6 year old default - how long until mortgage application?

Akel90

Hello all!
I’m a newbie so please be nice.

My boyfriend and I are ready to go on buying a house - everything is in place and we just need Santander to approve the mortgage. However we applied in May, and they rejected us due to my bf having a default. The default date is 08/08/2013 so is due to come off his report In August. The broker said there was nothing else flagged on the rejection.
How quickly will the default drop off? If we were to apply for the mortgage again on the 10th August, would the default have disappeared or do we need to wait another month for it to update?
The wait is killing us and the sellers but we don’t want to jump too soon! Any advice would be much appreciated.

Willing2Learn

Hi and welcome to the forum

Give it a month or two and then check your credit files with the three CRAs to confirm the default has been automatically removed. Once you have confirmed the default has been removed, you should be good for your application. When you look at your three files, do a double-check to ensure that there is no other negative data recorded.

MovingForwards

Why Santander? They are notorious for being strict with mortgage lending criteria.

If you have a broker ask them for another mortgage company and get on with buying.

[Deleted User]

As long as a default date is correctly recorded, it should drop the next day.

e.g. 9/8/19. It won't be midnight (not that you'll be applying for a mortgage at midnight!) but if you check again after approx. 7am you should see it has gone.

Lenders see live updates. On things like Credit Club & Clearscore you only see it once a month.

Equifax let you order your Statutory report (can be viewed instantly online).

Experian faff about and make you wait for a code in the post

You could get a free trial of Experian just to confirm it's dropped, but pretty sure it will - it's things like Bankruptcies & IVAs that are known for not dropping correctly.

5/6 weeks is a long time to wait to even apply for the mortgage though - you're then looking at another 2 weeks plus until the offer.

I'd be worried your chain could break waiting that long - what if they query something on your payslip/bank statement etc. If you play ping pong between customer/broker/underwriter you could easily be looking at a month for an offer if it's not a straightforward case.

I'd go somewhere else and get on with it, as posted above - a default nearly 6 years old will be pretty much ignored by many lenders.

I don't want to scare you, as many cases can be offered within 'average' times of 10 days or whatever - but as a FTB with adverse just dropped, I'd just go elsewhere - it amazes me how often I get people pushing for "urgent" offers, exchange in 4 days etc, it's just so stressful for the clients!

jimbo26

The default will drop off on the 8th. If you applied on the 10th it won't show on a live search, but may on your free to view report.