Mortgage Offer Letter - Confused

snazzyloops

Hello, long time lurker first time poster here! My wife and I are FTBs and we applied for a mortgage with Halifax last week through L&C. We sent over the proof of funds documents straight away as they were allowed to be sent as PDFs however it's taken us a bit longer to get the 2 x proof of address documents together which have to be sent as originals in the post.

We're now able to send these documents along with our IDs, however after arriving home from work today we have what seems to be a mortgage offer letter from Halifax! I've read it several times and it mentions the value of the house, how it was valued (using market data, no physical inspection of the property took place) and as far as I can tell it is a formal mortgage offer letter.

My question is - can I forget about sending the remaining ID and documents to L&C? I've emailed them to ask this but don't expect a response until some time tomorrow and I feel like they will still make me send them. It would be helpful not to have to send them as I was going to send them recorded which obviously would have cost a few pounds and I'd have had to queue at the post office. Plus we'd be sending our driving licenses which is a bit of a nuisance.

Has anyone else had a situation similar to this? If I login to the L&C application portal it still says they're awaiting documents. I'm really surprised and it all seems a bit strange. Any help appreciated.

amnblog

L & C should have these items on file for their own purposes even though Halifax will certify many applicants electronically as is the case here.

L &. C shouldn’t be submitting an application without a full file. More fool them.

Not your worry.

Exodi

snazzyloops wrote: »

it's taken us a bit longer to get the 2 x proof of address documents together which have to be sent as originals in the post.

With the exception of having to have my ID notarised, I scanned every single document throughout the process as a PDF for L&C, my lender & my solicitor - this was literally one month ago.

I'm not sure the proof of address documents 'have to be sent as originals in the post'? These are usually going to just be utility bills fresh off a printer, what official quality or authenticity is are they trying to ascertain? I think if you mentioned it (and owned a scanner) you could email these over also.

ACG

Lenders have their requirements.
Brokers have their requirements.
A lot of the time they will be the same and sometimes there will be overlaps but not everything will be needed by both. As amn says, in this case the lender seems to have asked for less than what the broker needs and the advisor has just got on with the application.

If you do not send the documents, it will be unlikely to affect your application however the broker could cancel your application if you refuse to send them. For what it is, I would just send the documents over to them.

snazzyloops

Exodi wrote: »

With the exception of having to have my ID notarised, I scanned every single document throughout the process as a PDF for L&C, my lender & my solicitor - this was literally one month ago.

I'm not sure the proof of address documents 'have to be sent as originals in the post'? These are usually going to just be utility bills fresh off a printer, what official quality or authenticity is are they trying to ascertain? I think if you mentioned it (and owned a scanner) you could email these over also.

Yeah I'm not sure exactly why they need the original documents but they've made a real point of it. The thing I've found with the house-buying process is that the process is different for everyone so it doesn't surprised me that your requirements were different!

I think I'll send the documents this weekend as I don't want to be difficult about it, however had they actually been required by Halifax I would have sent them sooner.

clairet707

We had to send originals (obtained in the post NOT printed off by us from online accounts etc) to L&C it was a pain as my partner moved in with me temporarily before we bought our house and had to change his address on his driving licence and bank account - the bank account took 3 attempts to change and we had to wait for a postal statement.



We had to post L&C his driving licence, his passport and his bank statement, they wouldnt accept scanned copies

MortgageMamma

Just to point out, not every lender or mortgage broker firm accepts this but the majority do. You can get your ID and proof of address photocopied and certified at most large post office branches. They will do three items for £12. You can then send these as proof of ID/address to your broker, but you MUST send the receipt and stamped document from the post office which confirms they did this for you.

I don't think there is any need to be posting off valuable documents such as passports in this day and age, but I respect that every firm is different.

You can also have your solicitor or bank certify your documents for you, but the drawbacks with this is 1. they may charge a small fee 2, they will probably try and sell you a mortgage or some other product and pressure you into "seeing their adviser to check if the rate can be beaten".

I did a Halifax purchase application this morning, all I needed to send in for the client was a certified copy of his wage slip, same with TMW last week. But as a firm of brokers we have to verify your identity, address, income and the source of any funds you will be using for your deposit to comply with UK anti money laundering regulations. If we don't take those steps we'd be in real bother. Further information can be found here. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/13/contents

kingstreet

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