During covid-19

shell4286

Myself and my partner are in the middle of a house sale and buy. All paperwork is in with the solicitors and they are working as usual. Our buyer is a cash buyer from spain who is moving back to the UK, she has handed power of attorney to her solicitors in the uk to complete the house buying and selling for her. The house we are moving to will be empty in a couple of weeks so we could have pressed ahead with it all. However we put in our mortgage application quite a few weeks ago, apparently the underwriters agreed the mortgage and then asked for payment in order to proceed with the valuation survey and then they would send out our offer (this was a week and a half prior to uk lockdown) so we thought this would all proceed without any hitch. However we have since been informed by our mortgage advisor that our company has temporarily withdrawn new applications as they are unable to get the valuations completed and they are just going to review the situation weekly, our valuation had not been completed. We have heard that other mortgage companies are starting to do online valuations. We are unable to go with a different mortgage company as we are in a fixed term with our current company so weve had to port the mortgage and stay with them or pay £4000 to come out of the agreement which isnt feasible for us. We are concerned that our buyer from spain may pull out of the sale if we cannot get out mortgage offer through in the next month or so, because shes a cash buyer shes in a great position to buy or rent for the time being elsewhere that she could move straight into if needed. Its appears from news,etc that the lockdown could continue for a good while yet which concerns us more. I guess we are wondering if there is anything else we can do seeing as nobody expected a pandemic to hit which has made it difficult for all of us buying and selling and present? Or does anybody know if all mortgage companies will revert to online valuations if the lockdown is to continue? We have also decided that If it looks as if there is nothing we can do then we may as well stop everything now so we dont lose anymore money going through the process for it to maybe fall apart anyway. Any advice would be really appreciated.

davidmcn

shell4286 said:

Our buyer is a cash buyer from spain who is moving back to the UK.

And how keen is she to progress the transaction while she's unable to actually move?

shell4286

Shes keen, she has stated that she is happy to complete and stay where she is and rent off her buyer for a few weeks until she  can move in so its literally only us that is holding it all up

shell4286

davidmcn said:

shell4286 said:

Our buyer is a cash buyer from spain who is moving back to the UK.

And how keen is she to progress the transaction while she's unable to actually move?

I should also add that her husband has been sadly diagnosed with dementia so she is extremely keen to return to the uk as she is finding it difficult I think out there on her own 

ProDave

I would be saying to your mortgage company that you tried to stay with them, but they have let you down, so you expect to be released from your fixed deal at no cost if you can get another mortgage company to make an offer.

That however might prove difficult as I don't think anyone is doing valuations.

shell4286

Yes thought about asking this, I've been doing a bit of research and it appears that some are doing desk top valuations using Google earth and looking at what other houses have sold for in the area so we may be lucky. However I'm not sure they would release us from the fixed deal without payment. It's like a nightmare. Its more frustrating as we can all press ahead due to houses being unoccupied which would go in line with comtinuing to move under government guidelines.