Halifax Mortgage offer retracted!!

djspark

Hi ladies and gents,


Today I had some dreadful news that my buyer’s mortgage lender (Halifax) has retracted their offer on my property.

The problem is this, my property went on the market back in February and sold very quickly. It’s a lovely flat and had lots of viewing in a very short space of time, however, my buyer struggled to find a mortgage on my flat because it’s located above a shop. The flat is a split level purpose built 1970’s flat in an up and coming part area (Eltham).

My buyer struggled initially to find anyone to lend him the money because of the flat being above a shop. Eventually Halifax said they’d lend him the money and he had the offer through months ago. Literally I was expecting a phone call or email any day now to exchange.
Halifax very oddly only sent through a valuer last week, months after the mortgage offer. So basically he thinks that because the flat is above a shop it’s a risk to the lender.

My flat is located above a row of seven shops. It isn’t directly above any problematic shops, it’s actually above a tattoo shop with normal business hours. I’m right at the very end and the other 6 shops in order from the tattoo shop are:
A nail parlour
Fish & chip shop
Dry cleaners
Beauty salon
Demelza charity shop
The last one is currently vacant.

Is this normal practice for lenders? I understand they need to be cautious for obvious reasons but the fact they’ve let us know so late down the line especially after an accepted mortgage offer is extremely bad practice in my opinion. I am now extremely worried I’m going to lose the property I’m buying.

I’ve been told by a mortgage advisor that Halifax are the only the final straw for lenders and if Halifax won’t lend it’s highly unlikely anyone else will. I don’t want to sell to a cash buyer because I won’t get the offer I’ve got on my property, most likely £30k-£40k less!

My Mortgage was with Cheltenham & Gloucester who were bought out by Lloyd’s & today I found out that Lloyd’s mortgages are run by Halifax.

Please help!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

MovingForwards

Chip shop and dry cleaners are the risk shops.

A broker will be along shortly to offer comments.

djspark

Thanks. I mean I’m not directly above them. I know the lady two door down had problems because she’s directly above the chip shop but I’m not.

I’m mostly upset because Halifax gave my buyer the offer and only just sent through a valuer last week, months after the offer was agreed!

Apparently my buyer is now extremely concerned about the future in case he sells. He’s likely going to pull out any day now

kingstreet

djspark wrote: »

Eventually Halifax said they’d lend him the money and he had the offer through months ago. Literally I was expecting a phone call or email any day now to exchange.
Halifax very oddly only sent through a valuer last week, months after the mortgage offer.

This is contrary to how Halifax operates.

The valuation is done at the outset as the application is assessed and the offer is issued at the end of the process.

How do you know when the offer was issued?

BTW Lloyds Banking Group is the owner of Halifax Bank Of Scotland, Scottish Widows (Bank) Birmingham Midshires Solutions and C&G not the other way round.

djspark

Thanks, I knew it was something like that where they are linked.

I have been in close contact with my buyer so he told me months ago. If they’d sent a valuer back then it wouldn’t be quite as bad tbh but this is a real pain in the backside so far down the line.
My buyer tried a few lenders and got declined but eventually got accepted for Halifax which I assumed was a good thing