Halifax Declined Remortgage due to credit check?! - HELP!

kookamunga

kingstreet wrote: »

You borrowed 80% six months ago.

What LTV are you trying to get to now and are you using a realistic estimated value, as the max is 85%?

Halifax did an estimated valuation on their system, they didn’t tell me how much it was. Regardless, I can’t switch to another mortgage provider or else I’d have to pay the £4K exit fee, which would defeat the purpose of taking out more money. I’m not so bothered about how much I get from them, I’m more upset they rejected me outright without being able to have a conversation about why so I can try to fix it.

kookamunga

Deleted_User wrote: »

Are L&C the only broker you have spoken to?
The thing about Halifax being lenient is true but that is to do with actual defaults and bankruptcies etc. It might just be that they have a higher overall score requirement in this case.

You need someone to actually look at the reports and make a judgement. I had a case with Halifax ask for a 35% deposit, moved it to Natwest and they did it at 5% deposit.
A case with Santander declines, offers with TSB
Halifax declined another on credit score and HSBC offered it (still dont know how that one happened)

Someone needs to do aome legwork here and help you. L&C are notorious for being fairly lazy and what you have been told is another example of it

Who could I go to look at it? Another mortgage advisor? A financial advisor? What?

DCFC79

kookamunga wrote: »

Who could I go to look at it? Another mortgage advisor? A financial advisor? What?

Try another broker.

[Deleted User]

Also not I possible for one broker to get an accept f with a case where another got a decline. Colleague of mine had the reverse where he saw someone with a Halifax aip but when he keyed it he got a decline. Turns out previous broker forgot a middle name.

Maybe someone else can take the same data to the same place and get a different result

Ruben2019

I used to work for halifax on the phones when customer wanted to take out additional borrowing on their mortgages. It was a number of years ago so I can't remember everything clearly.

But there are a number of checks that they do on the phones to confirm you are eligible for additional borrowing such as have you had the mortgage for at least 6 months, not having arrears in the past few months amongst others.

An important check they do for additional borrowing is how much you are looking to borrow and how much that would increase your loan to value. If you are looking to borrow pretty much what you put in like you said earlier. This would increase your loan to value to above and beyond 95%. This would be a no go as like Kingstreet said earlier the maximum they will go is 85%.

When I did these checks we never did credit checks. These would have been done by the MA I think if you passed the initial checks.

If you havent been passed onto a MA to proceed with the application then I would say it has been declined based on the checks done over the phone and not a credit check.

This is what the process was like a few years ago when I worked there. I'm not sure exactly what it is like now but I would say what you are looking to borrow and the LTV it takes you to would be the reason for decline

kingstreet

If they are using the indexed valuation rather than the borrower's estimate of the value post-improvement it wouldn't surprise me Ruben as indexed values are the same or perhaps even slightly lower than they were six months ago.

OP - the criteria says;-

Minimum Further Advance loan amount £10,000

Maximum 85% Loan to Value

Where above 80% LTV (based on current indexed valuation) a revaluation will be required and a revaluation fee will be due

so you might want to go back with an estimated value which will take your total borrowing to 85% of that figure or less and request a physical inspection.

Here are the fees;-

Upto £150,000 = £108

Upto £200,000 = £128

Upto £300,000 = £165

Upto £400,000 = £200

Upto £500,000 = £233.

As you haven't mentioned any numbers I'm leaving it at that. If it's worth more than £500k you can look it up yourself here;-

https://www.halifax-intermediaries.co.uk/products/mortgages/valuation_fees/default.aspx

by scrolling down to the Revaluation section.

kookamunga

kingstreet wrote: »

If they are using the indexed valuation rather than the borrower's estimate of the value post-improvement it wouldn't surprise me Ruben as indexed values are the same or perhaps even slightly lower than they were six months ago.

OP - the criteria says;-

so you might want to go back with an estimated value which will take your total borrowing to 85% of that figure or less and request a physical inspection.

Here are the fees;-

Upto £150,000 = £108

Upto £200,000 = £128

Upto £300,000 = £165

Upto £400,000 = £200

Upto £500,000 = £233.

As you haven't mentioned any numbers I'm leaving it at that. If it's worth more than £500k you can look it up yourself here;-

https://www.halifax-intermediaries.co.uk/products/mortgages/valuation_fees/default.aspx

by scrolling down to the Revaluation section.

I asked what was the most I could borrow without having a new valuation done (as we already started works and the property would be valuable at less) and they told me £17,900 but it wasn’t clear to me if that was what was included in the application. So it sounds like I need to figure out the new LTV and not ask for more than 85% LTV to get approved potentially. I can call back and ask them what their new indexed valuation is and work it out from there, correct? Maybe if I do that an apply again with the lower borrowing it’d go through? What do you think?

Note we bought the property at £400k on January 25th this year.

Ruben2019

If your house was valued at £400k when you bought it and you have done a lot of work to it and you think it's worth more than that now then you should definitely pay for a valuation to get done to increase your chances

I am pretty sure the indexed valuation that they have will be from the valuation that was carried out before you bought the property