Nationwide approved mortgage, have now declined and will not tell us why?

Munchkin08

Literally pulling my hair out right now....
We have current mortgage with Nationwide, and have done for 7 years, we have renewed with them a couple of times.
Sold our house, applied for new mortgage with Nationwide, went through ok, no problems.
Issues with the house that we had agreed to buy, so we pulled out.
Found another house, which was even better.
We thought we could just change the address - Nationwide don't do that.
Went through the whole process again, all going ok
Then my Husband was made redundant.
Nationwide needed new, up to date bank statements, told them about his job situation.
They said that they would need his signed contract, all sorted.
Underwriters were satisfied with everything we had sent.
Paid the arrangement fee and survey fee last week.
Told this morning that they wouldn't be able to release the funds until we got the first payslip at the end of February.
No worries, that works with our timings.
We have just received a call from Nationwide to say that the Senior underwriting team have reassessed our application, and have decided to decline.
But will not tell us why, and are apparently well withing their rights to do this.
We are literally gobsmacked.
We have all our accounts with Nationwide.
We have a 74% LTV.
We are well withing the affordability with them, and good credit files.

What can we do??
We are now on the verge of losing our buyer and losing our dream house, and don't know why.
We are now concerned that this will happen again.. and how can Nationwide just not tell us??

Please help!!!!

[Deleted User]

It doesn't sound like you had a mortgage offer at any point? In which case nothing was approved by anyone with any authority to do so.

Knowing how Nationwide work and the terminology they use I imagine that the bank statements and contract were 'approved'. This doesn't mean accepted to them, it just means someone has checked that the documents received match the ones that have been requested.

Once the documents have been received ('approved' if I'm using their terms) it is then passed to an underwriter to sign off. At this point it seems to have been rejected.

Do you have an early repayment charges to leave them? Might be easier to find a new lender than trying to find a reason for the decision. Especially if you've gone direct as you'll never get hold of someone who can so something more than pass messages between people or read notes

Munchkin08

Hi Deleted_User
The mortgage for the first property, we received the full mortgage over, signed & sealed.
And that house was £5k more than the latest one.
The next application, went to the underwriters, who came back and said they are completely satisfied with all credit checks, bank statements, pay slips from me, and are happy to release funds once we get my Husbands first payslip, at the end of Feb.

All they can tell us now, is that it's be 're looked at my the senior auditing team, and they have now declined'
And will not tell us why.

Yes we do have a £5k redemption with Nationwide, but we have savings, and are prepared to cut our losses to never have to deal with them again!
And move all of our current accounts etc to another bank..

Any recommendations of amazing bank accounts would also be great!

Thank you.

[Deleted User]

They are one of the only lenders who completely disregard previous underwriting on a change of property. As harsh as it sounds, your previous offer is neither here nor there to them

The joys of being at the mercy of big lenders.
It wouold be great for you to eventually get a reason for the decline. Maybe submit a data subject access request and you might get the file notes. Not sure if it will work though.


There are other lenders who lend on a contract and at the moment plenty have better rates. You will lose the 5k erc which sucks but once you are in the property and 6 months down theine you won't really care if you borrowed 5k more than you wanted.

Don't base a mortgage on the bank account, santander just killed the benefits on theirs and no one really pays for loyalty anymore.

Just go for the best mortgage wherever it is, and the best bank account wherever it is

haras_nosirrah

Did you go direct to lender or via a broker?

If you went via a broker then get them all over their bdm like a rash as they need to fight this or at least get an explanation as new jobs are within criteria

Munchkin08

We went direct, which we had done previously, and had no issues!
I am now dealing with a broker!

Everything crossed!!

Thrugelmir

Munchkin08 wrote: »

The next application, went to the underwriters, who came back and said they are completely satisfied with all credit checks, bank statements, pay slips from me, and are happy to release funds once we get my Husbands first payslip, at the end of Feb.

Did you receive a formal mortgage offer? Underwriters would never give a simple undertaking that funds would be released at a future date.

Where you are aware that your husbands job was at risk when you made the first mortgage application. Such events are rarely out of the blue.

Munchkin08

This 'event' was completely out of the blue!!!
So, no, we were NOT aware.

yllop1101

Munchkin08 said:

This 'event' was completely out of the blue!!!
So, no, we were NOT aware.

Have you managed to get a mortgage since, or any answers as to what happened here?
I'm waiting for my mortgage with Nationwide to be approved, and am due to start a new job in May, fortunately not through redundancy but just a new opportunity. Luckily in an industry not affected by COVID, E. G. Mental health, but am still a bit worried they may be extra nervous and decline.