held prisoners in our home by the Co-op, fuming! advice sought

splurgegun

We accepted an offer on our house of £190k on Thurs 21st Sept.
We intend to take £63k equity with us.
Spoke to my current lender, the Co-operative, got an agreement in principle of £184k.
We viewed 7 houses over that weekend with asking prices up to £240k so as not to stretch ourselves.
On Monday 25th Sept we made an offer of £225k on our fave house which was accepted, all good so far!
So we only needed a mortgage of £162k. Shouldn't be a problem!
Now, after six telephone conversations with the Co-op totaling around 4 hours, I get a call today saying the underwriters say we can only borrow £152k and will that be a problem for us?
Well, duh, actually yes, that will be a problem for us as it leaves us with a £10k shortfall.
So now I have to find another lender, 3 weeks into the process.
Unfortunately I'm on a 5 yr fix with a 5% early redemption penalty (which is around £6k)
Is there any way I can wriggle out of the ERP ? would a letter to head office appealing to their human nature be of any use?

thanks in advance

SG

[Deleted User]

No. .

Kidder81

Guess it's either take the hit on the early redemption, renegotiate house price or find a cheaper house.

glosoli

One of the risks involved with being in a fixed rate with early repayment charges and having to move house, there are never any guarantees.

BoGoF

Seriously over dramatic heading btw.

csgohan4

your not held prisoners, you chose to have a 5 year fix and you chose to move within those 5 years? Who's choice was that? It isn't the lender's fault you don't earn enough or the house is over priced.


A letter will do no good, you signed the mortgage conditions and it is contractually binding.

splurgegun

Hi, OP here,

My main gripe is that we waited for an offer, then got an agreement in principle, determined our budget then went out and viewed houses in our price range

Now, 3 weeks in, the actual mortgage offer (pending the valuation) is 32k short of the agreement in principle and £10k short of what we need. So we've wasted everyone's time

I was totally honest with the Co-operative at every stage. What was the point in the agreement in principle?

haras_nosirrah

did they have the paperwork e.g. payslips in front of them when doing the agreement in principle

there must have been something not declared or that has come to light to make them drop the offer e.g.

additional undeclared commitments in the background
deductions on payslips e.g. travel loan
childcare commitments

they don't just decide to do it on a whim - what reason have they given you

have you asked why it has been dropped. If it is due to a commitment could that commitment be cleared, if it is due to a payslip deduction is it something that is due to finish or could the mortgage term be extended to bring it back within affordability

haras_nosirrah

I now get all payslips and bank statements before doing an agreement in principle. We didn't used to and the agreement in principles weren't worth the paper they were written on. Most memorable was someone who said they earned 35k a year. Got the payslips for full application and it was more like 20k a year. She said that it would be £35k if she worked full time which was lovely but she worked 20 hours a week so nothing like full time - why declare the full time salary she didn't actually earn?

kingstreet

Had one this week.

When the bank statements arrived there was £371 a month in car finance payments.

When challenged, "ah, did we forget the car payments...?" as if it's just a minor thing. It knocked £30k off what they could borrow and we had £0 headroom between what they could borrow and what they needed to start with...

haras_nosirrah

once had someone come in. Asked if there were any credit issues and told no. Spent an hour and a half doing a full fact find and discussion - aip declined. Asked client to check credit report and he said 'I was discharged from bankruptcy last year - could that be it'. Funnily enough it was