue and was thinking about saying to Leeds and offering this but it's sort of a "maybe just say nothing". He received a letter though saying of they don't get the required information within 10 days they'll cancel the application.

Does he give it a few days and then contact Leeds or does he just keep schtum and let them come to him?

stator

Ask them to keep you informed of the progress, maybe phone them to check up on what the status is. But I wouldn't tell Leeds anything yet since you don't know if there's a problem.

Do you know what information LEeds will ask for?

ACG

Ignoring it and hoping it goes ok is probably not the best idea by the sounds of it.

Is there not another lender? I would not be overly confident of this proceeding unless you can find a way forward?

What about you guys pre-writing the email/letter and asking them to print it on letter headed paper if they are happy the information is correct?

Or speaking to your broker/lender to try and find a way forward. Always always try and work with the lender. Best you find out tomorrow rather than next week if there is a problem.

westv

dk5294 wrote: »

Husband called his HR department to give them the heads up about Leeds contacting them for a reference and to ensure they complete the paperwork Leeds sends and not send a standard reply. The woman was lovely and understanding but made it very clear that they would not give out information on their employees other than that they work there and even then they don't like doing that.

In this sort of instance shouldn't it be up to the employee what information is provided? I sometimes think HR people like to think they work in their own little kingdom where everybody else must play to rules they make up.

dk5294

Sadly not. Leeds is one of the very few lenders who still support the lift scheme.

He popped an email to the underwriter, explaining the situation and giving a break down of his pay. He were good enough to do that. He's asked if there is another way this could be done. The worrying thing is leeds supposedly like only their forms completed and refuse the accept anything else so even writing a letter and having it signed without leeds saying it's OK would probably be a bad move.

To be honest if they advise it'll not be happening without the letter from hr, I've told him to ask his lawyer to request it, but that's really the last thing he wants to do in case he ends up out a job.

amnblog

Your husband should ask his boss to ask their boss to ask the 'lovely lady' in HR to stop being stupid and get this sorted.

dk5294

It does seem like a bit of a joke. We are hoping we can get Leeds to send us the form and we can then get his employer to complete it and we send it back. Then they aren't disclosing anything to anyone other than my husband, it is his choice to forward that information on.


Has anyone ever had this though and what was the lenders stance? Surely they have other ways of checking?

Sheep

We had the same thing with Leeds in Nov 2015. They would only email the form to a HR email address and would not even tell us what they were asking for on the form. The completed document then had to come back from the HR dept directly.

It makes sense really. If they sent it to you then you could get anyone to complete it.

dk5294

I completely agree. It just doesn't bode well for our current situation where HR wont complete their form and they won't give anyone else the form.

Complete nightmare.

SouthLondonUser

Sheep wrote: »

We had the same thing with Leeds in Nov 2015. They would only email the form to a HR email address and would not even tell us what they were asking for on the form. The completed document then had to come back from the HR dept directly.

It makes sense really. If they sent it to you then you could get anyone to complete it.

Yes, but how do they even know what the real contacts of the HR departments are? I suppose they could know the contact details of some of the major employers in the country, but, for the vast majority of other cases, how are they going to know that johnsmith@thiscompany.com is really an HR manager and not just a buddy of the applicant?

On the other hand, most companies are reluctant to provide any information beyond a confirmation that John Doe is an employee on a salary of £x. They are particularly reluctant to confirm whether the job is stable, at risk, etc because they are afraid this may be sued against them if in the future they decide to fire the employee. The HR -lawyer's approach is to always have all your options open, never preclude anything, and always avoid any risk, no matter how unlikely.

FWIW, Nationwide in 2013 and Chelsea Building Society in 2015 did not contact my employer, but asked for the pay slips and verified my banking statements matched the payments reported in the pay slips. When I asked First Direct they said it depends on the individual underwriter.

Did Leeds make it clear from the very beginning that they want HR to fill in their form? If they didn't, I would escalate the matter with a formal complaint, and, should they cancel the application, I'd certainly ask to be refunded of any cost (have you paid any application/underwriting fee?).

Was the Leeds deal particularly good? Do you have any reason to believe other banks would give you a worse deal?

dk5294

Leeds said they were unable to electronically verify income so needed an employers reference and had contacted them to confirm salary. Husband is paid hourly on a weekly basis, set minimum hours obviously disclosed to Leeds and then additional to make it up.

Leeds are the last shared equity provider who supports the lift scheme and who agreed to lend the max amount as long as income could verified. The rest offered like half the money at affordability stage which was strange.