Kensington Mortgage application timescale

Mowgli30

I’ve been asked for proof of 3 months mortgage payments. I was surprised by this request but understand that this is necessary due to people requesting payment holidays. 

My first cousin transferred this to my account that evening as a house warming present (this was a collection from my family) I sent the statement to my broker, he came back to me straight away and said that this needs to be from immediate family, I.e parents/siblings. Now my parents or siblings don’t have a lot of money and I am buying my first house on my own using HTB on a new build. My cousin gave the money from everyone and wrote a letter and signed it to say this is a gift, not formed part of my deposit and he has no interest in my house etc. My broker said they do take a human approach and do apply common sense in these cases so is trying to speak to them to try and get this moving. This really is the only stumbling block. He said as it doesn’t form my deposit, then this should be ok and they shouldn’t be as strict in their approach. 

I have a stable job, wasn’t made redundant or furloughed during the pandemic and was even paid £13k bonus during this period. I have one satisfied default of £560 from 2017, no late payments and no other credit blemishes. I have 2 credit cards totalling a limit of £1.5k which I pay off regularly and have recently bought a car on finance where I pay £360pcm. I earn £2.7k after tax, and have no other financial commitments or children. I feel like I’m a safe customer for them. 

Does anyone have recent experience of this where they have requested this additional 3mths mortgage payments which was gifted from a relative/friend who wasn’t immediate family? Do you know what stance they take on this? I’ve spoken to my conveyancer who told me that their handbook just says to refer all gifts to them and there is no mention of specific requirements re family so I suspect they don’t have a fast and hard rule.

Please help, I’m driving myself mad about this and am very stressed out, my developer wants to exchange on 16th dec! 

Mowgli30

bigwillie said:

No they will not - because the money has to come from an immediate member of family who must also be also be a UK homeowner. 
so so frustrating

Hi, I know this was posted quite some time ago, but any chance you could tell me what the outcome was? I’m in a simile position. My first cousin gifted me the money for the 3 months mortgage payment, he is a home owner and also wrote a legal letter to say this is a gift. I wanted to ask if they accepted your funds and what happened after this?

Elwyn

My broker has contacted us today to let us know we have a DIP agreed by Kensington. However he said they don’t provide proof / a certificate. Is this right? Just seemed a little odd to me. 

SennaHouse

Elwyn said:

My broker has contacted us today to let us know we have a DIP agreed by Kensington. However he said they don’t provide proof / a certificate. Is this right? Just seemed a little odd to me. 

Yes the sounds right as we had the same. We didn't get anything as proof. Luckily the estags agents didn't ask for proof either when house hunting. 

SennaHouse

Hi Everyone
Hoping thso forum can help me with my impatience. 
We are FTB who applied on 23rd November, Kensington came back 7ish days later asking for a few bits of information. We responded straight away and since then our estate agent has been chasing our broker to find out where we are at. The broker asked kensington to instruct the valuation which they have done for this Thursday. 
How long after the valuation does it take for them to get back to you? The waiting inbetween is driving me crazy. Also the fact they have only come back asking for more info once is also unsettling as everyone says its at least 4+ times. Anyway looking for some recent stories so please do share. Would be lovely to have an offer by Christmas but realistically I think it will be the new year at this rate.

Mowgli30

SennaHouse said:

Hi Everyone
Hoping thso forum can help me with my impatience. 
We are FTB who applied on 23rd November, Kensington came back 7ish days later asking for a few bits of information. We responded straight away and since then our estate agent has been chasing our broker to find out where we are at. The broker asked kensington to instruct the valuation which they have done for this Thursday. 
How long after the valuation does it take for them to get back to you? The waiting inbetween is driving me crazy. Also the fact they have only come back asking for more info once is also unsettling as everyone says its at least 4+ times. Anyway looking for some recent stories so please do share. Would be lovely to have an offer by Christmas but realistically I think it will be the new year at this rate.

Hi, you appear to be in a similar stage to myself and I applied on 19th Nov! They picked my case up on 3rd dec and asked for further info , p60 for 2019 and 2020, 3 months bank statements for an account where I made deposit from into my savings account and also proof of 3 months of mortgage payments. This has to be in addition to the deposit and if you’re being gifted it, it must come from parents/siblings/grandparents and they must be U.K. home owner and fill in their declaration form. Once these docs get loaded to the portal via your broker, they take a further 8 working days from that date before they review the docs. So in my case, they were due to pick up the case again on Wednesday 16th Nov but I spoke to my broker today and he told me that they have increased the SLA to 11 days so that pushes my case to next week now! I’ll be in my 5th week by then. I have a straight forward case compared to some but it doesn’t matter as they are taking as long as they want. It’s very frustrating and I have a real chance of losing the house as I was due to exchange this week. They won’t escalate the case either , I tried! So just make sure you have everything in order . My valuation was instructed on 3rd December and done on 7th December and came back all fine, same day my employer references were  requested. So mine is moving in the right direction but at snails pace! Hope this helps 

just-0987

SennaHouse said:

Hi Everyone
Hoping thso forum can help me with my impatience. 
We are FTB who applied on 23rd November, Kensington came back 7ish days later asking for a few bits of information. We responded straight away and since then our estate agent has been chasing our broker to find out where we are at. The broker asked kensington to instruct the valuation which they have done for this Thursday. 
How long after the valuation does it take for them to get back to you? The waiting inbetween is driving me crazy. Also the fact they have only come back asking for more info once is also unsettling as everyone says its at least 4+ times. Anyway looking for some recent stories so please do share. Would be lovely to have an offer by Christmas but realistically I think it will be the new year at this rate.

Our application went in 30th September valuation 16th November Offer 9th December and that's after lots of chasing by our MA 
The journey can be very stressful but Kensignton get there in the end

debtfree12000

We started our remortgage journey 16 November. Only now starting to see progress ( valuation completed two weeks ago ). They are happy with all paperwork etc, but need to assess again next week???  We were told by MA that was being done today ... guess it’s the climate we are in at the moment. Hopefully we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Paulie_c_

Have seen a lot of negative comments regarding timescale and Kensington pulling out of offers. I just wanted to comment on here that we had no issues with them at all. Yes it took a little longer than we would have liked. Our broker advised 4-6 weeks. Our application went in on the 27th October and we got an offer on the 30th November, so around 5 weeks. They did come back to ask for a further 2 months bank statements on our joint account, then to ask for further proof of deposit. My partner had around 5 defaults all around 5 years ago to the tune of around £8k. 
It was a new build we was purchasing on part exchange. 15% gifted deposit, mortgage around £200k, we both work full time and take in combined around £58k a year. We have around 5k savings.

SennaHouse

We were supposed to receive an update today but nothing. Our broker us great so going to chase tomorrow. It would be so wonderful to have an offer by Christmas but seems unlikely. Can anyone advise how long after the valuation did they recieve an offer/ requests for more info?